Cooke's Wagon Road

+ Route of Cooke's Wagon Road between the Rio Grande and Gila Rivers, 1846–1847 Distances between stops from Camp opposite San Diego, Nuevo Mexico. DateLocationDistance November 13, 1846Fosters Hole, Nuevo Mexico Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 57, Number 3, (Summer 1989).pdf Carmen Smith and Omer Smith, "The Lost Well of the Mormon Battalion Rediscovered," Utah Historical Quarterly 57. No.3 (Summer 1989): 177–186] November 14–15, 1846Mountain Streamlet, Nuevo Mexico November 16, 1846Cooke's Spring, Chihuahua November 17, 1846Fryingpan Canyon, Chihuahua November 18, 1846Mimbres River Crossing, Chihuahua November 19–20, 1846Ojo de Vaca, Chihuahua November 21, 1846Burro Cienega, Chihuahua November 22, 1846Waterless Camp, Sonora November 23–24, 1846Whitmire Spring, Chihuahuaon the west shore of Las Playas east of Whitmire Pass November 25, 1846Bull Creek, Sonora November 26, 1846Bercham Draw, Sonora November 27, 1846Cloverdale Creek, Sonora November 28–29, 1846Guadalupe Pass at Yanos Road, Sonora November 30, 1846Guadalupe Canyon, Sonora December 1, 1846Guadalupe Canyon, Sonora December 2–3, 1846San Bernardino Ranch, Sonora December 4, 1846Rocky Basin of water, Sonora December 5, 1846 Large Spring, Blackwater Creek, Sonora December 6–7, 1846Waterhole Grove, Sonora December 8, 1846 Waterless Camp, Sonora December 9, 18461st Camp, San Pedro River, Sonora December 10, 18462nd Camp, San Pedro River, Sonora December 11, 18463rd Camp, San Pedro River, Sonora"Battle of the Bulls" December 12, 18464th Camp, San Pedro River, Sonora December 13, 18465th Camp, San Pedro River, Sonora December 14, 1846Mescal Still-house, Sonora December 15, 1846Waterless Camp, Sonora December 16–17, 1846Camp at Tucson, SonoraCamp at Tucson was 1/2 mile north of town. December 18, 18461st Camp beyond Tucson, SonoraWater on Santa Cruz River, 7 miles north of camp, 11 hour march to waterless camp. December 19, 18462nd Camp beyond Tucson, SonoraMarch from sunrise to 7 pm to camp with a small pool of water for men only, 6hrs rest then march again.December 20, 18463rd Camp beyond Tucson, SonoraMarch to water pools. December 21, 1846Cooke's 1st Camp on the Gila River, SonoraCooke's 1st Camp on Gila River was 9 miles east of the Pima Villages where Cooke's Road met Kerney's route. It was probably midway between Sacaton and Blackwater which is about 9 miles above the uppermost Pima Village at that time called Buen Llano.Gila Trail

Cooke's Wagon Road or Cooke's Road was the first wagon road between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River to San Diego, through the Mexican provinces of Nuevo México, Chihuahua, Sonora and Alta California, established by Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion, from October 19, 1846 to January 29, 1847 during the Mexican–American War. It became the first of the wagon routes between New Mexico and California that with subsequent modifications before and during the California Gold Rush eventually became known as the Southern Trail or Southern Emigrant Trail.

Cooke and the Mormon Battalion establish the route On February 22, 1847, Philip St. George Cooke submitted a report of his journey, printed by the U. S. Senate in 1849, as the "Official Journal of Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke from Santa Fe, in New Mexico, to San Diego, in Upper California". This report recorded his experience in command of the Mormon Battalion and its expedition to establish the wagon route that soon became known to the Forty-niners and later travelers who followed that route as Cooke's Wagon Road or Cooke's Road. Later in 1878 Cooke wrote a book "The Conquest of New Mexico and California" that covered the journey but in less detail than in his original report.

Cooke's Road began from his last camp on the west bank the Rio Grande "across the river from San Diego", 258 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico and 29 miles down the river from the camp where Colonel Stephen W. Kearny's Expedition left the Rio Grande, for California, crossing the mountains to the headwaters of the Gila River, which he then followed downstream to its confluence with the Colorado River. Cooke was ordered to take the wagons Kearny could not take with him in the rugged terrain of the New Mexico mountains, and build a wagon road that they could traverse and link it up to his route farther west on the Gila River.

Cooke's road extended westward 433 miles, southwestward through Guadalupe Pass in the Guadalupe Mountains, westward to the San Pedro River, following it northward until turning westward near modern Benson, Arizona to Tucson. From Tucson it crossed the arid desert northwestward to the Gila River, 9 miles east of the Pima Villages, where his route rejoined the Gila Trail of Colonel Kearny.Distances from Sketch of part of the march & wagon road of Lt. Colonel Cooke, Map, ca. 1847; (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth41368/: accessed January 19, 2016), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting the University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas.

Subsequent Journey along Kearney's Route From his first Camp on the Gila River, Cooke then followed Kearny's Gila Trail route continuing to build a wagon road along the Gila River to the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River. Following the crossing were 89 miles across the Colorado Desert between the waterholes of Cooke's Wells, Alamo Mocho Well, and Indian Wells, to Carrizo Creek and to the oasis of Vallecito. After recovering from their crossing came the task of building a wagon road 47 miles up to the San Felipe Valley and over Warner Pass in the Laguna Mountains to Warner's Ranch, overcoming the difficult terrain encountered building their road around Box Canyon. From Warner's the battalion marched on existing roads 58 miles northwest through Aguanga and west to Temecula, then southwest to the San Luis Rey River, and west along the river, past Mission San Luis Rey to the Pacific Ocean. The last march was south to Mission San Diego on El Camino Real.

Cooke's Wagon Road

Bron en licentie