I started this post on 3 February 19 and it has been languishing ever since, awaiting the collection of its photos. Probably awaiting another visit to the little gem of a place for better ones, but it may be some time before that happens. So, you get an assortment of the shots I do have. Time to complete the post; perhaps that will get me going toward some form of synchrony between shooting and writing. …
You might never know that Mills Canyon existed, even if you were to be driving by in the vicinity; it is a work of the Canadian River cutting through the plains of Northeastern New Mexico, and is invisible from the closest State Road from Roy, itself little-traveled.
Melvin Mills was a lawyer in Territorial New Mexico, practicing in Elizabethtown and Cimarron. In 1881, he retired to his land in the Canadian River valley, where he constructed a shortcut for the Santa Fe Trail, shaving 100 miles off the route from Cimarron to Santa Fe, though the road probably reduced the life expectancy of travelers by frightening them. Throughout the valley, Mills planted orchards of over 14,000 trees. In 1904, a catastrophic flood occurred, heavily damaging all of Mills’ enterprise. The ranch was finally abandoned in 1916. Mills died in 1925, in penury, in a mansion in Springer that he had once owned. A few apple, apricot, pear, mulberry, pecan, plum, Osage orange, and walnut trees still persist in Mills Canyon.
Perhaps, like many other State denizens, I am ambivalent about revealing its presence on the Web. We’re rather proud of our iconoclasm here, and NM Magazine even has an ongoing feature, “One of Our Fifty is Missing“, that entertainingly highlights its absence from popular consciousness and confabulation with Old México. I remember a time when all North Americans could visit with just a driver’s license, let alone a passport, but people do get confused easily….
At any rate, one of the things about the Four Corners I really like is the richness of multicultural history here. While there may not (to my knowledge) be any petroglyphs/pictoglyphs in Mills Canyon, it would not surprise me to find them there.
I’ve got to go back to take more and better photos, but I’ve decided to go ahead and post the ones that I have, which I captured with the (somewhat) trusty Canon P&S NMFireHorse didn’t want, her being a Pentaxian and all, and which I ended up using until I lost it on a trail in the desert between Las Cruces and Deming. In the winter, I hasten to add. Mad dogs and Englishmen, and all that….
Since I started this post five years ago, I replaced it with a Sony a6000, and more recently, a Sony A7Rm3. I will have to go back and capture some with those!
Mills Canyon photos
Brian Christian 