DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at the site of Alamito tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Now, some places earn their history slow, layer by layer, like sediment in a creek bed. Alamito Creek, out in Presidio County, is exactly that kind of place — and it has been since before anyone thought to write any of it down.
Spanish explorers were traveling through this region as far back as 1535. That's not a misprint. Fifteen thirty-five.
By about 1715, Mexican families had begun to settle in the area, establishing rancheros in spite of an Apache presence. Let that sink in a moment — they planted roots in ground that was contested, and they held on. Then came the freight.
Beginning in the 1850s, the infamous Chihuahua Trail — a route for heavy freight wagons running all the way from San Antonio down to Chihuahua, Mexico — passed right near Alamito. You can almost hear those wagon wheels grinding through the rock. And some of those ruts?
They are still pressed into the bedrock north of Alamito. The land remembers. By 1870, Alamito had grown into a proper community, several families farming and working the nearby ranches.
And at the heart of it stood a man named John Davis, a pioneer originally from North Carolina, known as a strong community leader. In 1875, Davis married Francisca Herrera — the daughter of Carlos Herrera, counted among the first Spanish settlers of Alamito. That is a family tree with deep roots in this particular soil.
Together, John and Francisca built something worth talking about: a home with a chapel, a one-room school, and a canal for crop irrigation. And for the weary travelers coming through on the Chihuahua Trail, Davis kept a supply of peach brandy on hand. I imagine that detail alone made his homestead a very popular stopping point.
But here is where the story turns quiet. Francisca died in 1892 and was buried near the chapel in Alamito. And John Davis — grief-stricken, the marker says, grief-stricken — went back to North Carolina and never returned to this area.
A man who had built a home, a school, a chapel, a canal, who had poured peach brandy for strangers and married into the founding family of that valley — he walked away from all of it, and he did not come back. Time kept moving, as it tends to do. A railroad builder and urban promoter named A.
E. Stilwell had a longtime dream: a rail line from Kansas City to Mexico's west coast. They called it the Road to Topolabampo — legendary even in name.
That railroad passed through Alamito in 1930. The railroad dug a deep well, constructed a tank to water the steam engines, built a section house for workers, and renamed the site Plata. Plata.
Silver. A new name laid over an old one. At the end of the twentieth century, what remained were ruins — the Davis-Herrera home, the school, the cemetery, the canal.
And those ruts in the bedrock, still holding the impression of wagons that rolled through more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Alamito Creek has been a passageway since prehistoric times, the marker says. Explorers, settlers, freighters, a heartbroken man heading back to North Carolina, a railroad chasing a dream to the Pacific coast.
They all came through. The creek kept flowing. And out in the bedrock north of Alamito, the trail still carries the weight of every wagon that ever passed this way.
What the marker says
Alamito Creek has been a passageway and the scene of human activity since prehistoric times. Spanish explorers began traveling through the region in 1535. Mexican families began to settle in the area about 1715 and established rancheros despite an Apache presence. Beginning in the 1850s, the infamous Chihuahua Trail, a route for heavy freight wagons from San Antonio to Chihuahua, Mexico, passed near Alamito. By 1870 Alamito was a community with several families farming and working on nearby ranches. John Davis, a pioneer from North Carolina, was a strong community leader. He married Francisca Herrera, the daughter of Carlos Herrera, one of the first Spanish settlers of Alamito, in 1875. They built a home with a chapel, one-room school, and a canal for crop irrigation. Davis was known for serving peach brandy to weary travelers who came through on the Chihuahua Trail. Francisca died in 1892 and was buried near the chapel in Alamito. The grief-stricken Davis went back to North Carolina and never returned to this area. The legendary railroad known as the "Road to Topolabampo" was the result of a longtime dream of A. E. Stilwell, railroad builder and urban promoter, for a rail line from Kansas City to Mexico's west coast. It passed through Alamito in 1930. The Railroad dug a deep well, constructed a tank to water the steam engines, built a section house for workers, and renamed the site Plata. At the end of the 20th century, only ruins of the Davis-Herrera home, school, cemetery and canal remain. Ruts of the Chihuahua Trail can still be seen in the bedrock north of Alamito. (2000)