Dog Canyon

The 1863 attack the panel mentions was a company under Major William McCleave, guided by scouts, that caught a Mescalero camp unaware and killed as many as twenty-five people. After the Mescalero were gone, the canyon mouth went to settlers. Francois-Jean Rochas, a Frenchman called Frenchy, built a stone cabin and long rock walls there from 1886, refused to sell to his neighbor Oliver Lee, and was found shot dead in his cabin at Christmas 1894. Lee was long suspected. Oliver Lee Memorial State Park opened at the canyon mouth in 1980.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Dog Canyon (Cañon del Perro) For the Mescalero Apaches, Dog Canyon was a favorite camping area and trail through the Sacramento Mountains. It was the scene of several battles in the 19th century. In 1863 a group of Mescaleros was attacked by soldiers, and the survivors were sent to the Bosque Redondo Reservation.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• White Sands National Park — 11 mi
  The largest gypsum dunefield on Earth, a national park since 2019, surrounded on all sides by military ground whose missile tests close its only road for hours at a time.

More markers nearby

• Calvin Boles — 4.1 mi
• Commission for the Blind Orientation Center — 11 mi
• New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired — 12 mi
• La Luz — 16 mi