Nov 2--TIPTON, NM We found it!

Today was a red-letter day for us.  We came to Tucumcari, NM to see if we could find the site of Tipton, NM, where Ted's grandfather & his sons lived from 1908 to 1911.  During that time, his grandfather William C. Turner remarried, a lady named Mary Irene Mayhew.  They were married in Amarillo, TX, just across the border from Tipton.  We knew that Tipton was 6 miles south of a little town called San Jon (pronounced San Hone).

We started our day with a visit to the Quay County historical museum in Tucumcari to see if anyone there knew the history of Tipton.  The people there really didn't know, but gave us some names of other people to talk to.  While we were there, I took a few pictures of some pertinent items.

The wagon that the Turner's traveled in might have been like this wagon.

This wagon had been fitted out as a chuckwagon, such as was used by the cook on trail crews.  When he was much younger, Wm. Turner had been a cook for trail crews.

This gives some info about this particular wagon.

 Also in the grounds of the museum were specimens of local plant life.

This type of yucca plant apparently grows like a palm tree.  The only yucca we saw (and there were many), were short & low to the ground.

This is a type of cholla cactus, and it grows EVERYWHERE.  It has pretty yellow flowers, and vicious spines.  Some were as tall as I am.

Our next stop was the Quay County Courthouse, where people from several departments helped us figure out just where Tipton was located, and who the current owner is.  Tipton did show up on their map of New Mexico ghost towns, but there were no roads marked in to the location.  We called the owner of one of the parcels of land, and he very kindly invited us out and spent a good part of the afternoon leading us down dusty county roads and field trails.  His wife recalled an area in one pasture that had an old well, and some rocks scattered around as if they had been foundations at one time.  Here are some pictures:

Remains of an old windmill

A clear area with rocks scattered around.

Some of the larger rocks

 The area that was pointed out to us as possibly the site of Tipton was grassy & otherwise bare.  There were no mesquite or cactus growing there, as there was in the rest of the pasture.

  Our rancher friend had talked to someone who had lived there all their lives, and he said that his grandmother had taught school at Tipton, and that the area where the school sat was across the trail from the area in the photos above. The photo below shows the probable site of the school & general store, according to this old-timer.  The wife of the rancher said that she had found an old pistol in this area not too long ago.  It looks very bare now, just grass.

Probable site of Tipton school & general store.

While we were checking out the area, we saw our first tarantula...

He's kind of hard to see, but he's between 2 of the green weeds in the lower half of the picture.

One other interesting thing that we saw as we drove out to the village of San Jon was a complete cotton harvesting crew at work. There were 2 cotton pickers, a tractor & wagon and several balers.  Several finished bale are sitting in the field.

 

Several finished bales are sitting in the field.

A truck hauling cotton bales to a processing plant.

We were tired but happy when we returned to our home-away-from-home.  It's great to see the places & walk on the ground that our ancestors did.  It helps us to visualize what life was like for them in that time & place.