Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado [Paperback]

Phil Carson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

With lean, swift-moving prose, "Across the Northern Frontier" chronicles the compelling frontier adventures of the Spaniards who ventured north from colonial New Mexico into the unknown, and their contacts and conflicts with Native Americans. The narrative—a non-fiction adventure story, spanning four centuries and traversing astonishing landscape—takes the reader along in company with the region’s earliest European explorers on those dangerous frontier expeditions for diplomacy, trade, and war.

North of New Mexico, the northernmost province of New Spain, loomed the region’s highest mountains, seemingly limitless plains, moving black hills of buffalo, and a bewildering maze of mesas and canyons held by disparate and often hostile native peoples. Few journeys across the frontier were routine, for they included unpredictable encounters with natives and exposure to the hazards of the wild. Water, and its scarcity, influenced every decision. Expedition leaders routinely kept journals of their often momentous travels, and those that survive provide rich detail on the new lands and strange peoples.

Spanish explorers exerted a profound influence on the subsequent history of the present-day states of New Mexico and Colorado—a legacy not fully documented until now—as well as Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Utah. Colorado’s people, their cultural practices, place names, and even occasional artifacts all attest to the profound influence of this early period.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Phil Carson has written extensively on the cultural heritage of the Southwest for regional and national publications. He is the author of "Among the Eternal Snows: The First Recorded Ascent of Pikes Peak, 1820." He lives in Colorado Springs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Johnson Books (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555662161
• ISBN-13: 978-1555662165
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,506,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spanish New Mexico's Frontier Examined, August 22, 2002

By 

Wayne A. Smith (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado (Hardcover)

This book interested me if only because it described an under appreciated facet of American history: Spanish occupation of the Southwest and her attempts to understand and defend the frontier.

Carson's "Across the Northern Frontier..." examines chronologically the period of first Spanish and then Mexican domination of the lands centered on Santa Fe, the principal outpost in the province. It is largely a tale told through the adventures of governors and explorers.

For three centuries the Spanish had an uneasy hold on the area. It was far away from present day Mexico, the hub of Spanish domination of the region. Spain wanted New Mexico first to satisfy its appetite to forever expand. Later, the region was seen as a buffer against the many tribes to the north and later still against encroaching French and English (later Americans). Life and occupation were hard. Numerous Indians lived in the region. Settled farmers in pueblos that predated Spanish settlements as well as roaming plains/desert and mountain tribes who dominated the outlands. The first were easier for the Spanish to dominate because of their fixed location. Sometimes allies, sometimes in rebellion, the pueblo Indians had an uneasy relationship among the colonists. They also provided the man power for agriculture, commercial enterprises and armed militia. The plains Indians, although in some periods in commercial or military alliance with the Spanish against other tribes, were generally an over the horizon threat that had to constantly be guarded against or actively punished in order to maintain a somewhat secure area around greater Santa Fe.

The book focuses on forays made by the Spanish over three centuries to "Colorado" (the name used to describe the area above Santa Fe and beyond -- much larger than the present day state). Some of these forays involved exploration, trail-blazing or trade. Most, however, involved a military interest -- either retaliating or punishing plains tribes who made war on the colony or showing strength in the hopes that plains tribes would fear the wrath of Spain more than the entreaties of French trappers and traders who mingled with native peoples to the north.

This is an interesting book - principally because I had only the most general understanding of this history. The book does have sort of an adventure/exploration quality to it as foray after foray into relatively unknown and completely natural areas of present day Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Oklahoma are examined. The book does stick to it's mission -- the focus is on these outward thrusts of the colony. Administration, Indian relations and everyday life are sketched over, usually as they relate to the security concerns of the area and it's ability to survive as one of the "furthermost outposts of Christiandom" as it was described by many of the Spanish.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book On Early Colorado History, November 24, 2009

By 

Trent Rock (Goleta, CA (The 805)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado (Paperback)

Good book about The Spaniards in Northern New Mexico and what is now Colorado...Well researched...great writing...cool pictures...the only Juan de Ulibarri map I have ever seen too!!!