Historical Marker

Cooke’s Wagon Road

Historical marker location:

I-10, Deming vicinity, New Mexico

( west of Deming Rest Area)

In 1846, while leading the Mormon Battalion to California during the Mexican War, Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke blazed a wagon road from New Mexico to the West Coast. The potential use of the route for the railroad construction was one of the reasons for the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Cooke entered Arizona through Guadalupe Pass.