Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

Horses in History: Black Jack

11/28/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Black Jack served the military in a unique way.

Black Jack was born on January 19,1947 and purchased by the US Army Quartermaster on November 22, 1953. Although his breeding wasn’t recorded, he is likely a mix of Morgan and Quarter horse. He was named in honor of John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, the U.S. Army General who led America’s military forces to victory in Europe during World War I. He was the last horse ever to be branded by the Army. He had the Army’s U.S. brand on his left shoulder and his Army serial number, 2V56, on the left side of his neck.

One of the traditional functions of the Army’s Quartermaster Corps was supplying the cavalry with well-trained horses.  Fort Reno in Oklahoma was where most horses were trained, and it was where Black Jack went after being purchased. The feisty, spirited animal made it clear from the start that he did not like to carry riders. He threw rider after rider into the dirt of the training corral. Although his handlers did manage to control him somewhat, he never lost his fiery spirit, which made him a favorite at Fort Reno.
​
Black Jack was so beautiful that the Army decided not to part with him. Coal black, and with a small white star, the handsome horse was 15.1 hands tall and weighed almost 1,200 pounds. He was well built with a beautiful head. The Army transferred him to Virginia’s Fort Myer, where he was attached to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard”. The Old Guard is the Army’s oldest active duty infantry regiment, dating back to 1784. The horses and soldiers that make up The Old Guard participate in an average of six funerals per day.

Black Jack was placed into Caisson Platoon. Horses in the Caisson Platoon serve two functions. One is pulling funeral caissons. Caissons are small wagons that carried cannons, ammunition, spare parts, and tools. Funeral caissons have a flat platform on which the flag-draped casket sits. Six horses, matched blacks or grays that are paired into three teams, pull the caisson All six horses are saddled, but only the horses on the left have mounted riders. This tradition has carried over from the days of horse-drawn artillery, when one horse carried the soldier, and the other horse carried extra supplies. The three teams are the lead team in front, the swing team in the middle, and the wheel team closest to the caisson.
Instead of pulling a funeral caisson, Black Jack served as the Caparisoned, or riderless, horse that followed the caisson. The caparisoned horse represents the soldier who will no longer ride in the brigade.  He wears the cavalry saddle, with a sword and a pair of boots reversed, or facing backwards, in the stirrups.
Riderless horses have been a part of military funerals since Ghengis Khan’s time. Then, the horses were sacrificed so that their spirits could travel with its master to the afterlife. While they are no longer sacrificed, riderless horses represent the bond between horse and rider on the soldier’s final journey. The backward boots in his stirrups suggest that the warrior is having one last look back at his life. In the United States, caparisoned horses participate in funerals for people who have achieved the rank of colonel in the Army or Marines or above.

Picture
Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to have a caparisoned horse at his funeral. George Washington and Zachary Taylor’s personal horses were in their master’s funeral processions.

Black Jack was the riderless black horse in the funerals of three presidents: Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson He also served in the funeral of Douglas MacArthur and more than a thousand others. Black Jack retired on June 1, 1973 and died after 29 years of military service on Feb. 6, 1976. He was buried on the parade grounds of Fort Myer with full military honors and his remains were transported using the same caisson he’d walked behind during the funerals of three American presidents.

The only other horse honored with a military funeral was Comanche, the only surviving horse of Custer’s last stand.
​
After Black Jack retired, “Sgt.York” carried on this tradition. He served as the riderless horse in President Reagan’s funeral procession, walking behind the caisson bearing Reagan’s flag-draped casket.
Picture

Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction for people from ten to adult. Several of her books, including Code:Elephants on the Moon and A Blaze of Poppies include horses used in war. 
0 Comments

The Pony Express

11/21/2021

0 Comments

 
The Pony Express looms large in the lore of the American West, especially when one considers how short-lived it was. The Express, which was operated by Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, began delivering messages, newspapers, and mail on April 3, 1860. It was the quickest mode of delivering messages, and could get a letter from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific in about 10 days. By October 1861, the completion of the transcontinental telegraph had made the service obsolete.
​

The approximately 1,900-mile-long route for the Pony Express began at St. Joseph, Missouri, the far west terminus of the telegraph line. It roughly followed the Oregon and California Trails to Wyoming’s Fort Bridger, then followed the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, Utah. After that, it went to Carson City, Nevada Territory on the Central Nevada Route, then passed over the Sierra Nevadas before it reached Sacramento, California. From there, the mail went downriver by boat to San Francisco.  About 186 stations were set up about 10 miles apart along the route. Riders changed to a fresh horse each station. They rode night and day, stopping after 75–100 miles. In emergencies, and when the next rider was unavailable, riders might ride two stages back-to-back, spending over 20 hours on horseback. Some of the stations had bunkhouses in which the riders could sleep. ​
Picture
Picture
The Pony Express Riders were all quite young, between 14 and 19 years old. They could not weigh over 125 pounds. At a time when unskilled laborers made between $0.43–$1 per day and bricklayers and carpenters could earn $2 per day, the riders received $125 a month, plus bonuses for fast completion of a route or for extraordinary dangers. The horses they rode were small, averaging 14.2 hands and 900 pounds, so while not strictly ponies, the name was appropriate.  
​

One of the most famous Pony Express deliveries was done by Robert Haslam, who later went by the nickname “Pony Bob.” Haslam was born in London, England in 1840. In April 1861, he rode 13 mustangs on an eight hour ride that took him through 120 miles of Nevada Territory. His route went through hostile Paiute Indian country. According to his journal, he engaged in a “running fight” with warring braves that lasted for “three or four miles.” During that fight, a flint-tipped arrow pierced his arm and another broke his jaw and knocked out five teeth. Haslam was able to escape after shooting the horses out from under several of the Paiutes. ​

Picture
Haslam’s ride was part of a record-breaking delivery. While it usually took 10 days, this trip was completed in seven days, 17 hours. The delivery included Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, which helped the new state decide whether to stay within the Union or side with the Confederacy in the upcoming Civil War.
​

In recognition of his rapid and dangerous ride, the Express Company awarded Haslam $100. Although not delivering the packet might have changed the outcome of the war, Haslam was unfazed. He said, “ It’s nothing to get all fussed about. I’m a Pony Express rider. It’s all part of the job.”
When the Pony Express stopped, Pony Bob became and express rider for Wells, Fargo & Company.  As the Pacific Railway and telegraph lines pushed westward, he took other routes in increasingly remote areas. When there were no more express routes, he moved to Chicago, where he died, destitute, in 1912. His tombstone was paid for by long-time friend and fellow pony express rider, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. 


Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction for readers in middle school through adult. She learns a lot from her readers, and would like to thank Owen Currier for sharing the story of Pony Bob Haslam that was the inspiration for this blog. 
0 Comments

Fort Bayard: Southern New Mexico Site

8/1/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've written about Fort Bayard's history before. You can read all about it here. 

Fort Bayard has been on my mind a lot lately. I had intended to go down and revisit it during spring break this year. Travel restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that. So, instead, I did as much research as I could online. I found some good information, but nothing is as good as actually being in a place. 

Fort Bayard ceased to be a military post when the last detachment of the 9th U.S. Cavalry departed on January 12, 1900. That doesn't mean that the site was abandoned. The War Department had already issued an order issued  on August 28, 1899 that authorized the Surgeon General to establish the first military sanatorium dedicated to the treatment of Army officers and enlisted men suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. Major Daniel M. Appel, an Army surgeon, arrived at Fort Bayard on October 3, 1899 to organize the hospital. 

Fort Stanton had undergone a similar conversion, becoming a sanatorium for tubercular merchant seamen in April 1899. Fort Stanton was transferred to the Department of Interior in 1896, and then to the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, a bureau within the Treasury Department, in 1899, Fort Bayard remained within the Army under the auspices of the Army Medical Department. 

. The Spanish-American War. drove the need for sanatorium for the Army's soldiers and veterans. In the humid, tropics of Cuba, more soldiers succumbed to disease than enemy fire. Many soldiers serving in the Philippines returned with pulmonary disease. At 6,100 ft. and with a dry, sunny climate, Fort Bayard seemed a perfect place to restore health to diseased lungs. Fresh air and sunshine was considered so important to healing that patients who were ambulatory stayed outdoors at least eight hours daily throughout the entire year,  and dormitory windows remained open. By March 1902, over 600 patients had been treated at the sanatorium.

World War I created another upsurge in the need for a hospital dedicated specifically to injuries and illnesses of the lungs. The cold, damp trenches of Northern France were breeding grounds for pneumonia, and gas warfare damaged thousands of dough boy lungs. The Great Influenza of 1918-19,  often referred to as the Spanish Flu, also contributed to pulmonary disease. 

By 1920,  the Army involvement with medicine for veterans was changing. In May the War Department closed the sanatorium and transferred most of its corpsmen, physicians and patients to other facilities in an effort to consolidate services. Most patients were moved to Denver. 


Picture
Jennifer Bohnhoff lives in the mountains of central New Mexico and writes historical fiction. Her novel, A Blaze of Poppies, is  set in Southern New Mexico and France during the 1910s. Some of the action takes place at Fort Bayard. Available October 2021, you can preorder this book now.

0 Comments

Elizabeth Garrett: Songbird of the Southwest

7/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Elizabeth Garrett may not have the name recognition of her famous father, but she deserves to be well known among New Mexicans for her personal bravery and her contributions to her state.

Elizabeth’s father was Pat Garret, a bartender, customs agent, and lawman who was sheriff of both Lincoln and Doña Ana Counties in New Mexico. He is most known for killing Billy the Kid, then coauthoring a book titled The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, which for decades was considered the most authoritative biography of the famous outlaw. 
​
Pat Garret and his second wife, Apolinaria Gutierrez Garrett had eight children. Elizabeth, the third child, was born on October 9, 1885 in their home in Eagle Creek, outside the small community of Alto, in New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca Mountains. In the same year, the nearby town of Ruidoso was established. 


PictureMrs. Elizabeth Garrett and Teene, her seeing-eye dog, at her 'La Carita' home in Roswell, New Mexico. Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 057207.
Elizabeth’s life was never easy but she had an independent spirit and a can-do attitude. It is unsure whether she was born blind or lost her sight at an early age. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Roswell, where she led an active outdoor life, riding horses, playing in her family’s apple orchard, and doing all the things the other children did. When she was six, she was sent to the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, where her education included the musical instruction that would guide her future. When she graduated, she rejoined her family, who had moved to El Paso when her father began working as a Customs Officer. When the family moved to Las Cruces, Elizabeth stayed alone in El Paso for three more years so she could continue to teach music there. After that, she moved to Roswell and supervised the building of her dream home, a five-room adobe.

Elizabeth composed and sang her own songs at performances around the state and the country. She once performed for the prisoners at New York’s infamous Sing Sing Prison. Her most memorable song is "O, Fair New Mexico," which she wrote in 1915. Two years later,  New Mexico Governor Washington E. Lindsey asked her to sing it to the state legislature, who unanimously voted to make it the official state song the very next day.
​
Elizabeth Garrett died in Roswell on October 16, 1947 after falling while out on a walk.

O fair New Mexico

Under a sky of azure,
Where balmy breezes blow,
Kissed by the golden sunshine,
Is Nuevo Mejico.
Land of the Montezuma,
With fiery hearts aglow,
Land of the deeds historic,
Is Nuevo Mejico.

O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
Our hearts with pride o’reflow,
No matter where we go.
O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
The grandest state to know
New Mexico.

Rugged and high sierras,
With deep canyons below,
Dotted with fertile valleys,
Is Nuevo Mejico.
Fields full of sweet alfalfa,
Richest perfumes bestow,
State of apple blossoms,
Is Nuevo Mejico.

O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
Our hearts with pride o’reflow,
No matter where we go.
O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
The grandest state to know
New Mexico.

Days that are full of heart-dreams,
Nights when the moon hangs low;
Beaming its benedictions,
O’er Nuevo Mejico.
Land with its bright manana,
Coming through weal and woe;
State of esperanza,
Is Nuevo Mejico.
​
O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
Our hearts with pride o’reflow,
No matter where we go.
O, Fair New Mexico,
We love, we love you so,
The grandest state to know
New Mexico.
"O, Fair New Mexico" is a tango in 2/4 time. I believe New Mexico is the only state that has a tango as its state song. It is in the key of A flat major. Its three stanzas, with refrain, describe the climate, geography, agriculture, and overall beauty of the state of New Mexico. In order to show the two cultures that Ms. Garrett had running in her own veins, each stanza uses the Spanish words "Nuevo México," while the refrain uses "New Mexico."

New Mexicans really like their music, and its legislators like to acknowledge that face. While "O, Fair New Mexico" remains the official state song, the state also has an official Spanish-language state song, a state bilingual song, a state ballad, and an official cowboy song.


Picture
​In February 1937, Elizabeth Garrett gave an interview given to Works Progress Administration writer Georgia Redfield, where she said this about her famous father: “Quite frequently,” said Elizabeth Garrett, “my father had to bring harmony with a gun. I try to do so by carrying a tune.” You can read the transcript of the interview here.
​

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a native New Mexican and a former New Mexico history teacher. She lives in the mountains of central New Mexico, where she is presently writing the third in a trilogy of historical novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War. The first in the series, Where Duty Calls," will be published by Kinkajou Press in May 2022.
​To read more about her and her writing, click here.

0 Comments

Cookies and Quakers

7/4/2021

0 Comments

 
My husband loves cookies. He comes by that love naturally: his mother was a prolific cookie baker. Her Christmas cookie platter brimmed with dozens of different types of cookies. I didn’t get all of her recipes, and even if I did, I couldn’t match my mother-in-law’s cookie baking skills, but I’ve tried, for my husband’s sake. Although he likes many kinds of cookies, these oatmeal and raisin ones are one of his favorites. They are chewy and satisfying and, as cookies go, good for you. I added ground flax to this recipe around 20 years ago, when Hank developed high cholesterol. The doctor said that if he didn’t get his numbers down, he’d have to go on medication. Hank started exercising more, and I added almonds to his lunches, more fruits and veggies to all meals, and flax and oatmeal to many of my recipes. It seemed to do the trick. Hank’s still medication-free and his cholesterol numbers are good.

​Hank’s Special Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Picture
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp apple pie spice (you can use cinnamon if you prefer)
3/4 cup flour
2 tbs ground flax
1 ½ cup quick-cooking oats (you can use regular oats, and your cookies will be a little chewier)
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped pecans
 
Heat oven to 375°.
 
In large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg and blend well.
Add baking soda, salt, apple pie spice, flour, and flax and blend well.
Stir in oats, raisins and nuts.
 
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2” apart, onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Cool 1 minute, then use a spatula to remove from cookie sheets onto a cooling rack.

 

​Famous American Quakers

Picture
Unless you’re like me and use generic and store brands, the oats you use for these cookies might come from a box that has a picture of a Quaker on it. According to the Quaker Oats Company, this man was America's first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. Registered on September 4th, 1877, the logo featured a full-length Quaker man holding a scroll with the word "Pure" written across it.
 
Back in 1909, the company identified this figure as William Penn, the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and called him the "standard bearer of the Quakers and of Quaker Oats." Now, however, the company says that he is not the representation of an actual person, but symbolizes the Quaker virtues of honesty, integrity, purity and strength.


Picture
William Penn was born in England on October 14, 1644.  King Charles II owed his father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn, a great deal of money, and in 1681 he handed over a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic coast in what is now Pennsylvania and Delaware to cover his debts. The younger Penn, who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London several times for his membership in the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, immediately set sail for America. As soon as he arrived, he convened the first Pennsylvania General Assembly. The democratic principles that he established in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the members of the convention framing the new Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia in 1787.
 
Penn’s pacifist theories helped him propose a European Assembly, whose deputies would discuss and peacefully adjudicate issues among the nations, an idea no dissimilar to the European Union in place today.
 
Penn founded the city of Philadelphia, directing that it be laid out in an easy-to-navigate grid that was very different from the tangled street of his native London. Because Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods," he named the cross streets after types of trees.
 
In addition to being an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, Penn is known for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. He died on July 30, 1718.


But although he is the most famous Quaker, William Penn is not the only one. American folk hero Daniel Boone’s family emigrated to the U.S. because they were Quakers and raised their famous son in their beliefs.  Cassius Coolidge, the painter who created the famous Dogs Playing Poker was born in upstate New York into a family of abolitionist Quakers. Actor James Dean was raised Quaker and is buried in a Quaker cemetery. President Richard Milhous Nixon’s mother was from an old Quaker family, and he attended a Quaker college in California named Whittier College. Joan Baez's father, Albert, a co-inventor of the X-ray microscope and a well-known physicist, converted to Quakerism when Joan was a child, influencing her anti-war stand. Blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt was also raised in a Quaker family. As far as I know, none of them have ever advocated eating oatmeal.  

Picture
Author Jennifer Bohnhoff was raised Lutheran and eats a lot of oatmeal. She is especially fond of it when it is in cookies. You can read more about her and her books at her website. You can sign up for her newsletter here and be among the first to know about her upcoming books and special offers. 

0 Comments

George Washington Carver

1/10/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
When many people hear the name George Washington Carver, they think of peanuts. But the American agricultural scientist and inventor’s greatest contributions may have been in soil conservation, environmentalism, and helping the poor.

Carver was born a slave sometime in January 1864 in rural western Missouri, and freed at the end of the Civil War. When he was in his 20s, he moved to Iowa and began attending Simpson College, then Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where he was their first African-American student. Iowa State Agricultural College was the country’s first land-grant university, and its mission was to teach the applied sciences, including agriculture. Carver studied botany.

When he graduated in 1896, Carver became the first black man in the U.S. to hold a degree in modern agricultural methods. He took those lessons south to Alabama, where Booker T. Washington, the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute, was opening an agricultural school. What he saw as he rode the train south broke his heart. Instead of the golden wheat fields and the tall green corn of Iowa, he “scraggly cotton, stunted cattle, boney mules, and fields and hill sides cracked and scarred with gullies.” Because of his training, Carver knew that the poor condition of the land was due to the overplanting of cotton, a lucrative crop that depletes the soil. Carver knew that something had to be done to make the soil rich again. One of his solutions was peanuts.

Picture
Because of a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that live on their roots, peanuts produce their own nitrogen, fertilizing themselves and restoring nutrients to depleted soil. Additionally, their growing periods are different than cotton, so peanuts and cotton could be grown in the same fields on a rotating schedule. Finally, peanuts are high in protein and more nutritious than the “3M--meat, cornmeal and molasses” diet that was the foundation for most poor farmers’ diet.
​
Most black farmers in turn-of-the-century Alabama were so close to ruination that they weren’t willing to try something new. Carter encouraged them by coming up with literally hundreds of recipes and uses for peanuts, including peanut bread, peanut cookies, peanut sausage, peanut ice cream, and even peanut face cream, shampoo, dyes and paints.

But Carver was not just pushing peanuts; he was pushing a lifestyle that connected the farmer to his soil, enriching both. He encouraged farmers to grow other vegetables so they would spend less money on food. Rather than going into debt buying fertilizer, he encouraged composting. Well before the hippies and back to nature movements reached the mainstream, Carver pushed the interconnectedness between the health of the land and the health of the people who lived on it. 

"It has always been the one great ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest number of ‘my people’ possible and to this end I have been preparing myself these many years; feeling as I do that this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom to our people.”
When Carver died on January 5, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that “The world of science has lost one of its most eminent figures.” 

​Peanut Butter Cookies, two ways

Picture
Peanut Blossoms

George Washington Carver may have invented a recipe for peanut butter cookies, but it wasn’t this one. This cookie first appeared in 1957 as a prize winner in a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest.

1 ¾ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup shortening
½ cup peanut butter
2 TBS milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
 
¼ cup sugar, set aside in a shallow bowl
About 48 milk chocolate candy kisses
 
Preheat oven to 375°
 
Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, shortening, peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg at low speed until stiff dough forms.
 
Shape into 1” balls. Roll in the bowl of sugar.
Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 375°for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from over and immediately press a candy kiss into the center of each.
Let cool 2 minutes before removing to a cooking rack.
                                                                                Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Variation:

Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies
Make dough, shape into balls and roll in sugar as above.
Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet.
Flatten each cookie by pressing a fork dipped in sugar into it in a crisscross pattern.
Bake at 375°for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Immediately remove to a cooking rack from cookie sheet.


Picture
Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and writer who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. Her books are written for middle schoolers and adults, and are mostly works of historical fiction. 

This article is, she believes, the first installment in a monthly series on famous Americans and cookies inspired by their stories. She intends to compile all the stories and recipes into a cookbook to give out to my friends, family and fans at the end of 2021. If you'd like a copy, go to her website and join her email list. 

0 Comments

A Walk Through History

3/25/2019

1 Comment

 
PictureAll pictures (with the exception of the live crinoid) by Heather Patrick.
Last week I got a chance to hike with my sister Heather in the Sacramento Mountains, east of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Alamogordo is 200 miles south of my home, and its season is weeks ahead; while it is still cold and snowy in my Sandias, the Sacramentos were balmy. The sky was blue, the birds sang, the sweeping vistas spectacular, but what really made the hike memorable is that it was a walk through time that stretched way, way back.

It's hard to envision now, but this arid land was once very different. Between  358 and 323 million years ago, it was part of a vast ocean. Much of the 

limestone in the Sacramentos is studded with fossils that prove that the area was underwater. I saw lots of shells and shell imprints, but especially prevalent were the fossilized stems of crinoids, which look like stacked rock coins. Although they look like little palm trees, crinoids are animals, not plants. They are still alive today, but they are hard to see since they live at great depths.  ​
Picture
Looking west, we could see straight across the Tularosa Basin to the San Andreas mountains, about 60 miles away. Once, these two mountain ranges were contiguous. The land in between has dropped.

Can you see the white line that seems to extend from the bill of my cap? That's the gypsum sands at White Sands National Monument.​


Picture
Moving up the trail brought us forward in time. While walking along an arroyo, we saw these pock marked rocks. Although these were the only ones I saw on the hike, my sister tells me there are many of these in the area, and they are not naturally formed. Because water tends to collect in them, these depressions are called Indian wells. (The parking lot at the trail head is at the end of Indian Wells Road.)

A sign at Oliver Lee State Park, which is not far south of this trail, explains that these depressions weren't originally used for collecting water. Instead, they mark places where Indians ground up nuts and grains ground up. They are more like mortars than wells. 

Farther up the trail, in a narrow side canyon, we came upon something that I've never seen in a mountainous desert setting before: cattails. The cattails were in front of a cave that my sister tells me is a spring visited by Indians since time immemorial. There was about a foot of standing water in the cave, which seemed to stretch far into the mountain. This water source, so valuable in the arid southwest, has obviously been used by more modern man; on our way down the canyon we saw several lengths of rusted pipe and the derelict remains of an old water tower.
Picture
It was a lovely hike on a lovely day, and it was a reminder that there is interesting things to looks at wherever you go. History and geology, archaeology and botany are right under your feet, and beneath them, if you use your imagination, are story prompts enough to last a long, long while.

Picture
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer and hiker who lives in central New Mexico.

Click here if you want to learn more about the geology of the Sacramento Mountains. 

​Click here if you want to learn more about Jennifer and her books.


1 Comment

Chocolate in New Mexico

1/28/2019

0 Comments

 
PictureJicaras, or chocolate cups from Abo and Quarai New Mexico, 17th C.
Chocolate made its way up to New Mexico through the same trade routes that brought scarlet macaw feathers to Chaco Canyon. The same residue found in ancient Olmec bowls has been found in the pottery of the Four Corners region, and it dates perhaps a thousand years back. The Spanish reintroduced cacao into New Mexico when they began exploring the region. In 1692, Diego de Vargas, the Spanish Governor of New Mexico, met with a Pueblo leader names Luis Picuri in his tent. The meeting included drinking chocolate. ​

Picture
The Palace of the Governors, New Mexico’s History Museum, has on display some artifacts that are associated with chocolate.  This storage jar was used to keep cocoa powder. New Mexico was quite isolated and life was rough here. People had few luxuries. The fact that cocoa was stored in such an ornate jar, with a metal lid indicated just how highly prized it was.
​

Picture
This is a molinillo, or chocolate whisk, from about 1830. The large end would be placed in the pot of hot chocolate and the thin handle was held between the palms of the hands and spun to make the beverage frothy.
Want your own molinillo? Jennifer Bohnhoff will be giving one away, along with a package of Mexican chocolate, and a cookbook that contains a recipe for a traditional New Mexican chocolate drink. Join her Friends, Fan, and Family email list by February 1 to be entered in the drawing. Sign up here.
0 Comments
    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage