Dry Cimarron
- Length: 192 Miles (309 kilometers)
- Duration: Two days, two nights
- Elevation: 5,050 feet (1,540 meters) to 6,640 feet (2,025 meters)
By Michael Pitel
The spectacular volcano-, butte-, and mesa-studded scenery among the grassed-over lava flows of the Dry Cimarron State Scenic & Historic Byway is the inspirational setting of rancher-author Max Evans's famed Hi-Lo Country, where, in his 1950s-era novellas, fictional cowboys Dusty Jones and Wrangler Lewis worked the JL Ranch.
Famed illustrator, naturalist, and author Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946) found the stunning landscape invigorating, too. The cofounder of the Boy Scouts of America had arrived in 1893 to rid the Cross L Ranch of predatory wolves. The prolific Brit used his 1894 capture of the legendary wolf Old Lobo for a short story he entitled "Lobo, King of the Currumpaw" in his popular book, Wild Animals I Have Known (1898).
Between the cities of Raton and Clayton, New Mexico's share of this tri-state, 370-mile (595-km) long, dendritic byway, spills out along seven State Roads (72, 526, 325, 551, 456, 406, and 370).
In Raton, amble along several blocks of preserved historic buildings lining First Street. Visit the Raton Museum. A block or so west, see the beautifully restored Shuler Theater, built in 1915. Five miles (eight km) east of Raton, to the north of the State Road 72 intersection, sits the hilltop mansion ruin of mining entrepreneur A. D. Ensign. Less than two miles (three km) north of the ruins, up State Road 526 in aspen-laden, wildflower-carpeted Sugarite Canyon State Park, walk among the remains of the coal mining camp of Sugarite (1909-41).
Six miles (10 km) farther east on State Road 72, after passing beneath Horse Mesa and the faded coal mining camp of Yankee (1904-21), climb 2,000 feet (610 meters) onto the grassy flats atop 14-mile (23-km) long Johnson Mesa and note, in the abandoned farming town of Bell (1880s-1933), St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1898. Eight miles (13 km) east of Bell, a gradual descent of the mesa begins. Tucked among the nearby folds of land a mile (less than a km) to the south is Wild Horse Arroyo. That's the world-renowned Folsom Man Site, where black cowboy George McJunkin found an ancient bison bone in 1908. After his death in 1922, colleagues went to the arroyo and unearthed more bison bones. One had a fluted, stone spear point in it, confirming and pushing back for paleontologists prehistoric man's existence in North America to 8,800 B.C. Further excavations there in 1926-27 unearthed other bison bones and projectile points.
Exactly 38 miles (61 km) east of Raton is the ranching town of Folsom. Visit the Folsom Museum. McJunkin is buried in the cemetery south of town. In the same cemetery is a granite memorial and plaque honoring Sarah J. Rooker, who had stayed at her switchboard one summer night in 1908 to warn residents of an approaching flood; Sarah was among the town's 17 flood victims. Ironically, the same rains that had exposed the bison bones for McJunkin had brought about the killer flood that had made Rooker a hero.
From Folsom, drive six miles (10 km) southwest on State Road 325 to the perfectly symmetrical cinder cone of 1,000-foot (305 m) high Capulin Volcano National Monument. Drive to its summit for a glimpse into its 45-foot (14-m) deep crater and a panoramic view of several of the 47 volcanic craters and lava domes between Raton and Clayton. The dormant cone was active while Folsom Man hunted ancient bison and mammoths in the region.
Also visible from the rim hiking trail is the massive silhouette seven miles (11 km) to the southeast is an enormous, extinct shield volcano, 2,000-foot (610 m) high Sierra Grande. The largest stand-alone mountain in the country, it has a base circumference that's a staggering 40 miles (64 km). The panorama from atop Capulin Volcano also affords a glimpse into distant into distant Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Three miles (five km) farther south is the ranching town of Capulin.
From Folsom, the other spur (also State Road 325) heads eight miles (14 km) southeast to the town of Des Moines.
Enjoy lunch in Des Moines.
Between Folsom and Des Moines, note the switchbacks of the railroad tracks just west of State Road 325. After notorious train robber John "Black Jack" Ketchum found out that the southbound Colorado & Southern Railroad trains could barely make that switchback ascent, he and his gang robbed two trains there in 1898. He tried a third time in 1899, solo. Shot in arm and seriously wounded, Ketchum jumped from the train and lay by the tracks until his capture the next morning. Convicted of attempted train robbery, Ketchum was taken to Clayton and hanged in 1901. His grave is in Clayton's eastside cemetery.
The triangle formed by these communities delineates an historic crossroads. About a mile (two km) east of the national monument swung the last trail Charles Goodnight blazed, an extension of his famed Goodnight-Loving Trail from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, northwest up 7,101-foot (2,166 m) high Trinchera Pass into Colorado in 1868. Goodnight's herds plodded up the pass until 1875. The northbound Fort Union Military Road to Granada, Colo., also swung east of Capulin Volcano during 1872-73. East of Folsom, the road headed northeast for eight miles (12 km) along State Road 456 through Bazil Metcalf's Toll Gate Canyon (circa 1872) before turning north six miles (10 km) through Emery Gap (State Road 551) into Colorado.
Four miles (six km) northeast of Folsom, near the east edge of State Road 456, near tiny 800-foot (244 m) high Emery Peak, is spring-fed Folsom Falls. From Folsom, 53-mile (86 km) long State Road 456 plays tag with the Dry Cimarron River. Thirty miles (49 km) out, look for the turnoff south onto State Road 370 and the nearby Travesser Creek Overlook above the Dry Cimarron River Valley. Farther east along State Road 456 are the distinctive Dakota Sandstone formations of Battleship and Wedding Cake.
Just before the Oklahoma state line, turn south on State Road 406. Fourteen miles (22 km) south is State Road 410. At that intersection, look northeast; the scars on the west slope of a distant hill are the wagon ruts of the famed Santa Fe Trail. Nine miles (15 km) farther south on State Road 406, near the Dust Bowl hamlet of Seneca, take a gravel county road west to a three-mile (five km) long segment of the Santa Fe Trail cutting across a portion of the wild Kiowa National Grassland. The 13-mile (21 km) gravel road also reaches paved State Road 370, just two miles (three km) north of the turnoff west to Clayton Lake State Park, where more than 500 dinosaur tracks of eight 100 million-year-old animals (among them three-toed, herbivorous ancestors of hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs; carnivorous theropods, ancestors of birds; and prehistoric crocodiles) await a half-mile hike to the dam's two-acre, Cretaceous Sandstone spillway. Discovered in 1982, it remains the largest cache of its kind in North America.
From there, note two nearby landmarks that were familiar to long-ago Santa Fe Trail merchants, the famed Rabbit Ear Mountains, four miles (six km) to the southeast, and Mount Dora, another shield volcano nine miles (14 km) to the west.
For local history in Clayton, visit the Herzstein Memorial Museum.
The byway, whose elevations range from 5,050 feet (1,540 meters) to 6,640 feet (2,025 m), can be done in a two-day, two-night trek, using the 83 miles (134 km) of U.S. Highway 64/87 (and saving a visit to Clayton Lake State Park) for the return leg the second day.
Gas, food, and lodging abound in Raton in Clayton. In between there are gas stations in Capulin and Des Moines, and a café in Des Moines.
