The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-04-07
"a. COLOR ADO STORY. :.
WHY THE RIVER At TRINIDAD BEARS
THREE NAMES. :

A Queer .ksnk In \ ".,snoleture 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 discoverable III. this country Of
ours,' said Colonel William Stapleton
of Trinidad, Colo. drumming right
through the town Of Trinidad, in which
live, is a little river, which tamiliarlv
and Unfortunately does it's muddy.
flowing business under three names. 1t
is called variously the Las Ani1nas, the
Pursatorio and the Picket Wire. The
1ames came about in this way:
"Santa Fe claims to be and is about
the same age as St. Augustine, Fla.
Both towns xare considerably over 300
years old, although Isforget the exact
date Of their settlement.
"Back in the middle of the sixteenth
century the Sl,aniards at Santa Fe made
up a military detachment to 80 over land
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, az they knew the latitude and
longitude of both places. Rather late in
the fall some 700 of them, steel clat.
uoldicrs, 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 III the mouth Of the Ration can.
yon, looking ont Oh the plains.
"There they were Oh the very th,esh.
old of the Rockies TO the Gust of
them. over which their course must
trend, lay al utter waste of plains, ap
parently withcut limit. All that win.
ter the Spaniards camped III the mouth
Of the Ration canycn. With wine. WON.
an and song. they put in hilarious
time. and probably had as much fun a.
they ever had before or since. Winters
are not rigorous a,.'l 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
70 move. The camp followers, the WON
en- and the extra baggage they sent back
10 Santa Fe. When last seen, the party
bound for st. Augustine. numbering
several hundreds, were marching down:
the valley 1T the little river by which;
thcy had camped
'Ihat was the last ever heard Of them.
Not feather ever floated back to tell
the story Of their fate. With the last
Zap Of the last banner and the latest
sun CLINT Oh the 1earmost steel cap they
disappeared from the earth. 10 this
day no one is able to make suggestion
sven 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 q rusty old shirt of chain mail which
ne 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 been III 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
RatCn canyon.
"But now fer the kink in nomencla-
ture was thinking of. The disappear
ance of these Spanish soldiers seemed SC
eerie and witchlike that it made pro.
found impression Oh 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 expedition s dark fate and repeat it
to 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
ii 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, aud Sc
gave the river it's translated name OF
Purgatorio.~ :
Later, when. the American bull
| whacker marched through on his way
to Santa Fe, he accepted the French
name, but called it the Picket Wire.
To this day the river wears all three
titles, as the 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 fo1
himself, but they all mean the same
river. It isn't much of river either
only about 90 feet wide at Trinidad
The Mexicans, however, loyalty sticl
to the name of Rio de Las .Animas
aud Mexican mothers tell their children
Of the soldiers who, hundreds Of year,
ago, marched from there and wer,
never heard of again. "-Washingtor
Star. .,<:. =. II = IT,.
just Like = Woman. ). =
"A young and we'll dressed woman en-
tered Charing Cross telegraph office thu