Lewis Hector Garrard (15 June 1829 – 7 July 1887) was an American travel writer who wrote an enduring book, ''Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail'', about his visit to the southwestern United States in 1846-1847.

Background

Garrard, christened Hector Lewis Garrard, was the son of a prominent family in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

On 1 Sept 1846, Garrard, 17 years old, joined a caravan in Westport Landing, Missouri to travel along the Santa Fe Trail to

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. He stopped off at

Bent's Fort Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and ...

for two months and continued on to

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

with a company of

Mountain Men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

to avenge the death of

Charles Bent Charles Bent (November 11, 1799 – January 19, 1847) was an American businessman and politician who served as the first civilian United States governor of the New Mexico Territory, newly acquired by the Military Governor, Stephen Watts Kearny, ...

in the

Taos Revolt The Taos Revolt was a populist insurrection in January 1847 by Hispano and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Provisional governor Charles Bent and severa ...

. While in Taos, Garrard attended the trial of some of the Mexicans and

Pueblos The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zu ...

who had revolted against U.S. rule of New Mexico, newly captured in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

. Garrard wrote the only eye witness account of the trial and hanging of six convicted men. ''Wah-to-Yah'' is the only well-known book written by Garrard. It has won a secure place in the literature of the American West. Garrard returned home after his 10-month trip and apparently never visited the West again.

Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail

The full title of Garrard's book is ''Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail: or Prairie and Scalp Dances, with a Look at Los Rancheros from Muleback and the Rocky Mountain Campfire''. The book is "fresh and vigorous" and contains in its pages authentic descriptions of "the Indian, the trader, the mountain man, their dress, and behavior and speech and the country and climate they lived in." The pages of the book contain a wealth of characters, including

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

, Jim Beckwourth,

Ceran St. Vrain Ceran St. Vrain, born Ceran de Hault de Lassus de Saint-Vrain (May 5, 1802 – October 28, 1870), was the son of a French aristocrat who immigrated to the Spanish Louisiana in the late 18th century; his mother was from St. Louis, where he was b ...

, George Ruxton,

William Bent William Wells Bent (May 23, 1809 – May 19, 1869) was a frontier trader and rancher in the American West, with forts in Colorado. He also acted as a mediator among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United St ...

, and others. The book contains an "anthropologically accurate" description of the

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

Indians. Garrard condemns the U.S. war against Mexico and hanging of the rebels in Taos as unjust. ''Wah-to-Yah'', the title, is the Indian name for the

Spanish Peaks The Spanish Peaks are a pair of prominent mountains located in southwestern Huerfano County, Colorado. The Comanche people call them Huajatolla ( ) or Wa-to-yah meaning "double mountain". The two peaks, East Spanish Peak at elevation and Wes ...

in southern Colorado. The book is often compared with

Francis Parkman Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'' and his monumental seven-volume '' France and England in North Am ...

's, '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life''. Both are by young men visiting the West in 1846, but Garrard's account is "the fresher, the more revealing, the more engaging, the less labored."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrard, Lewis Hector 1829 births 1887 deaths 1850 books American male non-fiction writers American travel writers History books about the American Old West Santa Fe Trail Writers from Cincinnati

Background

Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail

See also

References