This is a great little book, and possibly the best overview available of the long and fascinating history of this region. There are Pueblo villages encountered by Coronado in the 16th century that are still inhabited today, and Simmons skillfully portrays the interactions over the centuries of these and the other cultures that have mingled in this harsh region. Those readers who are inspired to study this subject in more detail (and that will probably include most who read Simmons' book!) may then want to delve into a longer classic such as Paul Horgan's "Great River."

This book was a very easy to read book.It displayed a different perspective about the history of New Mexico and it's people.Also,many significant events New Mexico helped shape are described in detail.The book covers the different periods in NM in a clear and focused manner,from Spanish conquest to Statehood and beyond.This book is perfect for persons wanting to learn about NM and the southwest.

I loved reading this book. It presented the highlights of the rich history of the southwest from the Spanish colonization to the recent decades in a essay-like tone that is very readable. The story itself is exotic and very compelling,as anyone who has lived in or vistited the area should know. I imagine that Mr. Simmons is the "dean" of New Mexico history. His knowledge of the broad sweep of centuries of history, comprising numerous diverse cultures, is impressive. More impressive is his ability to convey his personal feeling for the subject matter. A reader can tell by his personal epilogue about camping in the New Mexico desert that Mr. Simmons loves working in the shadows of the Conquistadors, the Pueblos, Navajos and American mountainmen and pioneers. This book brings the history alive. I am on the hunt for other books about southwest history, and for books by Marc Simmons.

In 1831, on a suggestion from his doctor to travel west to improve his health, Josiah Gregg joined a wagon train of Sante Fe traders. The result is a highly acclaimed first hand narrative of the Sante Fe trade and life on the prairies during the 1830's. Gregg's vivid writing style illustrates the many hardships and adventures of life along the Sante Fe Trail and into Mexico. We read about traveling through barren deserts, inconsistencies of the weather, the always present danger of marauding Indians and Mexicans, the questionable Mexican governmental policies, etc. Being an amateur naturalist (he had several species of plants named after him), Gregg describes geographical landforms, geology, and plant and animal life extremely well. He also gives clear, precise and realistic descriptions of the cultures and customs of both the Indians and native Mexicans from how they dressed, to how they constructed their homes; religious, spiritual and matrimonial beliefs; how food was secured and prepared; theories on future agricultural practices and uses, etc. Gregg was a keen and acute observer of his immediate surroundings which is evident in both his writing style and presentation of the subject. Professor Moorhead's editing is second to none.

Shortly after Mexican Independence interest in establishing trade with Sante Fe, Mexico's most northerly province, became ever more popular. Josiah Gregg was preceded by Mountain Men who explored the area, but he was the first with sufficient education to describe the people, land features and Indians with whom traders would have to deal. His work constitues a PREFACE to other books dealing with the Santa Fe Trail and its growing interest to the United States. Independence, MO, and Fort Smith and Van Buren, AR. - were the northern and southern starting points for Santa Fe respectively. The book is as much a tale of encounters as it is a repository of valuable information. A 'FIRST READ' for persons interested in Santa Fe and the Westward Movement. Another of a variety of fascinating histories of the Southwest.

The cover alone is worth the price! Each stone in this photograph of 46 specimens of turquoise is identified at the start of the book. High quality natural stones from the most important mines of the Southwest are pictured side by side with treated and plastic versions.

The book is a collection of 10 articles written for New Mexico Magazine. Titles include "Turquoise and the Native American", "Buyer Beware: Hidden Facets of Turquoise", Young Native Jewelers Signal Change of Guard" and "The Plight of Old Pawn". High quality photographs of famous mines, artisans and jewelry, both historic and current, will whet the appetite of would-be collectors but also leave an impression of love and respect for the land and its native inhabitants.

Read this book under a strong light to catch the full depth of color!

As usual, Mr. Simmons takes you back in time and brings the everyday life of early New Mexico to life. He has done extensive research to enlighten us. This book covers everything from homemaking, dressing, Inidans and food. A must have for historical researchers.

Mr. Chalfont has provided a truly an outstanding and original contribution to knowledge on the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Often under reported by many authors who concentrate on the more famous actions south of the Rio Grande, the campaign to secure the Santa Fe Trail was crucially important to President Polk's wider efforts at expanding the boundaries of the United States. Presaging by decades the later Indian Wars, the Santa Fe Trail between 1846 and 1848 saw some of the first concerted efforts by the US Government to utilize its military forces in the preservation of an economic pipeline. The author has also avoided the tendency of many "specialists" to present his research as a litany of dull facts. He has opted instead to relate history as a sequence of connected narratives that succeeds in conveying the flavor of the times as well as the historical substance. Replete with excellent photos and maps, I highly recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in this important conflict.

I purchased this book originally to help me pass the time on a business trip in my hotel room - my mother grew up on a farm in Kansas traversed by trail and I had heard stories all of my life - mostly a lot of legends - I had occasion to visit northeast New Mexico several times over the past twenty years and now having read this book I have a deep respect and reverence for those persons whose dreams and visions made possible the taming of the American frontier - I became personally involved in the life story of Marian Russell and came away at the conclusion of the book feeling as if I had heard the story of a close family member - it was as if I were there with her living the story as well - wished there were more

Marc Simmons has done a wonderful job documenting the Southwest through many of his writings. In "The Little Lion of the Soutwest" he brings to life Manuel Antonio (Duran y) Chaves. Manuel lived through a drastically changing political environment of what he considered his homeland since when the Duran y Chaveses first found their way into what is now the American Southwest in the early 1600s. Simmons documents Manuel's childhood, military service, and livelihood through his son, Amado's collection, and other historical documentation. Mr. Simmons puts a face on some of the personalities that helped shape (what is now) New Mexico during the 1800s.

These are the tales of which my family grew up on. This story reminiscents to how well our great+ grandfathers lived compared to what resulted when many hispanic families were pushed off their lands. As a child, I remember hearing tales about the dealings with the Native Americans, having huge herds of cattle and sheep, and that there were a few in the family who fought in the old wars. During that time, I chalked these up as family "fish tales". In reading "The Little Lion", some of these myths come to life. Mr. Simmons helps in piecing together a history of what one great man of the Chavez family went through. For this I am grateful to read about because my fifth great grandfather was one of Manuel Antonio's uncles. Mr. Simmons writing's on Manuel Antonio Chavez makes many proud of the honor of being part of this "Distinctive American Clan".

This book is one I will always cherish, knowing someone took the time in giving a voice to a few lives of the Southwest. This is the stuff that should be taught in American History.

This is a compelling story. Judge H. C. McComas and his wife, Juniata, were brutally murdered by a band of Chiricachua Apaches while traveling on the road from Silver City to Lordsburg, New Mexico, on March 28, 1883. Their six-year-old son Charley, traveling with them, was carried away by the Indians and never found, despite long and determined efforts to learn of his whereabouts. For many years, the McComas story remained an obscure footnote to the long history of the Apache Wars in the Southwest. Simmons has rescued it from its obscurity in this fine book.
The detail that Simmons brings to the McComas story is remarkable, considering the difficulties he must have encountered in his research. He has, I think, considered the story from every possible angle, speculating where the facts are not definitely known (many are not), but laying his speculations on a firm foundation of facts. The story is, of course, incredibly sad, and the Chiricahuas do not come off at all well in the telling. But the book is far from an anti-Indian screed. Simmons is sensitive to the Indians' cultural milieu and lifestyle, even if they are not in all respects admirable. The book ends with a description of the 1994 funeral of the celebrated Apache sculptor Allan Houser. Houser's Chricahua father, Sam Haozous, was ten-years-old and an apprentice warrior when he rode with the Indians who attacked the McComas family in 1883. For many years, he and his son carefully guarded the dark secret of his youthful involvement in the atrocity. But Allan Houser related his father's recollections of the incident to Simmons not long before his death. Simmons came to Houser's funeral with an appreciation of the sculptor's artistic accomplishments and a sensitivity to the Chiricahua legacy that he represented.

Highly recommended!

Marc Simmon's Massacre on the Lordsburg Road, A Tragedy of the Apache Wars, Texas A&M University Press, 1997, xviii + 250 pgs. is a splendid book. It takes a great writer to make so much of so little, by which we mean no sarcasm but rather mean so little in the way of records and facts. Apaches attack a little family traveling on the Lordsburg (New Mexico) Road. The adults are slaughtered. The child? There has always been a lot of "surmisin' " about little Charley McComas, and there still must be, but Simmons has taken what facts there are, what contemporaneous stories there are, and a good deal of heretofore unpublished background material on the McComas family and their associates, and put together not only an excellent history, but also a book that at times holds the reader with the same fascination as a good "mystery" might. That's probably not odd. Charley's story is a mystery. This book not only tells the McComas story, as completely as it ever will be told barring new documentary discovery (and if Simmons missed something it really must be hidden), but gives the reader a "feel" for how it was to live in those times (circa 1883), particularly in western New Mexico and Arizona, but by extension in other places in the southwest including northern Mexico.

The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott, edited and annotated by Mark L. Gardner and Marc Simmons, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, xi + 292 pgs. The book consists of what the title says it does, plus some useful material written later by Elliott but appropriately inserted by the editors. Elliott was an elected Lieutenant in the Laclede Rangers which was a unit from St. Louis and a part of the Missouri Volunteers, in turn a part of Kearny1s Army of the West during the Mexican War. Irregularly, from May 1846 to July of the next year, Elliott sent dispatches back to the St. Louis Daily Reveille, writing as John Brown. In brief, Lt. Elliott with his outfit went from his home to Santa Fe, where with few exceptions, he remained throughout his term of enlistment. Compared to many other soldiers of that time, he led an easy life. (After all, many of us pay to live in Santa Fe, although arguably the amenities may be somewhat better than they were 150 years ago.) However, Elliott's descriptions of the marches, Bent's Fort, Santa Fe and its inhabitants including the native ladies, are most interesting, as are his opinions of some of his associates and high-ranking commanders. The Introduction is helpful and the notes, we think, are the main achievement of the editors: erudite, expansive as need be, and interesting on their own ‹ as you might expect from those two well-known historians. Notes are what turns diaries or dispatches into histories; in this case a valuable piece of New Mexico history and an excellent view of a minuscule part of the Mexican War.

I knew I would be spending part of the summer living in raton, NM exactly on the Santa Fe Trail so I thought I'd try this book. I later found out from my brother in Santa Fe that the author is an extremely respected local journalist and historian.

the book are monographs or case studies of some of the people who lived and often died making the long trek. It was sort of an expressway of its day, the hardship and speed depending on whether or not you had the political clout ot have US Cavalry troops as escorts.

Anyone who travels anywhere near the Trail, or lives there, should donate this to local schools and libraries.