Cooke's Spring was named for
Philip St. George Cooke, 2nd U.S. Dragoons, the commander of the
Mormon Battalion, that camped at the spring on November 16, 1846, while Cooke's command was exploring and building what became known as
Cooke's Wagon Road, a wagon road to
San Diego,
California from
Santa Fe, New Mexico. The spring was the only large supply of fresh water between the
Rio Grande and the
Mimbres River for travelers on the Southern Immigrant Trail. Wagon trains heading to
California as well as the later
San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and
Butterfield Overland Mail used it. The
Cooke's Spring Station of the Butterfield Overland Mail stage route was located near Cooke's Spring from 1858 to 1861. Near the end of the
American Civil War,
Fort Cummings was established near the spring and stage station to protect travelers along the stage route and as a base of operations in the
Apache Wars in the following decades. == References ==