Essays

Moseying: History of the Southern Llano Estacado

Fleteros and arrieros helped settle the Southwestern United States
December 17, 2008

Not much has been written about Hispano fleteros (freighters) or arrieros (mule train packers.) In the early days of the southwest, if supplies, store goods, machinery, or farm products were to be transported, many of the men that did the work were Hispanic. Countless references in Army reports and newspapers of the day (and history books today) mention “Mexican teamsters” in passing, but their contributions have not been adequately recorded or celebrated in Texas.

The lumbering creaking ox-cart (carreta), drawn by teams of 6 to 20 oxen, could carry prodigious loads. The de Sosa expedition brought the first carts to Texas and New Mexico in 1590. Onate brought carros, carretas, and carrozas to New Mexico in 1598, and even ventured onto the Llano Estacado a few years later. Carretas were made almost entirely of wood fastened with rawhide thongs and secured with wooden pegs. Their two huge wheels were sometimes rimmed with iron. Carrozas were “coaches,” similar to a stagecoach, but a private conveyance for the well-to-do.

No example remains of the four-wheel carro, the vehicle perhaps most commonly utilized to transport heavy loads, which boasted iron fittings. A bullwhacker walked alongside the ox-train, prodding the oxen with a metal pointed goad, or cracking a huge whip over their heads.

On long trips fleteros stopped midday to rest, water, and feed the team. Traveling in groups up to 250 vehicles, they assisted each other in pulling heavy wagons up hills and controlling the horses and loads as they came down steep grades.

Atajos (mule trains) were as common on the major roads as the carro trains. Mules were superior beasts of burden. Mule trains were the primary cargo movers in parts of Mexico until the 1950s, and were important on rough terrain throughout the Old West. Mules are hardier than horses and can live on less food and water. A mule can live on pasture where a horse would starve. They also have stronger resistances to heat and cold than horses.

Mules can carry 400 lbs. and cover 12-15 miles a day. An atajo of 200 animals was common, with one arriero managing 40-50 animals. In the morning the grazing mules would be driven to the line of packs and blindfolded with a tapajos, a piece of embroidered leather. A pad of raw sheepskin would be thrown over its back, followed by the xerga, or woolen blanket, and an aparejo, leather pouches stuffed with straw. The carga, or load, was then bound in place with ropes and covered with a petate, a waterproof mat woven of agave fibers.

The departure of a caravan to Mexico from the settlements in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California was announced by official bando (proclamation) announced in each locality by the town crier, with music provided by drum and bugle. On the appointed day a huge crowd would assemble and, accompanied by a military escort, the trains would set off.

In the assemblage would be the sick or wounded going to a better hospital in Mexico, traders, government officials, friars and often entire families--including their servants--forming a complete cross-section of society. On occasion 5-10% of a region’s population took the arduous trip. Even after the United States took possession of the southwest, the caravans continued until the coming of railroads in the 1880s and 1890s.

Secured in trunks, leather or hide sacks, were the efectos de pais (local products) to be taken south. In New Mexico, these included piñon nuts, highly prized as delicacies, cotton, roughly woven woolen cloth, the elkhides, deer and antelope skins, buffalo hides, pickled buffalo tongues, and tallow garnered in the trade with the Indians of the Great Plains (including the Llano Estacado), as well as teguas (leather moccasins) and Indian slaves.

On the return trip merchants brought fancy textiles of all kinds, including silk and linen, hats, ironwork, and hardware. Their mule trains also brought back dyes of Brazilwood and indigo, drugs, paper, luxuries such as chocolate, sugar, and rice, mirrors, silverware, majolica dishes, and Chinese porcelain.

Each night in camp fuel was gathered, stock put out to graze, and laundry washed. Night, under a canopy of stars, was a time for story telling and singing. Troubadours accompanied each caravan and composed corridos, which recounted memorable incidents on the journey.

The life of a mule driver (arriero) was difficult. They woke before dawn, had a simple breakfast, loaded the mules and were off. Lunch was eaten on the run from a small leather pouch or pechero hung from the neck and covering the chest. Nighttime they ate another simple meal, then slept on cargo pads, usually with only a single blanket, regardless of the temperature. Fleteros had it a little easier, for the wagon trains stopped for several hours after lunch to rest the animals.

The U.S. Army and American merchants could not have “settled the west” without the benefit of the knowledge of the Hispancs in the region. Wagon trains of goods continued to hauled to the towns without railroads as late as the 1920s. After World War One the U.S. Government sold (for almost nothing) the trucks and roadbuilding equipment used in the war to county governments in the rural regions of the nation, and by the late 1920s motorized vehicles had replaced the wagons and mule trains.

In recent years several tourist attractions have been developed in New Mexico that celebrate the Hispanic freighters and early Spanish settlement in the state. In Sante Fe, on Museum Hill, hardened bronze sculptures captures a moment when people traveled along the Sante Fe Trail. Journey's End, by Albuquerque artist Reynaldo Rivera, in collaboration with landscape architect Richard Borkovetz, is placed within sight of actual Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts. Just south of Sante Fe is the living history museum, El Rancho De Los Golandrinas, a reconstructed Spanish colonial settlement that was once the last stop on the Chihuahua Trail before Santa Fe. It is a 15 minute drive from Santa Fe, a trip which would have taken a long full day in a loaded wagon. The New Mexico El Camino Real State Monument is 35 miles south of Socorro on I-25, between Socorro and Truth of Consequences. Along with the museum it has a conference room, outdoor amphitheater, picnic areas, a Curandera herb garden, Native American garden, and nature trails.

When will Texans honor the fleteros and arrieros?

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