Harding
County
This cache is part of the New Mexico Challenge. One cache is hidden in each of New Mexico's 33 counties.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to find and log all 33 caches with a photo of yourself at the cache site.
The sweeping view from the rocky rim of Mills Canyon encompasses one of the most striking landscapes in northeastern New Mexico. After miles of gently rolling flatlands, Harding County comes to an abrupt end at this canyon created by the Canadian River.
Mills canyon testifies to the erosion power of the Canadian, which meanders through most of its route across New Mexico as a flatlands stream that somehow seems too modest to have carved anything approaching a gorge. But for a stretch of about 45 miles, where it forms the boundary between Mora and Harding counties, the river has created an unexpected majesty. Below a precipitous pinon covered rim, curving canyon walls stairstep down through sandstone cliffs and slopes to a broad plain lined with cottonwood that is green in the spring and turns to gold in autumn.
A fascinating chapter in New Mexico history took place here. Melvin Whitson Mills, territorial legislator, district attorney, entrepreneur and agricultural empire builder left his mark here where, a century later, the ruins lie scattered along the canyon's winding floor.
Mills arrived in New Mexico Territory in 1868 and made a name for himself in business and politics. He represented the Maxwell Land Grant Company during the Colfax County War and in 1875 ran for the Territorial Legislature. He won a contested victory and, shortly after, his opponent was murdered. Mills narrowly escaped a lynch mob and was acquitted by a grand jury but the crime was never solved.
In the 1880's Mills acquired land in the area now known as Mills Canyon and started his grandest venture, the Orchard Ranch, a massive state of the art farming and livestock operation that quickly became a phenomenal success. At its height the Orchard Ranch stretched for some 10 miles along the canyon floor and included thousands of fruit and nut trees, acres of vegetable gardens, an extensive irrigation system, numerous structures, including a hotel that catered to the stage line, roads and a cargo tramway running from the canyon floor to the rim 800 feet above. Mills was the exclusive provider to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and its system or Harvey Houses. He was a genuine tycoon!
The good fortune that had followed Mills deserted him in a single catastrophe - the massive floods of 1904. Prolonged rains on the Canadian's drainage basin that Autumn caused the river to rise dramatically - 70 feet in three days! The high water ruined the agricultural operation destroying the orchards, fields and irrigation system, and burying everything under several feet of silt. The river, which had allowed this empire to flourish, took it all away in a matter of days.
Mills tried to reestablish his field and sank deeply into debt doing so. In less than a decade he was ruined and died a pauper in 1925 at the age of 80. Mills Canyon also slipped into obscurity, as the once imposing store and adobe structures slowly fell into ruin, and evidence of the Orchard Ranch melted into the red soil. During the Great Depression years the ranch lands reverted to the public domain and became part of the Kiowa National Grassland. Nowadays the canyon is a quiet retreat, more peaceful than it was a century ago.
For those who wish to explore Mills Canyon, the area lies some 15 miles northwest of the town of Roy. Excellent directions are given in Geocache GCJK1Y. Road conditions can be obtained from the US Forest Service in Clayton at 505 374-9652.
For the first few miles beyond the pavement you will be crossing what seems like endless prairie, heading towards the far away Sangre de Cristo range. Eventually the terrain will get rougher, trees will appear and you will notice a definite down slope. Total travel down is about 2 miles of rough, dirt, rock and sand road. The first great sight will be the ruin of the old stage stop hotel. Once on the canyon floor the road continues for about a mile, past cottonwood groves and cattle guards until reaching a primitive campground.
Not far from the end of the winding road visitors will see an imposing sight - the two story skeleton of the orchard Ranch headquarters building, still standing in front of the sandstone cliffs, over a century after the disaster. Parts of servants' quarters and storage outbuilding also remain.
The HARDING COUNTY GEOCACHE is not located at the site of the ruins. Due to the descent being impassible for RV's and campers, it has been placed on the eastern edge of the canyon where Sate Route 120 crosses the Canadian River, some 8 miles downstream.
There is also an interesting footnote for this location. According to the US Geodetic Survey, there is a benchmark at this location (FN0020, designation E 104) that was placed here in 1934. Trouble is, the surveyor never placed the bronze disk. It appears that the spot was chosen, an X was carved out in the sandstone and even a pilot hole was drilled. Perhaps the workday ended and the surveyor went on to Roy, but no one ever returned to place the survey disk. The Government still claims it is there.
For your qualifying photo, you may take a picture of your group in front of the mile marker, you may use the "X" marks the spot site or you may take a picture with the Canadian in the background.
Enjoy this NM Geocache and its companion (GC128N9) placed on the opposite side of the river!