June 19, 1848; Trinidad, Colorado: A westbound merchant train left Missouri for Santa Fe in May 1848. Among the traders were Preston Beck, Sam Wethered, Elliott Lee, G. Estes, Thomas O. Boggs, H. O'Neil, Peter Joseph de Tevis, and Smith Towne. They traveled together to the Middle Crossing of the Arkansas River, where most of the party took the Dry Route, but Lee, Towne, Tevis, and about twelve others took the Mountain Route.
At Bent's Fort, the smaller group met up with Charles Towne (Smith's brother); mixed-blood trader Pascual Riviere, nicknamed Blackhawk; a Delaware called Little Beaver; a man named Piles; and frontiersman, trader, and guide Lucien Maxwell. Just a week earlier, some of these men had been attacked by Indians while trying to cross the Raton Mountains, so they decided to try a different route. The combined group left Bent's Fort about 16 June, and headed for Manco Burro Pass, which Charles Towne described as "a perfectly easy route" through the mountains. The party included the young children of William Tharp, a trader who had been killed by Indians the previous year (see Walnut Creek, 28 May 1847). The second party of traders, friends of Tharp, had agreed to take six-year-old Mary and four-year-old James to their grandparents in Taos.
At noon on 19 June, the travelers stopped for lunch in a little valley at the top of the pass, elevation 8,430 feet, about a dozen miles southeast of present-day Trinidad, Colorado. While the stock grazed and the party sat down to eat, about 150 Jicarilla Apaches, possibly aided by Utes, attacked them. The Indians ran off the animals then swept by the camp, firing bullets and arrows. The traders drove the raiders away, but they returned, this time setting fire to the grass. Despite the flames, the traders stayed put and fought for about four hours. In that time, one was killed and five were wounded. They finally decided they had to break out of the circle and climb up the mountain walls. As they fled, Lee was hit in the hand and thigh, but he continued on. Charles Towne was hit in the thigh, the bullet breaking his leg, and according to Lee, he "was left to the mercy of the Indians." Both of the Tharp children were captured in the escape attempt.
Besides Towne, three other traders were killed in the attack: Jose Cortez, Jose Carnuel, and Pascual Riviere. Of the escapees, eight out of nine had been wounded, but by nightfall they felt they were safe. They traveled through the night, and at daylight they rested, hiding under dirt and rocks to ward off the cold and hide from Apache searchers. As the men continued their trek, Lee's wound slowed him down so much that the others left him behind. As his companions moved ahead, Lee called out to them, but they did not respond. He walked and crawled toward Taos, eating some food he found in an abandoned Indian camp. On the seventh day, he met up with a small party of miners, one of whom was Thomas Boggs, who had taken the Dry Route when the original train split up at Middle Crossing and was now on his way to Taos. They stopped in Mora, where Lee recuperated for a time before making his way to Taos.
Meanwhile the rest of the survivors struggled through the mountains until Tevis, the only one not wounded, went ahead to Taos for help. There, frontier guide Dick Wootton was informed of the situation, and he led a party of forty soldiers out to rescue the survivors, who arrived in Taos much the worse for wear. One, Andres Fernandez, soon died of his wounds, but the others recovered. About three months later, Taos merchants ransomed back the Tharp children for $160, but Mary died shortly afterwards. The Manco Burro Pass incident resulted in increased military activity against the Jicarillas.
