New Mexico's rich history reaches back to 9,000 BCE with evidence of the Clovis culture from Playas Valley. Inhabited by a range of indigenous peoples, the Spanish eventually colonized the region. After coming under the control of the United Sates as a result of the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, New Mexico gained territorial status and eventually statehood on January 6, 1912 becoming the 47th state in the Union, followed by Arizona on February 14, 1912 as the 48th state. This 1880 map from David Rumsey map collection shows the original counties of both states. The Painted Pony Resort lies in the southwestern corner of the state in the original county of Mesilla in the vicinity of the early Mexican settlement of Fronteras. Mesilla county was eventually divided into Grant, Luna, and Hidalgo counties giving rise to the distribution of counties found in present day New Mexico.
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Great map as I never seen this one, good information as well.
ReplyDeleteAnother resource for old maps is "Old Maps Online" http://www.oldmapsonline.org/ which uses Google Earth as a base and displays old maps of the area in the sidebar which may be viewed or downloaded. There are several place names, such as "San Bernardino" and "Chiricahua" that help the viewer pinpoint the valley on some of the early Spanish maps. It is interesting to see how cartographers depicted the area through time and how that compares with our present understanding of the area.
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