La Mesilla, New Mexico, has changed little since Billy the Kid and Jesse Evans died at the end of its lusty frontier atmosphere. Thick-walled adobe buildings erected by the remarkable men who trekked the heels of Don Rafael Rules from the heart of Old Mexico to settle in the spawning Rio Grande Valley are much the same as they were when 10-year-old Mary Maxwell, the daughter of one of La Mesilla’s forthright citizens, was carted off by a hungry mountain lion while gathering wildberries.
Henry Fountain painting of the ceremony at the Gadsden Purchase. Photo courtesy State Historical Society of New Mexico
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The wheels of the Butterfield Stage were slowing. The town had its own laws, and these were solidly enforced. This was a time when its citizens settled their matters with a six-gun rather than wait for a slow-coming court decision.
La Mesilla lies about one mile south of Mesilla Park, on old Highway 80. The macadamized road is aptly marked, and it takes but a few minutes for a visitor to reach this peerless old town with its rows of graves extending far up the hill, a grim reminder of its shadowed history. The sleepy little community with its Old West atmosphere was once considered by Hollywood producer John Ford for a John Wayne movie.
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Events always have a precursor and the Gadsden Purchase is no exception. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war with Mexico. It confirmed U.S. claims to Texas and set its boundary at the Rio Grande. Mexico also agreed to cede to the United States, California and New Mexico. This included what is now California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah as well as parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. The purchase price was $15 million and assumption by the United States of claims against Mexico by U. S. citizens. The U. S. Senate ratified it on March 10, 1848 and the Mexican Congress on May 25.
The boundary was vague and both sides were unhappy. Mesilla was a part of Mexico and was on the west bank of the Rio Grande. Las Cruces and Dona Ana were on the east bank of the river and were in American territory. So many pioneers came to claim the American land, many native Mexicans moved away. If they wanted to remain in the area they just moved across the river. The town of Chamberino began as a refuge for New Mexicans who could choose between Mexico and the United States. In 1853 the Mesilla Civil Colony Land Grant was issued by the Mexican government, and Mesilla was formed. President Franklin Pierce wanted to insure U. S. possession of the Mesilla Valley as it was the most practical route for a southern railroad to the Pacific, but it was still owned by Mexico.
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