By Rick Holben, East Mountain Historical Society
Cerro Huerfano, or “Orphan Hill,” located near what is now Tramway Boulevard and Copper NE in Albuquerque, is a small rocky outcropping that was designated one of the western boundary markers of the Cañon de Carnué Land Grant in 1819. That year, Governor Facundo Melgares – who served as both the last Spanish Governor of New Mexico and the first Mexican Governor of New Mexico – issued a decree under the laws and ordinances of Spain for the grant, which included approximately 90,000 acres. The hill remained an accepted marker for the grant’s boundaries for many years.
In 1871, heirs of the grant made their first attempt at gaining confirmation to their land in light of the new laws of the United States that established the first Surveyor Generals office in 1854. After multiple attempts by land grant residents and nearly 30 years of court hearings, the U.S. Private Land Claims Court ruled that it would only recognize a small fraction of the original 90,000 acres, issuing a patent in 1903 for just over 2,000 acres with little consideration of the original boundary markers.
Cerro Huerfano, now an orphan more than ever before, sat on Albuquerque’s east mesa on public land. As early as the 1910s residents of Albuquerque venturing out on the east mesa on recreational outings “adopted” the little hill as a picnic area and began referring to it as “Supper Rock.” By the 1920s it became a popular spot that shows up in newspaper notices of scheduled events for church groups, fraternal organizations and an array of University of New Mexico student gatherings. It was during this time that UNM students adopted another nearby hill, emblazoning it with a huge “U” they created with rocks painted white.
In the 1920s, a WWI Army veteran from West Virginia by the name of Joseph H. Friend made a Stock Raising homestead claim for approximately 436 acres on Albuquerque’s east mesa, including Supper Rock, and he received a patent for the land in 1930. In addition to ranching, census records show he was a carpenter by trade. In 1934, Dan Steckdaub, a disabled veteran from Newton, Kansas, married a relative of Friend, “Miss Grace Friend,” atop Supper Rock.
By 1948, Supper Rock was part of a tract of land owned by Albuquerque real estate developer H.B. Dickens. “The inevitable has occurred,” the Albuquerque Journal noted in reporting that land around the long popular picnic spot of Supper Rock was now part of a proposed subdivision. Dickens’ initial plat of the land in 1948 was rejected by the county commission due to a lack of roads and infrastructure in the area. But even Dickens’ original plans included Supper Rock as a park area at the center of the housing development. Eventually, subdivision plans were approved and by the 1970s the subdivision had filled in, like much of Albuquerque’s East Mesa. Supper Rock still remains open to visitors as a small neighborhood park.
