Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-05-31
THE GIRL OF
WILD HORSE RUN
A STORY OF NEW MEllCO,
BY FREDERICK F. THOMPSON

"Glrl of W Id Horse Runt' The chances
are that you never did unless you have
lived In the mountains of lower New
Mexico, and there are few even there
who can show the little heap of stones
when marks her grave or who can tell
the story of how she met her death &c
save the lives of the half starved, In
dian besieged prospectors who had TAX
en- their last stand on the mountain
peak which is now known as Simp-
sons Rest. But those who do know
the story will never forget it, and not
one of the cowmen or the miners passes
the lonely spot without taking off his
hat in mute respect to the memory Of
the unknown girl.
Il never knowed, and | don't spose
no one ever knowed. what her name
was" said Joe Dunno as he sat in front
of his adobe and rolled a cigarette.
I'm bout the last of 'em alive as ever
knowed her, and | wouldn't be here
talkin bout her if 'twasn't for what
she done. When it was all over, we
buried her the best we could We
stones, such as they have down east,
so we just piled rocks over the grave
to show where it is and to keep the
wild creaturs from diggin it up. Since
then some more rocks has been put on,
and now the heaps so big | guess it'll
last forever. But it'll never get too
big for the act she done, which was
one mighty few men would "a wanted
TO tackle.
1T was way back in the days when |
was a kid. Bein as | was born and
brought up along the Rio Grande |
was almost rs much Greaser as | was
white man, and when them eastern
prospectors come along they hired me
to go with them as interpreter, even II
| was only kid. In fact. they couldn't
get no men to 90 along with them cause
the men was mostly all off prospectin
on their own account.
There want no railroads down here
then There want nothin but Indians
and Greasers. If you wanted grub,
you had to freight it fromAlbuquerque,
or If you was hard up for 1t you could
get little from the old stage station
in the valley just beyond where Las
Cruces is now.
"Wild Horse Run is up in the noun
tains back of there. 1t amt no pretty
place-just a little stretch of mesa
where there was water and where the
wild horses used to come until they
had worn the ground all away like
buffalo wallow. The girl and her old
man lived there The old man was
nutty on them mountains. He said
they was full of gold and silver and
pretty much everything else, and /
guess he was right, though there amt
much of it been got out yet
We'll he settled right there near the
run. grubbin round in the foothills and
collectn specimens and stakin out doz-
ems of claims which he never worked,
but ag'in which nobody made no pro-
test. | never knowed the old man
much. though | seed him frequent
when | was in the mountains, and |
heerd as how he had come from the
east to get rich. lie was like lots of
others, and he ups and dies before he
had nothin more than them claims
which he had staked out, but which he
hadn't never properly entered.
when he died, he left that there girl
alone in the half 'dobe, half dugout
he had made She was bout Is, |
guess, and we thought as how she
would 20 up 10 Albuquerque to live
provided she didn't go back east But
instead of that she staid right along.
all alone in the place where she had
lived with the old man. She had some
sort Of an idea that by so dom she
could hold the claims which he had
staked out. Some Of the men told her
as how she was wrong, but she thought
they was only tryin to get her to 20 so
they could jump the claims, and so she
stuck it out She was a good shot and
deer is still thick up that way, SO be-
tween them and a few vegetables she
got along SO far as grub was concern
ed. But il must have been mighty
lonesome, for there want white man
nearer than the stage station, and that
was a good - mile away.
She had been there quite few
years. ana the people as knowed of her
had got To calliu her the Girl Of wild
Horse Run when l goes up that way
With them eastern chaps We stopped
to get water at the Run, and we told
her what part Of the mountains we
was headin for, and it was a lucky
thing we did, for IL she hadn't knowed
we would never have got out Of the fx
We got into.
I'VE didn't know it when we started,
but the Nayajocs had gone and get ram
again They was always
more or less troublesome. but TAcn
We left they had kind Of quieted down,
md we want lookiu for no outbreak.
3ein mp In the mountains Of course.
Te didn't know what was a-goin on.
We'll, we had done more prospeetin,
ind | was hayiu a einch with my job
i interpreter There want uothin to
and SO | was dom the cookin
lud lookin after camp. We had pitch
d II ut the foot or the mountain
Which they calls Simpsons Rest now.