This man, Bernardo Gruber, accused of witchcraft, had escaped his prison and fled with the aid of an Apache friend, from the Inquisition in Santa Fe by trying to cross the desert to the south on the Camino Real.
He had been forced to cross it in a bad time of the year when it was hot and in a season when no rains had yet fallen, and the Laguna del Muerto and then the spring at the next paraje was dry.
Despite the attempt by his friend to get water to him in time, Gruber did not survive and only fragments of his body and garments were found later in the vicinity of the spring after they had been picked over and scattered by vultures and other scavengers.
Martin also maintained a small hotel and established an Aleman post office at the site in 1869 that remained until it closed in 1890 and was replaced by one 2 miles north of San Diego Mountain near the Southern Pacific Railroad at Detroit, New Mexico from 1889 to 1892 when it moved to Rincon.
[5][6][7][8] John Martin left the ranch in 1875 and moved to Santa Fe where he ran a hotel until he died in 1877.