|
|
Otero County, New Mexico |
"Trail's End Was Old-Time Post Office"
|
|
Otero County, New Mexico |
Story by Ella Green Buckner
By Ernestine Chesser Williams
to the Historical Roundup Winter 1982, Pages 4 and 9
Trail's End, New Mexico was a post office located on the bank of the Rio Penasco in southwestern Chaves County. It flourished briefly and then it was gone.
The post office occupied one room of the big rock house which was built in 1885 by James F. Hinkle, manager of the Penasco Land and Cattle Company. Mr. Hinkle had the help of a good rock mason and the C A Bar ranch hands. This house became the C A Bar headquarters and was the home of the Hinkle family for many years. Clarence Hinkle of Roswell often spoke of his father, James F. Hinkle, with deepest respect that is felt for those who came early to this frontier land.
The big rock house located on the Tom Runyan ranch, still stands but is no longer used as a residence. It is set back from the road and is partially hidden from view by giant cottonwood trees.
The sturdy rock structure has weathered the storms of nearly a hundred years. Its spectacular beauty and the history of those who have lived in them, make it an historical landmark.
Ras Williams, native of the Penasco community, gave the following information concerning Trail's End post office: "In 1920, Bert Garner and Jim Reeves of the Hondo Valley, bought the C A Bar Ranch on the lower Penasco from Tom Runyan, with the idea of establishing a commissary and a post office. They made application to reinstate the Lower Penasco post office. However, the postal service would not allow the name 'Penasco' to be used because of a name conflict with the post office at Penasco, New Mexico, a small village in Taos county which sill exists, therefore, another name had to be chosen. It is supposed that the name 'Trail's End' was suggested, as the country estate of James Cox, the 1920 Democrat candidate for president was known as 'Trail's End.' The post office began operation on January 1, 1921.
Nora Reeves, wife of Jim Reeves, was the first post-mistress at the post office on the Penasco. She also operated a small commissary where she sold a few groceries and other staples.
"I have no memory of the exact time when the mail carriers began driving cars," stated Ras Williams today, "however, I am sure that in the summer of 1921, my sister and I rode the 'mail car' to Artesia. At that time, the exchange point was at Elk. A car came from Hope on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, spending those nights and Sundays at Hope.
Another driver came from Cloudcroft on the same days and both drivers spent the same nights at Elk. A different driver and car came form Artesia top Hope every morning except Sundays and returned to Artesia in the afternoons. This arrangement lasted into the 1930s. Before the use of automobiles, the mail was carried in a horse-drawn buck-board, referred to as the mail-hack.
"The first mail car was a Model T," recalls Hazel Reeves of the Penasco Community, whose father, Hez Powell, had the mail contract for several years.
The road west of Artesia was narrow, rough, and rocky, making mail delivery very difficult. A long stretch of prairie land known as Cactus Flat was impassable for days at a time following rain or snow.
"The summers were fine," says Hazel Reeves, "just the winters were cold and snowy. Sometimes the snow was so deep there was only a trail for a horse. Then they had to carry the mail on horseback form Penasco to Cloudcroft for several days at a time."
"In the fall of 1923," says Bryan Runyan, Penasco rancher, "a heavy snow fell December 5 and the mail didn't come through for thirty days."
Even though the mail delivery was irregular for the people in the hill country, it was a link with the outside world. Sometimes, one could hitch a ride on the mail car either to town or back to the ranch.
"In the early 1920's," say Ras Williams, "The Penasco fell into some of the hardest times we ever experienced. The bottom fell out of the cattle market and a drouth hit us all at the same time. People left the Penasco in droves, and headed for Arizona and California,. Garner and Reeves turned the C A Bar Ranch back to the Runyans.".
"When my father took the ranch back," says Bryan Runyan, "the rock house, which had been the C A Bar headquarters, became the permanent resident of the Runyans. I closed the Trail's End post office January 1, 1923."
When Trail's End post office was closed, the mail car simply by-passed the post office site and distributed mail to residents along the Lower Penasco, making Elk its first post office stop west of Hope.
The establishing of a post office and giving it a name carried over into the community for a while. One local rancher, Lucien Williams, told me of several incidents which were reported to have happened at Trail's End. One incident concerned a 'shooting' which I later found recorded in Roswell Daily Record, Tuesday, November 14, 1922.
"Shooting at Trail's End - U. I. Strickel was brought to the city yesterday afternoon from a gunshot wound alleged to have been done by Jim Chandler on the Lower Penasco. Strickel was shot in the back, the bullet going throuogh his body and lodging in the stomach. The causes of the shooting are not known here. Strickel was taken to St. Mary's Hospital and was operated on this morning. His condition is considered very serious.
Deputy sheriff J. E. Zumwalt left this morning to bring Chandler to this city."
The name "Trail's End" is only a hazy memory of residents of the Penasco Valley that is if they are old enough to remember it at all.
Now, 1981, the mail route is a modern highway. Lower Penasco is not the "Trail's End" but more like half-way point between Artesia and Cloudcroft. The mail car runs daily. Even though the Penasco Valley now enjoys modern public communication - radio, TV, and telephone, ranchers still value highly the daily mail delivery which brings newspapers, magazines, business mail, packages, and sometimes a personal letter from a loved one who is far away.
[Submitted by Virginia Stanbrough - Transcribed by Andrew Lee Bristol]
