Stories

For thirty-six years John Thomas Smith raised ten children and carved out a life on the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains. The historic ranch that visitors see today changed over time, but still bears the indelible mark of the Smith family's time here.

The Frijole Ranch area has been a focal point of human use in the Guadalupe Mountains for many centuries. This is not surprising when one considers that Pine, Juniper, Smith, Manzanita, and Frijole springs are all within a two-mile radius of the Frijole Ranch site. The ranch is a legacy of westward settlement.

Learn about the life of Hugh Hayes, an African American man from Tennessee, and how his life as a Buffalo Soldier and bath attendant at Hot Springs National Park connected him to significant moments in American history.

The orchard at Frijole Ranch was part of the self-sustaining farmstead developed in the early 1900s. Irrigated by area springs, the fruit trees provided a source of food and shade in the West Texas desert. In 2006, a century after the Smith family settled here, the orchard was partially replanted. It continues to represent a vital aspect of ranching and homestead history and shows how the landscape functioned for the family and the community.

After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, African American military regiments were established, called the Buffalo Soldiers. On the Texas and New Mexican frontiers U.S. troops, comprised mostly of Buffalo Soldiers, encountered fierce opposition from the Lipan, Mescalero, and Warm Springs Apache, as well as the Comanche and Kiowa. Archeologists investigated the interlaced record of Apache and military activities at Pine Springs Camp, on the mountains' eastern slopes.

Hidden off the main road to McKittrick Canyon stands a home built in the early 1940s for retired oil geologist Wallace Pratt and his second wife, Iris Calderhead Pratt. For fifteen years the Pratts lived in this remote desert mountain home before donating the building and nearly 6,000 acres of land to the National Park Service as a catalyst to the creation of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

One of the most frequently asked questions at Guadalupe Mountains National Park is “Is there a scenic drive I can take to explore the park?” The answer to that question reflects the history of the National Park Service and changing perspectives on visitor access, preservation, and life in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Upon approaching the Guadalupe Mountains from the west, visitors traveling from the El Paso area will pass through a landscape of barren beauty. The Salt Flats are a remnant of an ancient, shallow lake that once occupied this area during the Pleistocene Epoch, approximately 1.8 million years ago. Salt collected here as streams drained mineral-laden water into this basin. The salt deposits left behind would later become a precious resource to the people of the El Paso area.

Mescalero Apache Tribe have a lot of natural resources: a fish hatchery, timber, etc. The Apaches were mobile hunters and gatherers, covering most of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, of three bands: Chiricahua, Lipan and Mescalero. Mobility was not allowed to occur anymore and also hunting and gathering were restricted, they were forced to farm. This affected culture in many ways, yet, the culture persists and remains strong today.

The Guadalupe Mountains were one of the last strongholds of the Mescalero Apache who had been fighting for nearly three centuries to preserve their lands and their way of life. In the late 1870s the US Army established a force projection camp garrisoned by African American soldiers at Pine Springs in present-day Guadalupe Mountains National Park.