James C. Cooney and the Alma Massacre

 

Gold and silver were first discovered in the Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico by James C. Cooney, who was born in 1840 and came to the U.S. from Ireland to escape the potato famine. He joined the Army and was a sergeant in the 8th U.S. Cavalry when he was posted to Fort Bayard, near Silver City, New Mexico in 1870. He was scouting in the Mogollon Mountain’s Mineral Creek Canyon, north of Mogollon and east of Alma, when he discovered rich gold and silver deposits. Cooney kept his discovery a secret until his military discharge in 1875. A year later, he began working the claim, called the Silver Bar Mine, with his partner Harry McAllister. The mine proved itself to be the richest claim in the new district, and Cooney’s little mining camp became a town. Although it was no more than a handful of tents, log cabins and rough wooden buildings, it, and but it and Cooney Peak, rising up in the distance, must have made the ex-cavalry sergeant very proud as well as rich.

Cooney wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy his prosperity. In the early evening of April 28, 1880, Chiricahua Apache
warriors led by Victorio struck Cooney’s silver mine, killing two miners and wounding a third. After dark, Cooney and another man, William Chick, rode down the canyon to warn local settlers of the danger. The next morning, believing the raiders had moved on, Chick and Cooney decided to ride back to the mine. A couple of miles up the canyon, the Apaches caught and killed them both. The warriors then spread out, targeting shepherds and their families. According to The Weekly New Mexican, "one hundred thousand head of sheep...were scattered or killed," and at least 41 people were murdered in what came to be known as the Alma Massacre. The violence continued until U.S. Army troops from Fort Bayard, forced Victorio and his warriors to withdraw from the area.

Cooney’s older brother, Captain Michael Cooney, collaborated with fellow miners to create a tomb near the site where the miner was massacred. They used black powder explosives, drills, and hand chisels to create a cavity large enough to accommodate Cooney's coffin in a large boulder. The miners then sealed the entrance with a mixture of cement and local ore sourced from Cooney's own silver claims, protecting him from scavengers, floods, and further raids. Located north of Alma along Forest Road 701, the tomb is now a historical landmark, protected by barriers and marked by a plaque.  It is a testament to practical frontier ingenuity and group solidarity among prospectors operating in lawless terrain.

The Alma Massacre remains one of the deadliest single raids in the Apache Wars, illustrating the brutal reality of frontier conflict where civilians bore the heaviest casualties. However, the threat of violence was not enough to keep miners from the area. By 1887, the Mogollon/Cooney district had become the largest producer of gold and silver in New Mexico, yielding somewhere between $5 and $7 million in gold and silver over the next decade. By 1889 the town of Cooney had grown to 600 residents, a school, a church, and two hotels. But silver prices collapsed in the 1890s, and the town’s population began to dwindle. A disastrous flood that scoured the canyon in 1911 finally put an end to the town.

Gutierrez Hubbell House: An historical gem in Albuquerque's South Valley

By John Phelan - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10535924

Last weekend I gave another of my lectures on the Civil War on Route 66. This time, the venue was the Gutierrez Hubbell House. My only regret is that I didn't go there much sooner. 

The Gutiérrez Hubbell House is a historic, territorial-style hacienda in Albuquerque's South Valley, in the village of Pajarito. Although there was a house on the site that dated back to the 1820s, when the property was part of a 40,000 acre estate owned by Clemente and Josefa Gutiérrez, most of the existing structure was built in the 1850s and 1860s, after  James Lawrence Hubbell married their great-granddaughter and heir, Julianita.

Hubbell came to New Mexico in 1846 as part of the American Expedition into Mexican territory led by General Stephen Watts Kearny. The twenty-two year old captain was born in Connecticut to an Anglo father and a Hispanic mother. Evidently, he liked the country and its inhabitants, for he resigned his commission and married Julianita Gutiérrez in 1849, when she was just sixteen years old.

Julianita came from a prominent ranching and trading family. The Gutiérrezes were related to the Baca family and the Chaves clan, both powerhouses in New Mexico politics. Her paternal grandfather was among the first governors to serve New Mexico when it was still under Mexican rule. 

Santiago may have resigned his commission after the Mexican American War ended, but he rejoined during the Civil War, when Confederates threatened the territory. He organized and commanded a company of New Mexico Mounted Volunteers, called "Hubbell's Cavalry Company" or Company B of the 5th New Mexico Infantry Volunteers. As their Captain, Hubbell led his men in the front lines at the Battle of Valverde, defending the McRae Battery when it  suffered a frontal attack. From a company of seventy-four men, thirty-nine (53% of the total company) were killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates were able to overrun the battery and take possession of six guns.  After the battle, Captain P.W.L. Plymptom, a US Regular Army officer, sent in a report explaining that his battalion had failed to save the guns from the Confederate charge because New Mexican Volunteers had broken from their position. Hubbell contested this report and was unhappy with how his volunteers were treated by regular army. 

After the war, Santiago and Julianita continued to build onto their house with the help of their twelve children. Located along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro,the oldest continuously used European roadway in North America, which runs north from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), north of Santa Fe, the house was a natural stop for travelers and became one of the  important parajes, or camp locations, along the trail. It was used as a stagecoach stop, a trading post, and a post office in addition to being a private home. Trading must have become second nature to the Hubbells . The third of Santiago and Julianita's children, Don (John) Lorenzo Hubbell, established the famous Hubbell Trading Post located on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Ganado, Arizona.

The house, which has existed under three national flags, (Spain, Mexico and the United States) is listed on the State of New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties as a symbol of the blending of Spanish, Native American and Anglo cultures and traditions, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is managed by the National Park Service and offers a traditional garden and a heritage garden as well as walking trails along the acequia madre (mother ditch) and around the property, and cultivated farm plots for visitors to enjoy. I was charmed by the displays within the house, which included a room with an extensive timeline, the room where the young sons slept, a room that served as a general store, and the main living room. The thickness of the walls, the vigas in the ceilings, and the territorial trim around the windows was impressive. 

Click here to download a pdf of the guide to this historical site.

Click here to download a self-guided tour of the veterans interred in Fairview Cemetery.
click here to see trails in the south valley area.