|
Most
people familiar with area history know of Uncle Dick Wooten's tollgate
leading over Raton Pass. The Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail
passed from Bent's Fort to Trinidad, then south up Colorado canyons
to the crest of Raton Pass, then down New Mexico canyons into Raton.
The crafty old mountain man and trapper knew the terrain and took
advantage of the narrow passage by erecting a tollgate. This moneymaker
was successful until the railroad built through the pass utilizing
a tunnel and bypassing the Wooten tollgate.
Few
are aware that approximately 40 to 50 miles to the east, at the
east end of Johnson Mesa, another tollgate existed from 1873 to
1885. Also located on a natural passage from New
Mexico to Colorado,
Basil Bill Metcalf took advantage of a low-altitude passage, bought
property and raised a log chain across a narrow rock canyon called
Emory Gap.
Like Uncle Dick Wooten, Basil Bill knew the terrain, and when the
need arose for travelers to pass from the Mountain Branch to the
Cimarron Cut Off, bypassing the Wooten route, he was ready to charge
for passage.
Operation of the Emory Gap tollgate was believed to have started
in late 1873. As money became available, Bill went into the cattle
business, built a home, a store and a saloon all at the site of
the tollgate. A brother joined Bill in 1874, allowing Bill to branch
out again with a freighting service to supply his store and surrounding
ranchers.
Records show the Emory Gate toll charges remained the same throughout
the 12 years of operation. A fee of 75 cents was charged for a wagon
and four-horse team. Buggies and hacks cost 35 cents and a wagon
and two-horse team 40 cents. Individual horseback riders and cattle
costs have not been kept. Annual receipts of the gate averaged from
$3,000 to $4,000, a tidy sum at the time.
One of the less-pleasant chores of operating the gate was arising
from bed for late-night travelers, usually drunken cowboys returning
home from a night at the saloons. Their arrival was usually punctuated
by gunshots and loud yelling at times, requiring a lot of patience
for the gatekeepers. Heavy snows closed the passage during a hard
winter.
The life span of the tollgate covered American Indian uprisings,
winter blizzards, extreme drought and flash floods. Various members
of Bill's family died during this time and were buried nearby.
The economy continually went from boom to bust as various mines
opened and closed in the mountains of New
Mexico and Colorado.
If credit were needed for toll costs, Bill required some object
had to be left for security. This made for some curious items offered
for sale in the store.
As the years passed, new railroads
and other trails were built. Tonnage of the freight business dropped
to a trickle. Bill sold out and moved his family to Buffalo Springs
on the vast XIT
Ranch in Texas. He signed a contract
to build the northern barbed-wire
boundary fence of the Ranch,
and the Emory Gap Toll Gate faded into the past.
© Delbert Trew
"It's All Trew" November
23, 2009 Column
E-mail: trewblue@centramedia.net.
|
HOME
