Michael R Maddox

The author resides in the Animas River valley of northwest New Mexico. He spent six years researching and writing his book on Porter and Ike Stockton. The saga of the Stockton brothers follows the churned up cattle trails out of the Cross Timbers of Texas and coincides with the establishment of the cattle industry all along the border separating Colorado and New Mexico. To provide the most accurate account, the author relied on a wide selection of newspapers of the time, government records from the Territorial Archives of New Mexico, documents from the History Colorado Center, records from numerous courthouses in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, unpublished journals and a wide variety of other primary sources. This account provides the first thorough examination of the explosion of violence which resulted in the brutal deaths of Porter and Ike Stockton nine months and forty miles apart in the Animas River valley of New Mexico and Colorado. The earliest settlers of the San Juan country were caught up in the Stockton turmoil and those pioneers play prominent roles in the narrative. The images shown on this webpage are from the May 28, 1881 edition of FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER. In the spring of that year the newspaper sent artist J.J. Reilly to southwest Colorado to document events in the region. His arrival coincided with the height of the Stockton turmoil. Both images are from a montage titled, "Colorado.-Incidents of a Trip to the Mining Town of Durango," These images have been modified and are from the author's collection. The color photos show a small portion of the San Juan Mountains from Molas Pass above Silverton, Colorado (author's collection) and the Stephenville, Texas Courthouse (author's collection).