DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every great expedition needs a reason to set out, and this one had two. After the Rodriguez-Chamuscado Expedition of 1581 pushed through the lands that would become New Mexico and Texas, folks back in Mexico weren't just curious about what lay out there.
They were worried. Two men, Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez, had stayed behind in that vast and unknown country, and nobody knew if they were still alive. So in 1582, a Franciscan priest named Fray Bernadino Beltran, out of Santa Barbara, Mexico, decided he was going to find them.
He formed an expedition. He needed soldiers, and the man he got to lead that military escort was, well, an interesting choice. Antonio de Espejo.
Former merchant. Former rancher. Also, at that particular moment in his life, a man living in voluntary exile from Santa Barbara on account of a legal dispute with the Spanish authorities.
So here you have a priest on a mission of mercy, and riding alongside him is a man who, for his own reasons, had every incentive to be somewhere other than home. In November of 1582, the expedition departed the mining outpost of San Bartolome. By January, they had reached the El Paso area.
That's a long ride through hard country just to get to the starting line. Then, somewhere in present New Mexico, the news came. Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez had been killed by Indians.
The whole reason for the journey, gone. Fray Beltran gathered a small party and turned back toward Mexico. A reasonable man's response.
But Espejo, that former merchant with an exile's appetite for possibility, he wasn't ready to go home. He and several companions had heard stories. Indian stories, about silver mines and wealthy pueblos, and those stories had taken root.
So they stayed and they pushed on, and in doing so, Espejo and his companions became the first explorers to travel through the region stretching from the Pecos River Valley all the way to the Junta de los Rios, the junction of the Concho River and the Rio Grande. When their reports made it back, they did exactly what reports of silver and wonder tend to do. They heightened the interest in the area even further.
A man running from a legal dispute in Santa Barbara ended up opening a door that a whole lot of people were about to walk through.
What the marker says
Following the Rodriguez - Chamuscado Expedition of 1581 there was increased interest in the area now known as New Mexico and Texas. There was also concern for the safety of Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez, who had stayed in the area. In 1582 a Franciscan priest from Santa Barbara, Mexico, Fray Bernadino Beltran, formed an expedition to find the missionaries. His military escort was led by Antonio De Espejo, a former Santa Barbara merchant and rancher living in voluntary exile over a legal dispute with the Spanish authorities. The expedition departed the mining outpost of San Bartolome in November 1582. By the following January they had reached the El Paso area. In present New Mexico they learned that Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez had been killed by Indians. Fray Beltran led a small party back to Mexico, but Espejo and several companions stayed to check the Indian stories of silver mines and wealthy pueblos. On their journey the Spaniards became the first explorers in the region from the Pecos River Valley to the Junta de Los Rios, the junction of the Concho River and the Rio Grande. The reports of their explorations further heightened the interest in the area. 1981