TRAIL SEGMENT ON THIS PAGE: 
Lava Gate

(Trail Landmark)

>>Socorro-History.org/CAMINOREAL/Paraje

Deep Well is a contemporary name.  It was a ranch line camp built by the Diamond A Ranch of the Victorio Land & Cattle Co. in the 1880s.  During the 1930s "dust bowl" years, the shallow well ran dry. A new well was drilled by the CCC to fill nearby cattle tanks through a network of pipelines. The well is 600 feet deep and thus it's name.

Red Lake is a large playa that holds water following rains.  It was a source of water on the trail during the monsoon months (July–October), though caravan travel along the trail during these months was not common due to the summer heat and muddy trails from the monsoon rains.

The trail remains visible on the west side of Red Lake.

Many Armendaris Ranch wells and tanks are located along El Camino Real, suggesting the trail was used in the early days of the Diamond A Ranch for locating and accessing ranch facilities.

 

Deep Well is also the location of Ted Turner's award winning ranch house, briefly occupied by Jane Fonda.

Website courtesy of the Socorro County Historical Society (SCHS), P.O. Box 921, Socorro, New Mexico 87801 [SCHS home page]

NOTE: The trail in this area is part of the Armendaris Ranch for which no public

access is allowed without ranch permission. Trespassers are prosecuted. 

Lava Camp is a line camp built by the Diamond A Ranch in the 1890s and located on El Camino Real trail.  Ranch hands lived here when cattle grazed in the area or being moved to the corrals at Lava Station to be shipped by the railroad.  The ranch house is still used by the Armendaris Ranch for housing ranch hands or visiting researchers.

Lava Gate was a trail landmark where the trail passed through a gap between a lava flow and the Fra Cristobal mountains to the west, though not a narrow passage as the name might imply.  The trail remained very distinctive through the gate until about 2012, when wild vegetation began claiming the trail.  This landmark segment is an example of the disappearing trail.

The Camino Real Mapping Project
on these web pages

is the exclusive work of the