St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-01-03
A COLORADO STORY.
kHY THE RIVER AT TRINIDAD BEARS
THREE NAMES.

A Queer Kink In Nomenclature Explained
by a Rocky Mountain Editor-The Ro-
nance of the Lost Mexican Soldiers Who
Were Bound For st. Augustine.
"Some queer kinks in nomenclature
are d~iscoverable in this country OF
ours" said Colonel William Stapleton
Of Trinidad, Colo. Running right
through the town Of Trinidad, in which
I live, is a little river, which Familiarity
and Unfortunately 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 I forget the exact
date Of their settlement.
Back in the middle Of the sixteenth
century the Spaniards at Santa Fe made
up a military detachment to 60 overland
to st. Augustine. The old dons didn't
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 a camp at what
is now the site Of Trinidad, which sits
fairly in the mouth of the Ration can
yon, looking out on the plains.
"There they were on the very thresh-
old Of the Rockies. To the east Of
them, over which their course must
trend, lay an utter waste Of plains, ap-
parently without limit. All that win
ter the Spaniards camped in the mouth
of the Ration canyon. With wine, wom-
an and song, they put in a 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-
en- and the extra baggage they sent back
to Santa Fe. When last seen, the party
bound for st. Augustine, numbering
several hundreds, were marching down
the valley of the little river by which
they had camped.
"That was the last ever heard Of them.
Not feather ever 1oated back to tell
the story Of their fate. With the last
flap Of the last banner and the latest
sun CLINT on the rearmost steel cap they
disappeared from the earth. To this
day no n is able to make a 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 a rusty old shirt of chain mail which
he wore, but neither he nor any of the
other Comanches knew anything Of the
origin Of the garment nor where it came
from. 1t had beenin the tribe further
back than the short Comanche memory
could reach. Many have supposed that
it was a 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 nomencla-
ture l was thinking Of. The disappear
ance of these Spanish soldiers seemed SO
eerie and witchlike that it made a pro-
found impression on the superstitious
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 of
the expeditions dark fate and repeat it
itself in the river language, which
the Mexicans do not pretend to under
stand.
"When the French fur traders under
Sublette and st. Vrain came trapping
in those waters from st. Louis, in a
French effort at translation they made
out that the River of the Lost Souls
must mean the Purgatory river, and so
gave the river its translated name Of
Later, when the American bull.
whacker marched through on his way
Santa Fe, he accepted the French
name, but called it the Picket Wire.
To this day the river wears all three
titles, as tho reader would soon learn
by turning to the Trinidad newspapers,
where he would find cattle brands ad-
vertised as having their ranges variously
on the Las Animas, the Purgatorio and
the Picket Wire.
every man picks out his name for
himself, but they all mean the same
1t isn't much Of a river either,
only about 20 feet wide at Trinidad.
The Mexicans, however, loyalty stick
to the name of Rio de Las Animas,
and Mexican mothers tell their children
OF the soldiers who, hundreds of years
ago, marched from there and were
never heard Of again. "-Washington
Star.
pnoItao