Ever wonder what New Mexico was like in the nineteenth century? In 1876, newspaperman William D. Dawson undertook a series of journeys that took him the entire length of the territory from the D&RG railhead near Fort Garland, Colorado, to the Mesilla Valley and west to the mines of Silver City and Pinos Altos, New Mexico. Here for the first time in print since they appeared in the pages of The Santa Fe Daily New Mexican nearly a century and a half ago, are descriptions of New Mexicos towns, its agriculture, wineries and mines; farmers, merchants, vintners, miners, soldiers, Indians, outlaws, and pretty girlsall the elements that we imagine constituted this great frontierdrew Dawsons attention and found their way into his reports, leaving us an extraordinary portrait of New Mexico as it was mas antes, in the old days.