Interview of George Murray (age 74 in 1938) by Georgia B. Redfield on September 25, 1938

In 1887, I hired out to Joe Sloan, of Richland Springs, Texas, as a cowboy. He was taking a herd of sixteen hundred cattle from Richland Springs, Texas to Globe, Arizona. Besides Joe Sloan and a foreman, named Lon Roundtree, there were eight cowboys, a cook and a man to take care of the horses. It was late in the fall when we left Richland Springs. There were two covered wagons--one hauled our beds and the other was the "chuck" wagon. The cook had to use buffalo chips to cook with while we were on the plains.

We went on by way of Pecos City and from there we headed in a northwestern direction for the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico. We passed thru Seven Rivers about 50 miles north of Roswell. Seven Rivers was in Lincoln County at that time.

From there we went to Penasco country, in the Sacramento mountains. We came out of the Sacramento mountains at Tularosa north of the White Sands, thru Mocking Bird Gap, in the Organ mountains. We watered at Mal Pais springs just at the foot of the Mal Pais, in the Organs, and then we drove the cattle 65 miles, without water, until we reached the Rio Grande River. We crossed the Rio Grande near what is now Hot Springs. At Lake Valley we ran into an awful snow storm. I left the herd after crossing the line at Duncan, Arizona.