Casas Grandes

Though the Apaches were usually at war with the Mexicans, they had arranged a peace so that they might have their great annual trading party, or fiesta, in Mexico.

Most of the trading would be done in the town of Casas Grandes, deep in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

but before reaching casas grandas they intended to stop and trade at a smaller town which they called cascaia two and a half miles short of town they halted and set up camp this was a simple enough business Most of the Indians just cast their blankets down on the ground and arranged a fireplace.

Some cut green saplings and thrust the thick ends in the ground to form a circle.

But, though Mexican women might roam at will in Apache villages, no Apache woman would think of showing herself in a Mexican town.

Besides, trading was a man's business.

leaving enough warriors to protect a peaceful camp the eighty men who were going in town to trade set out led by magnus coloradus himself they took only thirty horses twelve of which were laden with trade goods the rest of the trade goods in the pack horses and burros were saved for trading in casas grandes Every warrior except Geronimo had a hidden knife.

Some carried hidden pistols, and a few had carbines or short rifles thrust inside their breeches.

Then I was to notify LaForge and he would come to me to identify Flat Nose George Curry, whom he had seen.

In El Paso, I boarded a train for Casas Grandes, Mexico, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Then I secured a horse and saddle, and the strenuous part of my work began.

About a hundred miles northwest of Casas Grandes, in Llanos, a large Mexican town, I got on the trail of my men.

But in the wind-up two weeks later, I concluded that Henry Smith's chum was not flat-nosed George Curry.

In the Mormon colony of Diaz, I wired to Joe LaForge in El Paso, Texas, that we were on the wrong trail, hence he could return home to Cheyenne.

Okay.

A high-ranking commander from Casas Grandes, a place near Ciudad Juarez, and another fellow officer and immigration officer were killed.

Wow.

So I knew this first commander because I worked closely with him.

Sounds like a movie.

Sounds like a movie, man.

Yeah, there are videos in the YouTube and in Facebook of some people that were driving toward Juarez to Casas Grandes or that road, and they were filming the pickups that were born.

I will send you that video.