Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a state park of New Mexico, United States, whose two tracts preserve a canyon in the Sacramento Mountains and Oliver Lee's historic 19th-century ranch house. The park is located in Otero County at an elevation of . It is situated at the base of Dog Canyon and provides opportunities for camping, hiking, picnicking, wildlife viewing, a nature trail, and guided tours of the ranch house.
The Dog Canyon National Recreational Trail climbs to provide views of the Tularosa Basin and the Organ Mountains. Nearby are the community of Alamogordo and White Sands National Park. Oliver Lee Memorial State Park was established in 1980.
History
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park consists of two separate parcels of land. Both parcels are historically significant. The Dog Canyon tract was used by Apache warriors as a defensive position and a base of operations during their numerous battles and wars with Euro-American explorers and settlers. Oliver Lee's homestead near the mouth of Dog Canyon was built in 1893. Lee was an influential and controversial citizen of New Mexico's settlement. The ranch is now a historic site and demonstrates how the ranch home looked while Lee was living there. As a well known rancher Lee was able to use his political influence to bring the railroad to nearby Alamogordo in 1898 and establish financial connections with influential citizens in El Paso, Texas. Lee was a known associate of Albert B. Fall and once engaged in an ineffectual gun fight with Pat Garrett. The second and northern parcel of land, has been studied extensively by archaeologists to determine the cultural history of the area.
Native Americans
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is situated in the Chihuahuan Desert. The Otero County area of New Mexico receives very little rain with an average yearly rainfall of just . The fact that a perennially flowing stream of water passes through Dog Canyon made it an important location for settlement by Native Americans that lived in, and travelled through the Tularosa Basin.
The earliest known people to live in the area of the park were Paleoindians. They lived in the area from 9500 BC to about 5500 BC. They hunted a variety of now extinct animals like the Mammoth and large bison. Evidence of their existence at the park include fluted projectile points and evidence of time-period campsites.
The Paleoindians were followed by peoples of the Archaic period from 5500 BC to 200 AD. These people were more sedentary than the Paleoindians as evidenced by remnants of plant processing. The Archaics hunted animals and gathered plants for food. They were followed during the Formative period 200 - 1400 by the Jornada Mogollon peoples. The Jornada Mogollons were farmers that lived in villages and practiced a combination of dry-land and flood-land agriculture. Archaeologists have found ground stones, ceramics, projectile points, rock pueblo ruins, pithouses and rock art that are consistent with the cultural practices of the Jornada Mogollans.
The Mescalero Apache established their dominance in the Tularosa Basin area by 1400. They were a mobile tribe that lived in tipis and subsisted on foods they both hunted and gathered. They also left behind projectile points. Other evidence of their time in the area includes drills, spears and stone axes. These Apache were the Indians that were encountered by Spanish explorers and later Anglo-American settlers. The Apache were highly territorial and defended their lands from incursion by settlers from Mexico and the southwestern territories of the United States.
Early settlers
The Apache were eventually forced from their lands by the forces of the United States. The Oliver Lee Memorial State Park area saw numerous conflicts between the Apache and Anglo-Americans from 1848 until 1912. The U.S. military and the Mescaleros had many confrontations within Dog Canyon itself over this time period during the Apache Wars.
The first homestead in the area was established by in 1885. He built his home at the mouth of Dog Canyon. He lived in a two-room rock and adobe home. Rochas planted an orchard and built retaining walls on the ridges that flank the canyon. His home is marked by a partly reconstructed cabin on the interpretive trail that is west of the park's visitor center.