12/15/2023 0 Comments Comanche national grassland![]() ![]() Anyhow, that’s the legend and today we call this the Purgatory River. Later French trappers referred to the river as the Purgatoire (pronounced Pur-ga-twa) and American explorers and settlers corrupted the pronunciation to become Picketwire. The Spanish began calling the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Puratorio or The River of Lost Souls in Purgatory. Many Spanish felt, that if this was true, the men died without the benefit of clergy and their souls were trapped in Purgatory. Later, an account by an Indian native circulated that the expedition was wiped out by Indians. The military expedition left Santa Fe, loaded down with gold to pay off the soldiers upon their arrival, and were never seen or heard from again. It is said that once long ago, in the earliest days of Spanish exploration in the southwest, a Spanish military expedition set out from the Spanish colony of New Mexico to find an overland route to their colony in Florida. The Native Americans knew the river as the Spirit River – maybe that is what originally inspired the name of the Purgatory River, or perhaps, if legend is correct, this is really the river of lost souls. ![]() For thousands of years it has witnessed the comings and goings of many peoples many cultures have played out their human drama here before disappearing into eternity. This Ceramic Period, as it is called in southeast Colorado, lasted into the historic times when, in the early 1600s, these peoples were displaced by the Apache peoples, who in turn were replaced by the Comanche in the 1700s. Agriculture began on a rudimentary level. ![]() Though these ancient people were still hunters and gathers, more permanent structures, reminiscent of the early Anasazi pit houses, began to appear. Around 1,800 years ago there was another cultural shift when pottery and the bow-and-arrow were developed. It was during this period about 8,000 years ago that rock art began to appear on the canyon walls. These big game hunters evolved into true hunters and gatherers with a more complex social structure as evidenced by more varied stone tools, both for hunting and plant processing. There also seems to be more emphasis on the processing of plant foods. Surface finds of these early big game hunters have been found.Īs the climate warmed and the larger mammals (prehistoric bison, mammoth, and sloth) became extinct these early hunters relied more and more on the smaller game that was to be found in the region into historic times. The earliest evidence found in the grasslands suggests that early paleo-hunters entered the region after the last ice some 12,000 years ago. Stop by the Comanche National Grassland office in La Junta for free maps and brochures plus information to help you plan your adventure.įor many thousands of years the area that would become the Comanche National Grassland was home to prehistoric peoples. Early traders passed through the area on the Santa Fe Trail, the canyons protect the rock walls of old stage stops from the days before the railroad, and ruins of early homesteads and ranches remain to remind us of life in another era. These vast expanses and hidden canyons were once the home to Native Americans who left their messages in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs on the cliff faces and rock overhangs throughout the region. Not only that but the Comanche National Grassland encompasses a fascinating landscape that reveals the history of the region in its exposed rock layers of prehistoric sea beds and ancient lake shores rift with dinosaur tracks.Ĭultural sites in the grasslands represent a diverse history spanning thousands of years. The Comanche National Grassland is responsible for the management of 443,764 acres of range lands and 300 different species of birds, reptiles, amphibians, & mammals. The first time visitor to the Comanche National Grassland is usually surprised to find such a varied landscape from rolling short grass prairies to rugged canyons rimmed by pinion-juniper forests.
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