Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-09-28
A COLORADO STORY.
My THE RIVER AT TRINIDAD BEARS
THREE NAMES.

81 Queer kick In nomenclature Explained
by Rocky Mountain Editor-The Ro-
nance of the Lost Mexican Soldiers Who
Were Bound For st. Augustine.
"Some cueer kinks in nomenclature
nre discoverable in this country of
ours" said Colonel William Stapleton
Of Trinidad, Colo. Running right
through the town of Trinidad, in which
I live, is little river, which Familiarity
and indiscriminately does its muddy,
flowing business under three names. 1t
is called variously the Las Animas, the
Purgatorio and the Picket Wire. The
names came about in this way:
"Santa Fe claims to be and is about
the same age as st. Augustine, Fla
Both towns are considerably over 800
years old, although forget the exact
date of their settlement.
Back in the middle of the sixteenth
century the Spaniards at Santa Fe made
up military detachment to go overland
to St. Augustine The old dons didn' {
know anything of the country which
lay between. All they were posted on
was the distance and the general direc-
ton, as they knew the latitude and
longitude of both places. Rather late in
the fall some 700 of them, steel clad
soldiers, camp followers, baggage train
and women, pushed in through the
Ration pass over the trail now followed
by the Santa Fe railroad, and at the be-
ginning of winter made camp ut what
is now the site of Trinidad, which sits
fairly IN tho mouth of the Ration can
yon, looking out on the plains.
"There they were on the very thlesh-
old Of the Rockies. To the east of
them, over which their course must
trend, lay al utter waste of plains, up
parently without limit. AL that Win
ter the Spaniards camped in the mouth
of the Ration canyon. With wine, wom-
al and song, they put in hilarious
time, and probably had as much fun as
they ever had before or since. Winters
are not rigorous and spring comes early
in the vicinity of Trinidad
with the first coming of the early
grass the adventures banished their ar
NOR, fitted up their houses and got ready
TO move The camp followers, the wom-
Ell and the extra baggage they sent back
TO Santa Fe When last seen, the party
bound for ST. Augustine, numbering
several hundreds, We're marching down
the valley of tho little river by which
they had camped.
"That was the last ever heard of them.
Not feather ever foated back to tell
the story OF their fate. With the last
flap of the last banner and the latest
sun CLINT on the Iearmost steel cap they
disappeared from the earth. To this
day no one is able to make q suggestion
even as to what became of them, except
that it is supposed they were butchered
BY the Indians.
Fifty years ago there was an old Co.
manche chief named Iron Shirt, because
of rusty old shirt of chain mail which
he Wore, but neither he nor any of the
other Comanchcs knew anything of the
origin Of the garment nor where it came
from. 1t had been i'll the tribe further
back than the short Comanche memory
could reach. Many have supposed that
it was relic of this Spanish expedition
of three centuries ago, which had ap-
parently marched off the earth that far
away spring day in the mouth of the
Ration canyon.
But now for the kink in nomenelsa5
ture was thinking of. The d. w
ance Of IT these 1,s:, Spanish ss5s7Es MI
4 eerie and witchllke that 1t made pro
found impression on the superstition
people they had left behind. They nam
ed the little river Rio de Las Animas
meaning the River of the Lost Souls
and it is supposed to hold the story o
the expeditions dark fate and repeat /
to itself in tho river language, which
the Mexicans do not pretend to under
stand.
when the French fur traders unde
Sublette and st. Vrain came trappin!
in those waters from st. Louis, in
French effort at translation they mad
out that the River of tho Lost Soul
must mean the Purgatory river, and s.
gave the river its translated name o
Purgatorio.
Later, when the American bull
whacker marched through on his wa.
to Santa Fe, he accepted the Frencl
name, but called it the Picket Wire
To this day the river wears all tire
titles, as the reader would soon learl
by turning to the Trinidad newspapers
where he would find cattle brands ad
vertised as having their ranges variousl,
on the Las Animas, the Purgatorio ant
the Picket Wire.
every nan picks out his name 70
himself, but they all mean the sam
river. 1t ism It much of river either
only about 20 feet wide at Trinidad
The Mexicans, however, Loyalty sticl
to the name of Rio de Las Animas
and Mexican mothers tell their children
of the soldiers who, hundreds of year
ago, marched from there and wer
never heard Of again. "-Washingtol
Star
Could Not Make Tibet.
Mr.. Wilson relates an amusing stor.
of an officer who determined to ente
Chinese Tibet by stratagem. This off
Ger managed to cross the frontier a