Patterson Lake Ranch Cemetery
By Nancy E. Brown, Catron County Genealogist, and Arlena Boggs
©14 April 2008
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The Patterson Lake ranch cemetery is on private ranch land in the vicinity of Horse Springs, New Mexico.  It is on the south side of Highway 12.  There are only two graves visible here, although there could have been a couple more according to one person. Samuel Locke had been a farmer, miner and stockman.  He homesteaded property near Patterson Lake and some of the properties were coal claims.
Frank C. “Frankie” Patterson was the son of Richard C. Patterson, the man who homesteaded the Patterson Lake ranch.  Frankie was helping to dig a well on the Mayberry place, about 10 miles south of his home. He was down in the well cleaning out the muck when the fumes of a poisonous gas overcame him.  By the time they pulled him out, he was dead.  If there was coal in the area, it was quite possible they ran into methane gas.  Mr. Patterson was in Socorro that day and when he returned he learned of Frankie’s death.  He was distraught and grieved for years as he and Frankie had been very close.