<\/p>\n
When the Old Spanish Trail Association met in Cortez last week for its annual conference, several speakers said that the remnants of the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to Los Angeles may well be lost.<\/p>\n
One part of the trail goes from Abiquiu, N.M., through Ignacio and Durango and on past Green River, Utah. To help define and preserve the trail, the OSTA wants to form a Four Corners chapter, said Mark Franklin, the group\u2019s treasurer.<\/p>\n
Incoming OSTA President Ashley J. Hall said it is the group\u2019s mission that is most important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re living in the past, working today, doing this for tomorrow,\u201d Hall told the conferees. \u201cThe OST has a place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall also said the OSTA needs to get more involvement from Native Americans and Hispanics.<\/p>\n
Hall retired as a brigadier general from the U.S. Army, was city manager of Las Vegas and now runs his own consulting company.<\/p>\n
OST mimics Ute trading routes<\/p>\n
Emphasizing Hall\u2019s point, Southern Ute Tribal Elder James Jefferson said, \u201cThe Old Spanish Trail had a long history before the Spanish walked on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson told attendees that the Utes created a portion of the trail through thousands of years of their own trading.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came here in the beginning,\u201d long before other tribes such as the Navajo and Apache, whom the Utes call \u201cThe Wanderers,\u201d Jefferson said.<\/p>\n
He said the Utes don\u2019t have a migration story, like many other Native nations. He said the Uto-Aztecan tribes in other parts of the West do have migration stories \u2013 with their origins from this area.<\/p>\n
Nathan Strong Elk, acting director of the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum in Ignacio, said there is DNA evidence of Utes being in this area for at least 12,000 years. The Utes say it is at least 20,000 years, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUtes are the longest continuing inhabitants of Colorado,\u201d Strong Elk said.<\/p>\n
He said there even is a story of an ancestral Puebloan girl who got lost and was taken in by the Utes.<\/p>\n
The OST, more properly called the Old Spanish National Historical Trail under its federal designation, could be a catalyst for development, Strong Elk said. He also said that the museum could be directly involved in displays and education about the trail.<\/p>\n
Cortez resident and author Fred Blackburn said there is some physical evidence of Spanish in the area. He said he\u2019s seen two artifacts: a slave (nose) ring and a lance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to think about integrating the Spanish trail and the Native trail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
THREATS TO THE TRAIL<\/p>\n
There are a number of threats to the trail, several speakers said. One of those threats, ironically, is development of alternative-energy facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndustrial-scale plants fragment federal lands,\u201d creating a checkerboard of publicly accessible and nonaccessible lands, said Jack Pritchett from OSTA\u2019s Tecopah, Calif., chapter.<\/p>\n
Tecopah is an old Mojave Desert mining town near the California-Nevada border. The trail includes a part of a route taken by John C. Fremont in his western exploration.<\/p>\n
Pritchett said a company called BrightSource is building a solar-thermal power plant that threatens parts of the trail.<\/p>\n
Pritchett and his colleagues have been GPS-mapping portions of the trail, called a mule trace, that dates from around 1829 to 1848.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trail passes through pristine desert,\u201d and there are no signs of modern impact with almost no modern artifacts, such as graffiti, broken glass and the like, Pritchett said.<\/p>\n
The artifacts that have been found date from the 19th century, and he said it is a previously unrecorded branch of the OST that matches with period documentation.<\/p>\n
Information about the OSTA and the trail is available at www.oldspanishtrail.org.<\/p>\n