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Excerpts from Abe Peña's  popular publications

All material used with the kind permission of the author, given to me personally.

from VILLAGERS

“Cristo--A Mountain of a Man

Hispanics called him “Cristo.” His name was Christopher (Chris) Turner, and he was a mountain of a man whose neighbors called “the strongest man in the Zuni Mountains, and one of the kindest.” He was about 6 feet 6 inches tall and in his prime weighed about 300 lbs.

Stan Hayton, who worked in the Zunis most of his life, says, “I saw Chris Turner lift a 50-gallon drum of gasoline and load it on a pickup in one heave.” Adding, “Another time, he filled a large wool sack with coke used by blacksmiths weighing about 400 pounds and lifted it onto a wagon. When the store owner saw him loading the large sack, he asked for more money, and Chris said, “Your advertising says a sack for 50 cents; it doesn't say what size of sack!”

Cristo was born in the province of British Columbia, Canada around 1892 to parents of Swedish descent. Johnny Gabaldon says, When he came to this country in his 20s, he met my father, Antonio Gabaldon, at our home at La Gallinita—Chicken Ranch—and they became close friends. Dad had a contract with the railroad for cross ties, and gave Cristo a job cutting ties in the Zunis.

Johnny also remembers that Cristo, who spoke very good Spanish, could pick up a barrel of gasoline and lift it into a truck by himself. “Cristo usually ate a dozen eggs for breakfast. He was not only a powerful man with a hearty appetite, he was a very intelligent man. He taught my father how to make skis from oak and polish the runners with broken glass, as well as turn the tips by twisting wire when the oak was green.”

He adds, “In those years, it snowed a lot in winter up on the mountain, and they walked on snowshoes and cross country skied up to where they were cutting cross ties on Oso Ridge. After a day's work, they put on their skis and skied back to the house.”

Cristo started a sawmill in the Ramah area. His strength was legendary. Most everyone who knew him remembers his feats of strength. Alberto Taddy once told me, “Cristo could pick up a Model T out of the mud. He was as strong as an ox. He never married, but he was a perfect gentleman around women, and around men.”

Fresh-cut Ponderosa pine has a pleasant smell and Alberto used to say, “Those who work timber become addicted to its fragrance. It's as fresh as all outdoors.” Alberto also ran his own sawmill in the Zunis. He used to come by the railroad shipping pens in the west end of Grants when we were delivering lambs in the fall, and buy three or four old ewes to feed his men in the mountain.

We always brought some fat old ewes mixed with the lambs to settle the freshly weaned lambs on the trail. People came by the corrals when the herd was penned and bought a ewe or two. Mutton was a favored meat in those days.

The mountain was home to a special breed of men. They worked hard, were as strong as oxen, and drank their fill from time to time. Cristo told the story of a moonshiner who everyone said made the best “mula” on the mountain. “When people stopped at his place, they asked if he had “lamp oil,” a code name for moonshine. He'd tell them, “No, we don't have any, but, if you follow that prairie dog trail, you may run into some!””

One time in the late 1950s, I was looking for some of our cattle that had strayed to the Chicken Ranch country from our forest permit on Oso Ridge. I found several head and was driving them back to Valle Largo, about four miles away. It was the month of August, and it was raining.

At about sundown, I was passing the Chicken Ranch and Cristo saw me and asked where I was going in the rain. I told him, “To Valle Largo,” and he said, “Let me open the gate and you put those cattle in here and stay the night with me.”

After we unsaddled and fed my horse, he said, “Come on in and we'll fix supper.” Cristo was getting on in years, and had lost weight. With his gray beard, he kind of reminded me of pictures of Jesus Christ, and I told myself how appropriately he's called Cristo—Christ--by his friends.

With persistent rains, he couldn't keep the roof from leaking. Everything in the small cabin was damp. It took a while to fix supper, because the firewood was damp, also. While he was cooking, I asked him what he thought were the possibilities of us hitting water at Valle Largo, where we were planning to drill a water well.

He thought about it for a while, then said, “There's a fault down the middle of Valle Largo, and you should find water at about 350 feet if you stay north of the fault. You'll go through white sand at about 300 feet. Keep going, and you should hit another water-bearing sand at about 350 feet.”

The following spring, we consulted a geologist, as well as a water witch. They pretty well confirmed what Cristo had told me. We developed a fine livestock well which is still pumping after more than 40 years of service.

Cristo spent his last years in Grants with the Gabaldon family, and other families. They took care of him until he died in 1966 at the age of 74. his old friend Antonio Gabaldon passed away the following year at age 75. There are those who believe the spirits of those two old and burly timber men still roam the Zuni mountain.”