Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1900-09-01
THE GIRL OF
WILD HORSE RUN
A STORY OF NEW MEXICO.
BY FREDERICK F. THOMPSON.
A STORY OF NEW MEXICO.


Did you ever hear the story Of til
'@Girl Of Wild Horse RunY The chance
are that you never did unless you hay
lived in the mountains of lower Ne
/ Mexico, and there are few even the1
who can show the little heap of stone
which marks her grave or who can tie
the story of how she met her death t
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 Simu
sons Rest. But those who do know
: the story will never forget it, and no
one of the cowmen or the miners passe
the lonely spot without taking off hi
hat in mute respect to the memory O
the unknown girl.
Il never knowed, and l don't s'pos,
no one ever knowed, what her name
was" said Joe Dunno as he sat in from
of his adobe and rolled a cigarette
'I'm bout the last Of 'em alive as evel
knewed her, and l wouldn't be here
talkin bout her if 'twasn't for what
she done. When it was all over, we
4 buried her the best we could. We
couldn't get no monuments or fancy
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.
''It was way back in the days when
was a kid. Bein as l was born and
brought up along the Rio Grande,
was almost as much Greaser as was
white man, and when them eastern
prospectors come along they hired No
to go with them as interpreter, even if
l was only kid. In fact, they couldn't
get no men to go 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 from,Albuquerque
or if you was hard up for it you could
get little from the old stage station
in the valley just beyond where Las
Cruces is now. Is
''Wild Horse Run is up in the noun
place 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 a,
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.
'Well, he settled right therenear the
run, grubbin round in the foothills and
collectin specimens and stakin out doz-
ems of claims which he never worked,
but ag'in which nobody made no pro-
test. l never knowed the old man
much, though l seed him frequent
when l was in the mountains, and
heerd as how he had come from the
east to get rich. He 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 go up to 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 doin she |
could hold the claims which he had |
staked out. Some of the men told her |
asshOw she was wrong, but she thought |
they was only tryin to get her to go 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 it must have been mighty
lonesome, for there want white man
nearer than the stage station, and that
was good 25 mile away.
"She had been there quite q few
years, and the people as knowed Of her
had got to calm her the Girl Of Wild
Horse Rum when 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 lucky
thing we did, for if she hadn't ,knowed
we would never have got out of the fix
we got into.
1--WE didn't know it when we started,
but the Navajoes had gone and got ram
bunctious again. They was always
more or less troublesome, but when
we left they had kind Of quieted down,
and we want lookin for no outbreak.
Bein up in the mountains, Of course,
we didn't know what was a-goin on.
"Well, we had done more prospectin.
and was havin cinch with my lob
Of interpreter. There want nothin to
interpret, and so was doin thn oooJ,;,,