Johnson Mesa - History

History

There is no archaeological evidence that American Indians inhabited the Mesa although just below the eastern rim of the Mesa in Wild Horse Arroyo one of the earliest traces of early man in the Americas was discovered.

The first White settler was Elijah (Lige) Johnson who established a ranch in Johnson Park about 1882 and pastured cattle on the Mesa. Grazing on top of mesas was a traditional practice throughout northern New Mexico, where some mesas to this day are known as potreros. About 1887, Marion Bell, railway construction worker, led a group of dissatisfied and unemployed railroad workers and coal miners from Blossberg (near Raton) and began homesteading the Mesa. The settlers congregated around the home of Lon Bell and the post office of Bell was established here. Soon the entire mesa was full of homesteads, each with their 160 acres of free land

The community of Bell and Johnson Mesa peaked in population about 1900 with 487 residents. Bell had a Methodist church and a cemetery, five schools were scattered around the Mesa, and the residents of the mesa held annual celebrations on July 4 and August 14, the date the church was dedicated. The principal crops raised in the fertile volcanic soils of the Mesa were oats, potatoes, vegetables, and hay. Many of the men worked at both farming and coal mining. Carrier pigeons were dispatched from the mines to the top of the Mesa when workers were needed.

The long, cold winters defeated many farmers and by 1910 the population had dropped to 335. By 1920 after an influenza epidemic it was only 215 and by 1950 it had fallen to 56. The Post Office at Bell was closed in 1933. Today, nobody lives on Johnson Mesa year round although some ranchers pass the summer here tending their cattle. Surviving at Bell is a cemetery and St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church, dating from 1897.