05/27/2026
Growing Beef in New Mexico is the Oldest Trade in the State. The smart ones moved no to other trades and the Tuff ones remain out here on the land feeding the world. Good Read
From Vaqueros to Cattle Barons: The 400-Year Legacy of the New Mexico Rancher 🐄
When most folks think about the Old West, they picture Texas or Wyoming, but the truth is that the American cowboy was actually born right here in the Rio Grande Valley. Long before the first Anglo settlers arrived with their Stetson hats, our Spanish ancestors were already perfecting the art of ranching way back in the late 1500s and 1600s. It started with the arrival of Juan de Oñate in 1598, who brought the first significant herds of criollo cattle and sheep to the region.
These original horsemen were known as Vaqueros—a word derived from vaca (cow). These were the world's first true cowboys, and they didn't just herd cattle; they created the very tools of the trade. They developed the la reata (the lariat) made of braided rawhide, the deep-seated western saddle with a sturdy horn for dallying, and the heavy leather chaparejos (chaps) to protect their legs from our thick New Mexico scrub and cactus. They created a whole way of life that survived for centuries before the first trail drives even started. Como decían los viejos, the land doesn't belong to the man, the man belongs to the land.
The early New Mexico ranching system was built on the merced or land grant system. These were massive tracts of land given by the Spanish Crown and later the Mexican government to families or communities. These grants created the Hacienda system, where a central fortified plaza served as the heart of a self-sufficient empire. Families lived in thick-walled adobe homes designed to withstand both the heat and the raids from nomadic tribes.
By the time the late 1800s rolled around, New Mexico had evolved from those early Spanish land grants into the heart of a massive cattle empire that was every bit as wild and violent as the legends say. One of the biggest names to ever ride across our mesas was John Chisum, the Cattle Baron of the Pecos. At one point, Chisum’s herd was so huge—over 100,000 head—that his ranching operations stretched for 150 miles along the Pecos River, from Fort Sumner all the way down to the Texas border.
He was a key figure in the Lincoln County War, a bloody conflict over dry goods and cattle contracts that shaped the politics of our state for decades. If you have ever visited the South Spring Ranch near Roswell, you have stood on the ground where one of the largest cattle empires in history was headquartered. His famous Long Rail brand and the Jinglebob ear-cut—where the lower part of the ear was slit so it flopped down—were known by every lawman and rustler from here to Kansas.
But he wasn't the only one making a name for himself out here. New Mexico was also home to Susan McSween, known as the Cattle Queen of New Mexico. After her husband, Alexander McSween, was killed during the climactic Five-Day Battle in Lincoln, she was left with nothing but a charred home and a massive debt. She didn't give up; she took a small gift of 40 cattle and built it into a massive empire of 5,000 head near White Oaks and the Three Rivers area.
She was a shrewd businesswoman who navigated the dangerous waters of the post-war territory, proving that the frontier was just as much a place for strong women as it was for lawmen and outlaws. She carried on that 400-year tradition of grit that started with the very first settlers. Fue una mujer de mucha fuerza, showing everyone that a New Mexican woman could run an empire just as good as any man.
Life on these ranches wasn't just about the money, though; it was about pure survival against the elements. The great cattle drives, like the famous Goodnight-Loving Trail, were a test of human endurance. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed a trail that had to cross the dreaded Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. This was a brutal stretch of nearly 80 miles of Jornada del Mu**to (Journey of the Dead Man) conditions—alkali flats and no water for the thirsty, crazed herds.
A single stampede or a dry water hole could mean disaster for the whole crew. In the early days, before the railroads reached towns like Magdalena and Las Vegas, cowboys would spend months on the trail, sleepin under the stars with their heads on their saddles and livin off whatever the chuckwagon could provide, mostly son-of-a-gun stew and sourdough biscuits.
Even today, you can still see the legacy of these drives in places like the Magdalena Stock Driveway. Known as the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, it was a 125-mile long corridor where tens of thousands of sheep and cattle were trailed to the railhead at the Trail's End well into the mid-20th century.
It is easy to forget that these massive ranches—like the Bell Ranch in the northeast, which once covered over 700,000 acres, or the Vermejo Park Ranch—are the reason so many of our small towns even exist today. They were self-sufficient worlds of their own, with their own blacksmiths, company stores, post offices, and even schools for the children of the ranch hands.
While the open range has mostly been fenced off with barbed wire now, the spirit of those early ranching families still runs deep in our state. Whether it is the old stone ruins of a paraje (a traditional stopping place) or the distinctive brand on a gate you pass on the highway, the history of the cattle industry is written into every acre of the Land of Enchantment. We owe a lot to those early pioneers and vaqueros who saw a future in the grama grass and the dust.
Sources
* New Mexico Museum of Art: History of Ranching in the High Plains.
* Legends of America: John Chisum – Cattle Baron on the Pecos.
* New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum: The Rise of the Cattle Industry and Spanish Roots.
* BLM: The Magdalena Trail and the Great Cattle Drives.
* New Mexico State University: Early Spanish Livestock History and Land Grant Systems.
* History Net: Susan McSween - The Cattle Queen of Lincoln County.
📸 Cowboys in camp near Deming, New Mexico / Palace of the Governors
Ella Wormser had studied painting at the San Francisco School of Design and took up photography during the years after she married and while she lived in Deming, New Mexico, where her husband had a mercantile business.
In 1895, she documented Jack Follansbee’s crew of cowboys and vaqueros as they finished driving William Randolph Hearst’s cattle from his million acres of ranch land in Mexico to meet the railroad in Deming.
The Wormsers later returned to California, and some of her glass negatives managed to survive the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Photographer: Ella Wormser
Date: 1895
Negative Number 012698
