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About Santa Rita, New Mexico, and the "Kneeling Nun"
Adapted from "Hispanic Folklore of Southwest New Mexico", a report by
Neal W. Ackerly, Ph.D., January, 1998
This report summarizes historical information regarding the
"Kneeling Nun" monolith near Santa Rita. The Kneeling Nun has become the
focus of controversy as a result of Chino Mine Company's
(CMC) proposed expansion of the Santa Rita mine. In particular, opponents
of the mine expansion have argued that the Kneeling Nun is a historically-
significant landmark and, further, that it is, in effect, sacred ground.
The Kneeling Nun is a large rock monolith located on the north
side of Ben Moore Mountain east of the Santa Rita open-pit copper mine
operated by CMC. Geology of the Nun--it's monolith consists of a single
volcanic unit composed largely of ignimbrite--varying to upwards of 400
feet in thickness, with vertical fissures caused by shrinkage.
Regarding the myth of the Kneeling Nun, the myth's origin has faded into
obscurity, and the period when the myth was attributed to the rock monolith
facing Ben Moore Mountain is not clear. Only by analyses of folklore,
newspapers, maps, and other documents is it possible to reconstruct how
the Kneeling Nun came to prominence in the region's lore.
The earliest description of the Santa Rita region derives from
Jose Cortes' narrative of a traverse made in 1798. Cortes noted only that,
"In New Mexico we know of copper mines of rare purity, where not even a
fifth of the ore is lost as dross". Although "El Cobre" apparently was a
known landmark as early as 1785, the Kneeling Nun monolith had not
acquired a name toward the close of the eighteenth century.
The earliest Spanish operators of the Santa Rita mine, Jose
Manuel Carrasco and Francisco Manuel Elguea, have left no memoirs
describing the Santa Rita vicinity at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. Despite this lack of documentation, legend has it that an Apache
Indian told Carrasco the location of a copper outcrop, remarking that a "A
peculiar rock formation marked the mine's location". Legend also has it
that Carrasco was responsible for naming the monolith the "Kneeling Nun".
The earliest description of the Santa Rita area was provided by
the American James Ohio Pattie in the 1820s. Pattie, not a chronicler of
folk tales, assuming that they even existed, simply noted:
"Within the circumference of three miles, there is a mine of
copper, gold and silver, and beside, a cliff of load [lode] stone. The
silver mine is not worked, as not being so profitable, as either the
copper or gold mines."
Recurring Apache raiding caused the mines at Santa Rita finally
to be abandoned in 1838. There apparently were no Europeans situated at
Santa Rita for a number of years.
The next descriptions of the region coincide with the arrival in
1846 of American troops under the command of Stephen Kearny. While
Kearny's chronicle contains no information about the district, two reports
by soldiers in Kearny's command do provide some information about the
region. Henry Turner reported that Kearny's column marched to the "copper
mines," camping 2 miles west of them. However, Turner's compatriot,
William Emory, provides in his 1848 report what is perhaps the first
detailed description and naming of any of the topography near Santa Rita
del Cobre:
"We passed at the foot of a formidable bluff of trap, running
northwest and southeast, which I named Ben Moore, after my personal
friend, the gallant Captain Moore, of the 1st dragoons. In many places
the path was strewed with huge fragments of this hard rock, making it
difficult for the mules to get along. Turning the north end of Ben Moore
bluff, we began to drop into the valley of what is supposed an arm of the
Mimbres, where there are some copper mines....There are the remains of
some twenty or thirty adobe houses, and ten or fifteen shafts sinking
into the earth."
Three years later, William Hunter, a '49er passing through the
region on the way to California, noted:
"On scrutinizing near us to the north, we thought we could
distinguish signs of water near the base of the mountain. One of our party
accordingly descended in that direction and found plenty in a rocky
ravine about a mile from our encampment....Could old 'Ben Moore' have
found a tongue he could have told us many a wondrous [sic] tale."
The first direct reference to a stone monolith corresponding to
the Kneeling Nun appears in Bartlett's report of the Boundary Commission
survey in 1853. Arriving at Santa Rita del Cobre with the intention of
establishing a base camp for the boundary survey, Bartlett commented:
"The height of the little valley where the mines are was [sic]
found to be six thousand two hundred and fifty feet above the level of the
sea; and the height of the mountain, which rises abruptly from it, and to
which the name of Ben Moore has been given, is eight thousand feet. This
mountain is the beginning of a range of bold, rocky bluffs of trap, of a
grayish hue, which extend some twenty miles to the south, and gradually
drop off into the plain. On one side of this bluff, a portion of the rock
is separated from the mountain, and stands detached from it like a
column."
This description corresponds almost perfectly with the general
character of the Kneeling Nun. Bartlett's description is important for
three reasons. First, it accurately describes both the location and
character of the monolith that has come to be known as the Kneeling Nun.
Second, a drawing from this same period accurately depicts the monolith
now known as the Kneeling Nun (see Seth Eastman's 1853 painting on the
cover, original at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence). Finally
and most importantly, Bartlett is well regarded by historians,
anthropologists, and other scholars as a diligent chronicler of native
customs, beliefs, and myths.
In 1857, for example, William Emory completed a resurvey of the
US-Mexican boundary. His narratives, while somewhat drier than those of
Bartlett, contain no mention of any rock formation resembling the Kneeling
Nun. Similarly, Samuel Cozzens' narratives from 1858 accurately describe
the Santa Rita region, going so far as to mention the presence of a number
of "sandstone" monoliths, but completely fail to mention any monolith or
other topographic feature named the Kneeling Nun. Finally, Carleton's 1864
map of New Mexico, when carefully scrutinized, contains no reference to
the Kneeling Nun, although the Santa Rita Copper Mines are noted.
Considered together, this evidence suggests that the monolith was not
named at least as late as 1864.
The earliest description of the Kneeling Nun as the Kneeling Nun
appears in 1873 in a newspaper description in "Mining Life" September 1873.
The article contains a poem about the Kneeling Nun prefaced with the
following comments:
LEGEND OF SANTA RITA
Santa Rita is an enormous rock resembling a
kneeling, female figure, about 15 miles northeast of Silver City, and from
that distance seems about 12 or 15 feet tall, but in reality nearly 150
feet. It kneels facing a precipice some 200 feet high, and is the most
prominent feature in the whole country, except Cook's Peak. The legend,
of an early day, is that a nun, in one of the numerous Jesuitical convents,
committed an offense for which she was condemned to death, and her soul
banished to this rock, to remain until the action of the elements
released it to join the blessed throng of the redeemed. -Editor"
In the following year, 1874, an alternate name for this rock
monolith, the Kneeling Virgin, appears in a U.S. government publication.
In an overview of mining in the West, Raymond commented that:
"A bluff of ejected trap-rock strikes across the country
southeasterly, presenting a perpendicular wall five to eight hundred feet
high above the general level to the northeast. This wall is a conspicuous
landmark for a great many miles, being visible from the Burro Mountains,
a distance of twenty miles. Its northwest terminus is abrupt, and is
marked by a singular perpendicular stone known as the Kneeling Virgin,
owing to the resemblance it bears to a draped female figure kneeling
before an altar. The Santa Rita mines are two and a half miles northwest."
Newspaper accounts from 1877 confirm that this monolith was
becoming a named landmark, with the added wrinkle that it was in the
process of acquiring possible religious connotations. An anonymous article
appearing in the Weekly New Mexican observed that:
"A portion of the copper mines were recently worked but when we
passed the silence of desolation reigned. Near here is a peculiar land
mark [sic] which can be seen for miles in every direction called Santa
Teresa Mountain. That portion fronting the road presents a square face,
and in front of this is a stone 90 feet high presenting the appearance of
woman kneeling in front of a shrine, and to make the illusion more perfect,
someone has painted a cross on the face of the hugh [sic] rock fronting
the kneeling figure."
Yet, the gender and the name ascribed to the rock monolith were
by no means settled during these early years. In his survey of
southwestern New Mexico in 1877, Wheeler noted on a draft version of a map
of the Santa Rita region a rock monolith whose location corresponds
perfectly to the Kneeling Nun. However, the name appearing on Wheeler's
map is "Kneeling Jesus". This map was never published by the government.
However, Wheeler's denotation and the other accounts mentioned above
indicate that the monolith was, in the 1870s, known by at least three
different names--Kneeling Nun, Kneeling Virgin, and Kneeling Jesus.
An 1881 report about mining in Grant County appeared in the
Silver City Enterprise. In this report, the purported mission near Santa
Rita is repeated as part of local lore:
"Ages have passed since the Mexicans worked these mines, yet
there is a Spanish legend in connection with them to the effect that the
mission was destroyed by a terrible storm, and that the mine caved in
burying all the workmen...."
The Kneeling Nun appears for the first time on published maps of
the region in 1883. A careful review of Powel and Kingman's map of
Southwestern New Mexico shows the Kneeling Nun as a named landmark, but it
remains named "Kneeling Jesus" following, presumably, the naming
convention first established by Wheeler. What is interesting is that the
monolith's name was unchanged on this map, despite the fact that myriad
poems and articles in the region's newspapers referred to it as the
"Kneeling Nun." Why is not clear.
In 1885, a strong earthquake rattled much of Grant County. A
local newspaper, The Silver City Enterprise, reported the impact of this
earthquake on the Kneeling Nun:
"About thirty feet of the Kneeling Nun at Santa Rita has tumbled
down. For years past this has been a prominent landmark in southern New
Mexico. A small portion of the needle still remains, but cannot be seen
at so great a distance as of old."
Another earthquake in May of 1887 shook much of the Southwest and
northern Mexico, including Silver City. Period descriptions appearing in
the Silver City Enterprise indicate the impact of this tremor on the
Kneeling Nun:
"Out at Santa Rita the ancient landmark, the 'kneeling nun,' a
large and lofty needle rock, which was visible for a great distance, was
broken and the top fell to the depths below. From the precipices
thereabouts rocks weighing over a ton went tumbling down..."
By the 1890's, the rock monolith near Santa Rita appears to have
become progressively more established as a named landmark. This is
indicated by descriptions of two events in the general area. In April of
1895, The Eagle reported:
"The normal school picnic last Friday developed into two dances,
one at Ft. Bayard and the other at Santa Rita. It was the intention to
have a picnic at Santa Rita and most of those who went had signified an
intention of climbing to the summit of that widely known monolith called
Santa Rita monolith or the Kneeling Nun."
Three months later, a fire in the Santa Rita townsite was
reported in The Eagle as follows:
"Last Thursday evening between 10-11 some of the residents of
this city noticed a bright light at Santa Rita and at once came to the
conclusion that some of the buildings were on fire. The fire lighted up
the Kneeling Nun, which is also known as the Santa Rita monolith and is a
landmark for miles around, so that it stood out in bold relief and its
outlines could be plainly discerned although it is 16 miles distant..."
By the early twentieth century, the Kneeling Nun became
progressively more established in both scientific and popular literature
as a landmark and as a culturally important place. Fayette Jones in 1904
noted in his review of mining across New Mexico that:
"To the east of the Santa Rita basin on the rim is a peculiar
isolated column of stone which rises to a considerable height, and may be
seen from certain directions for long distances. By a little imagination
the stone resembles a woman kneeling in the attitude of prayer; this
monolith is known as the 'kneeling nun'."
The importance of the Kneeling Nun as a place name is perhaps
best indicated by its appearance on a series of U.S. Geological Survey
maps published in 1909. As a notice in the Silver City Enterprise
indicated, these maps were prepared in 1907 by which time the Kneeling Nun
appears to have become firmly established in local lore.
Despite the fact that the U.S. Geological Survey began to use the
name, some locals--notably, the county surveyor, C. E. Johnson--persisted
in using Wheeler's original designation, "Kneeling Jesus".
The emotional connection between the myth of the Nun and the
stone monolith appears to have been well-established in the popular press
by the early twentieth century. In 1901, for example, the Silver City
Enterprise noted that Fourth of July fireworks would be set off "on the
summit of the mountain just above the famous Kneeling Nun". By 1909, the
local reporter from the Santa Rita mining camp began signing letters to
the Silver City Enterprise with the nom de plume, "Kneeling Nun". Also in
1911, the Silver City Enterprise noted that students from local schools
traveled to visit the Santa Rita mine and took the opportunity to view the
Kneeling Nun:
"High above the camp and overshadowing it, is the legendary
Kneeling Nun mountain famous in the folk lore [sic] of that section of the
country, and in poetry and song, and for the first time the teachers had a
superb view of this hoary old mountain with its traditions of love,
romance, and tragedy..."
In a wide-ranging review of New Mexico's history and traditions,
Ross Calvin in 1934 suggests that the Kneeling Nun, which he described as
"statuesque, bending exactly like a Sister of Perpetual Adoration," was
part and parcel of Hispanic traditions whereby landmarks of many kinds
were instilled with religious overtones. Similarly, Morey in 1938 and
Weigle and White in 1988 interviews of local residents in the 1930s
confirm that the Kneeling Nun was viewed by some residents as a religious
icon:
"[It is] strange, but true, [that] many of the present day
inhabitants of this region regard the story of the Kneeling Nun as sacred
and liken unto the Bible story of Lot's wife....I wish to add that this
Kneeling Nun Monument has furnished many persons a place of prayer and
worship, in the present as well as in past generations. This one small
monument has not only furnished a place of repentance, but it has given
the mountain a name that has lasted more than a century."
The religious importance of the Kneeling Nun is confirmed by an
article appearing in the April 21, 1914 edition of the Silver City
Enterprise. Here, a photograph of the Kneeling Nun is shown with a caption
entitled "An Easter Offering of the Eternal Hills: The Kneeling Nun."
Likewise, Ricardo Munoz in 1984 uses one of the alternate legends of the
Kneeling Nun as a springboard for understanding the character of life in
Santa Rita before the open pit mine was expanded, noting in the course of
his narrative that "Everybody in this village prays to her". Considered
jointly, these accounts indicate that the Kneeling Nun is viewed in a
religious sense by some segments of the local population.
Even if the Kneeling Nun is not viewed in a religious
sense by all the population, it does appear to constitute an
important cultural identifier for the region's inhabitants. Mildred
Jordan in 1936, wrote "perhaps no story is so dear to the people of Grant
County as the Legend of the Kneeling Nun."
The preceding discussion has documented the advent, development,
and cultural importance of the Kneeling Nun monolith near Santa Rita, New
Mexico.