Cooke's Spring, or Cookes Spring, is a spring in

Luna County, New Mexico Luna County (Spanish: ) is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,427. Its county seat is Deming. This county abuts the Mexican border. Luna County comprises the Deming, NM Micropol ...

at an elevation of 4839 feet. Cooke's Spring is located at the eastern mouth of the narrow upper Cooke's Canyon, part of what was called Cooke's Pass, a narrow gap, running east and west, through the Cooke's Range.

History

Cooke's Spring was named for Philip St. George Cooke, 2nd U.S. Dragoons, the commander of the Mormon Battalion, that camped at the spring on November 16, 1846, while Cooke's command was exploring and building what became known as Cooke's Wagon Road, a wagon road to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

from

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

. The spring was the only large supply of fresh water between the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

and the Mimbres River for travelers on the Southern Immigrant Trail. Wagon trains heading to

as well as the later San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...

used it. The Cooke's Spring Station of the Butterfield Overland Mail stage route was located near Cooke's Spring from 1858 to 1861. Near the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Fort Cummings was established near the spring and stage station to protect travelers along the stage route and as a base of operations in the

Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the Southwestern United States, southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as l ...

in the following decades. William Thornton Parker, Annals of old Fort Cummings, New Mexico, 1867-8, Published by Author, Northampton, Mass., 1916.
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References

History of Luna County, New Mexico Bodies of water of Luna County, New Mexico Springs of New Mexico Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory American frontier San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line Cooke's Wagon Road Stagecoach stops in the United States {{NewMexico-geo-stub