Red Hill Lava Flow - The Eye

[Highmountain]

I've been in this place a number of times and always intended to take a metal detector. Never got around to it.

It's a middling strange place, an island a lava flow surrounded. There are a number of ancient ruins and campsites there scattered around and some deep enough so's a person has to keep an eye peeled to see where they are. There's no pot-holing nor any other evidence the sites have ever been discovered by looters.

The place is also supposed to have been a hideout for a group of outlaws for a while in the late 1800s and might have been, though I don't know where they'd have gotten water for their livestock. Maybe there's water somewhere in there I've never found [though I wished I had], or maybe the place had water once and dried away like so many other places in the desert southwest because of lowered water tables.

The only supporting evidence I've ever found about it being an outlaw hideout is in the fact vigilantes from Quemado tracked down one and killed him in a gunfight at Goat Springs a few miles north.

On the dirt track west of the flow there's also an old cabin from the early 1900s a person might wish to detect while in the neighborhood.

But the whole area is worth spending some time nosing around in. It's mostly BLM land and a middling neglected place.

Jack

 

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[russau]

thanks for the info. an interesting read!

 

[Highmountain]

Hi Russ. Thanks for the reply

J

 

[Highmountain]

I'd never looked at the air views of the Red Hill flow before today. But doing it for the purpose of posting it has given me a powerful hankering to get back in there sometime for a closer look at some things I never noticed at ground level.

 

[mjido]

Hey Highmountain,

Interesting information, the land around or near the Red Mesa is now a subdivision. I not sure how far back the towards the lava flow is part of the subdivision, but before going back into the area might be thoughtful to stop at Red Hill real estate office ( on Highway 60) to check the whats and wheres.

 

[Highmountain]

Hey Highmountain,

Interesting information, the land around or near the Red Mesa is now a subdivision. I not sure how far back the towards the lava flow is part of the subdivision, but before going back into the area might be thoughtful to stop at Red Hill real estate office ( on Highway 60) to check the whats and wheres.

Thanks for the info. I was out there three, maybe four years ago most recently. There were a few places off to the west of the hills behind Goat Springs and the generally north/south road there, but not enough to raise eyebrows.

I did notice there weren't 100 cows grazing on ten blades of grass at Goat Springs, which was a first. Nothing left up there but a couple of one-ton bulls. I figured it was because of the extended drought, but maybe that big cattle operation sold everything off.

Worth a stop at Red Hill next time out that way I suppose.

Gracias,
Jack


Edit: I think the Red Mesa area you're talking about must be different from Red Hill. I just websearched Red Hill and no real estate office in the area showed up on the search. Not much else except a laughable treasure story supposed to happen in 1836.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/HC-Treasures3.html
Treasure Legends of New Mexico - The Red Hill Treasure


Home : USA : New Mexico : Catron County : Populated Places
Red Hill
Populated Place in Catron County, New Mexico, USA.
Latitude: 34.21861 : Longitude: -108.87167 : Elevation: 7261 ft
http://www.placenames.com/us/p910058/


http://newmexico.hometownlocator.com/NM/Catron/Red-Hill.cfm

 

[Highmountain]

Interesting about the possibility of a subdivision out that way, though. Off to the west toward the Arizona line there was some improvement in the roads west of that big highline that runs down from Saint Johns and north of highway 60. That's also where I noticed there appeared to be some dwellings that weren't beatup ranch operations scattered around, maybe half a dozen in a lot of miles.

But I think most of the land east of the highlines is BLM except for an occasional tract of deeded land where ever there's natural water.

It ain't the sort of place I'd expect the land to sell like hotcakes, though I could talk myself into living out there. The ranchers have overgrazed it so long and so hard there's not much left so maybe the outfit owning it decided to throw it into the used-up and no good anymore real estate market. Likely it will come back eventually once the cows are off it if the area gets a few years of rain.

I wouldn't mind seeing it happen.

 

[Springfield]

Interesting about the possibility of a subdivision out that way, though. Off to the west toward the Arizona line there was some improvement in the roads west of that big highline that runs down from Saint Johns and north of highway 60. That's also where I noticed there appeared to be some dwellings that weren't beatup ranch operations scattered around, maybe half a dozen in a lot of miles.

But I think most of the land east of the highlines is BLM except for an occasional tract of deeded land where ever there's natural water.

It ain't the sort of place I'd expect the land to sell like hotcakes, though I could talk myself into living out there. The ranchers have overgrazed it so long and so hard there's not much left so maybe the outfit owning it decided to throw it into the used-up and no good anymore real estate market. Likely it will come back eventually once the cows are off it if the area gets a few years of rain.

I wouldn't mind seeing it happen.

Lots of land being sold in that part of NM. The ranchers are busting up 10-20-40 acre parcels and bigger. A buddy of mine just bought 22 acres between Fence lake and Quemado for about 60k I think (might be wrong about the price). Same goes for the Datil - Pietown area. Awesome country but some real strange folks moving in. There used to be a bit of risk involved in nosing around some of that country a few years ago, but haven't heard any bad news lately.

 

[mjido]

Roughly 26 miles west of Quemado is the Real estate office for the subdivision, and it also serves as a resident. Its located at Red Hill on Highway 60. Also I own some land north of Quemado in a Subdivision and paid around 900 per acre a number of years ago, and now, as I understand it, the prices have escalated quite a bit. Shucks, even Quemado is growing up, they now have a drive bank, and are putting in quick mart type store. Now, when they put in a stop light I'm out of here!

 

[Highmountain]

Roughly 26 miles west of Quemado is the Real estate office for the subdivision, and it also serves as a resident. Its located at Red Hill on Highway 60. Also I own some land north of Quemado in a Subdivision and paid around 900 per acre a number of years ago, and now, as I understand it, the prices have escalated quite a bit. Shucks, even Quemado is growing up, they now have a drive bank, and are putting in quick mart type store. Now, when they put in a stop light I'm out of here!

You're in some good country for turning over rocks. You just do metal detecting/THing, or look at ruins as well? Interesting ones I could probably post down in your area but I figured nobody much had an interest in that sort of thing. In fact, Tinaja I posted somewhere on here when you asked about the Quemado area a while back is a good'un that way, though nowhere near the best.

Jack

 

[Highmountain]

Roughly 26 miles west of Quemado is the Real estate office for the subdivision, and it also serves as a resident. Its located at Red Hill on Highway 60. Also I own some land north of Quemado in a Subdivision and paid around 900 per acre a number of years ago, and now, as I understand it, the prices have escalated quite a bit. Shucks, even Quemado is growing up, they now have a drive bank, and are putting in quick mart type store. Now, when they put in a stop light I'm out of here!

Maybe sometime when you're headed to Springerville for whatever you can swing by the Red Hill Real Estate Office and pick up a plat sketch or brochure to find out what's going on and being sold off out there. If you do I'd be obliged if you'd post it.

Gracias,
Jack

 

[mjido]

Highmountain,

No problem, the next time we head over to Springerville I will stop at the real estate office and see what I can come up with.

jim

 

[MesaBuddy]

Highmountain ,
Did some pokin around out in the Quemado area back in '89 , sure did get some nasty looks on some of them back roads , made me wonder what they might have been growing way out around there in the boondocks , I suppose it has gottin better , lots of folks from AZ are buying land in that area
MB

 

[Highmountain]

Highmountain ,
Did some pokin around out in the Quemado area back in '89 , sure did get some nasty looks on some of them back roads , made me wonder what they might have been growing way out around there in the boondocks , I suppose it has gottin better , lots of folks from AZ are buying land in that area
MB

Hi MesaBuddy: Yeah, Quemado was a strange town back in those days. Might still be. I used to go into town for a night when I was up in the canyons more than a week so's for a night in a motel bed and a shower. Come morning I'd always eat at the restaurant next door, and I'd frequently see the same young man either as I came in or went out.

Took me several times to realize when I said, "Morning!", and he hawkered and spat, he was doing it deliberately and wasn't just ignoring my hello. That went on for a good many years, never changed. Me: "Good morning." Him: "Hawk-Spit"

Unusual town.

Jack

 

[Springfield]

My favorite Quemado memory was having a .45 auto pointed in my snoot when my pal and I knocked on a door and asked a recent Chicago transplant south of town for directions one fine morning. His answer was, 'git'. We got.

 

[Highmountain]

My favorite Quemado memory was having a .45 auto pointed in my snoot when my pal and I knocked on a door and asked a recent Chicago transplant south of town for directions one fine morning. His answer was, 'git'. We got.

Springfield: Under the circumstances that might have been the best course. Him being from Chicago you couldn't exactly invite his kid out onto the porch to play the banjo side of Dueling Banjos.

Jack