Ojo de Vaca Station facts for kids

Ojo de Vaca Station was an important stop for stagecoaches in the old New Mexico Territory. It was a station for the famous Butterfield Overland Mail company. The station was located at a natural spring called Ojo de Vaca, which means "Cow Springs" in Spanish.

This historic site is now part of the Cow Springs Ranch. You can find it in Luna County, New Mexico, in the United States. It was about 14 miles northeast of another station called Soldiers Farewell Station. It was also about 16 miles southwest of a place known as Miembre's River Station, which later became Mowry City.

History of Ojo de Vaca

Ojo de Vaca was a natural spring that provided water for travelers. It was on an old trail that connected Janos, Chihuahua, Mexico, to the Santa Rita copper mines.

Early Trails and Explorers

In the 1840s, a group called Cooke's Mormon Battalion was looking for a wagon route. They wanted to find a way to travel between the Rio Grande river and California. They found the old Mexican road at Ojo de Vaca spring. From there, they followed it south to Guadalupe Pass. Then they went west and north to Tucson. This journey helped create a new path known as Cooke's Wagon Road.

The Gold Rush Connection

By 1849, Cooke's road became a very popular southern route. Many people, known as "forty-niners," used it during the California Gold Rush. These were people rushing to California hoping to find gold. Ojo de Vaca spring was one of the few places where they could reliably find water. This made it a key stop on what became the Southern Emigrant Trail.

Stagecoach Era

Later, Ojo de Vaca became a water station for the San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line. This was a mail service that carried letters and passengers. After that, the Butterfield company built their stagecoach station right there. It stayed an important stop on this route for many years. However, long-distance stagecoach lines eventually stopped running in the late 1800s.