San Francisco Plaza, New Mexico
Encyclopedia
Catron County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*89.8% White*0.4% Black*2.7% Native American*0.2% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.1% Two or more races*3.7% Other races*19.0% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Located in the San Francisco River
San Francisco River
The San Francisco River is a river in the southwest United States, the largest tributary of the Upper Gila River. The river originates in Arizona and flows into New Mexico before it curves around and enters the Gila down stream from Clifton, Arizona....
Valley, the towns were settled by Spanish settlers in the 1860s. Today Middle San Francisco Plaza is almost non-existent; Lower San Francisco is called "Lower Frisco" and Upper San Francisco was renamed Reserve
Reserve, New Mexico
Reserve is a village in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 387 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Catron County. Currently the village has several stores, a bar, and a health clinic...
when U.S. Forest Service headquarters were built there.
About
Located in the San Francisco Valley, Reserve was named Upper San Francisco Plaza by its original Hispanic settlers in 1874. ApacheApache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s made frequent attacks on the community, which sit within Apache hunting lands. In the late 1870s Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
settlers began arriving. They renamed Upper Frisco Plaza as Milligan's Plaza after a town merchant and saloon owner.
Lower San Francisco Plaza was the site of the legendary Frisco Shootout
Frisco Shootout
The Frisco Shootout was an Old West gunfight that occurred on December 1st, 1884, involving lawman Elfego Baca. The shootout happened in Reserve, New Mexico, and stemmed from Baca's arrest of a cowboy who had been shooting into the air and into buildings at random while intoxicated.Shortly after...
of Elfego Baca
Elfego Baca
Elfego Baca was a gunman, lawman, lawyer, and politician in the closing days of the American wild west. Baca was born in Socorro, New Mexico just before the end of the American Civil War to Francisco and Juana Maria Baca. His family moved to Topeka, Kansas when he was a young child...
in 1884. The self-appointed deputy sheriff made a stand-off against a mob of Texas cowboys in Lower San Francisco Plaza in 1884, quickly gaining a reputation as the hero of the Frisco Shootout
Frisco Shootout
The Frisco Shootout was an Old West gunfight that occurred on December 1st, 1884, involving lawman Elfego Baca. The shootout happened in Reserve, New Mexico, and stemmed from Baca's arrest of a cowboy who had been shooting into the air and into buildings at random while intoxicated.Shortly after...
. Author Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...
included Upper San Francisco Plaza in his novel Conagher
Conagher
Conagher is a 1991 Turner Network Television western film based on a Louis L’Amour novel of the same name, starring Sam Elliott as Conn Conagher, an honest, hardworking cowboy who learns that his fellow ranch hands plan to steal the boss's cattle. Katharine Ross, Elliott’s wife since 1984, stars...
, calling it "The Plaza". The Tularosa River flows into the San Francisco River at Middle San Francisco Plaza.
External links
- Elfego Baca & The “Frisco War”. Legends of America website.
- Frisco, New Mexico, GhostTowns.com entry by Samuel W McWhorter.