Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado

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.

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.