Q. David Bowers
Historical Background
The El Paso (Texas) Museum Committee, the operating entity used by Hoffecker, picked 1935 to represent the 400th anniversary of a trail used by early explorer Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, "Cabeza de Vaca" meaning in Spanish, "head of a cow." There was no particular reason to have celebrated the anniversary of the year 1535, as the explorer's stay in what later became the United States extended from 1528 to 1536.
Legislation approved on June 5, 1935, provided that no more than 10,000 silver half dollars be coined in connection with the anniversary and that same be delivered to the chairman of the El Paso Museum Coin Committee. How neat this was: A coin dealer designed a commemorative, made plans to market it, and had Congress mandate that the entire production be delivered to him to be sold for whatever price he saw fit!
The following historical information pertaining to the coin was supplied by L.W. Hoffecker to Congress and was utilized in a leaflet in connection with the coinage act:
"The expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez to the North American continent has been the source of considerable historical speculation. He sailed from Spain in June 1527 with five ships and 700 men. The winter of 1527-28 was spent in West Indian waters, where storm and disease reduced the expedition to 400 men and 80 horses. In the spring of 1528 de Narvaez divided his forces. The greater portion of the expedition disembarked and under his leadership proceeded to explore the interior of the country. De Narvaez experienced many hardships on this journey. Food was scarce, the Indians unfriendly, the land marshy and heavily wooded, offering small means of sustenance. Horses were killed for food and the skins used for fresh water bags to make possible a sea voyage. The remnant of the expedition put out to sea and sailed in rude boats along the shores of the present states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Food and water failing, the expedition landed to search for the means of sustenance. At sea many had died from privation, and on land others were killed by the Indians.
"According to the best information obtainable, all the rude barges were lost at sea or wrecked on the coast. Only 80 men survived, and these came together on an island off the coast of Texas in November 1528. Death from various causes and slavery among the Indians separated and reduced the number of survivors during the succeeding six years to four Spaniards and a Negro. Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, treasurer of the de Narvaez expedition, was one of these five survivors, and for the most part we are indebted to him for the recorded story of the expedition and the adventures of the few who were eventually to reach the Spanish settlements of New Spain. The authenticity of the account of the expedition, the hardships endured, and the fact that these finally reached the settlements in the spring of 1536 have never been questioned.
"During the first winter after reaching the Texas coast the surviving Spaniards were parceled out among the Indians as slaves. Cabeza de Vaca began early to plan escape but, according to his narrative, delayed six years in the hope that he might take with him his friend Lope de Oviedo. Late in the year 1534 all details were worked out for the escape, and de Vaca with two friends and the Negro, all being survivors of the original de Narvaez expedition, made their way, with the help of friendly Indians whom they encountered, from an island now generally believed to have been Galveston Island-across the continent to the settlements of New Spain. Some of our most eminent historians lay the route of Cabeza de Vaca through the present city of Alpine, Texas and through the Big Bend country of the Rio Grande. Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to traverse this great wilderness, and we believe his expedition should be fittingly commemorated by the issuance of the special coin provided by the bill under consideration."
The Design
A representation of a steer, facing the viewer, was adopted as the obverse motif for the coin, a punning reference to the name of the explorer. This prompted one observer years later to say that instead of depicting Franklin Roosevelt on the 1946 dime, a field of roses could have been used instead, representing the literal meaning of the Roosevelt name. The reverse of the Old Spanish Trail half dollar showed a yucca tree in full bloom, superimposed on a map showing the early trail extending from the coast of Florida to EI Paso, with the city name EL PASO at the end of the route. Hoffecker himself designed the piece, and plaster models were prepared in mid-July 1935 by Edmund J. Senn, an unemployed EI Paso sculptor. (The plaster models differed slightly from the finished design actually used. On the models the word LIDERTY was superimposed on a curved ribbon (the Mint objected and removed the ribbon; per letter of L.W. Hoffecker to Trygve Rovelstad, February 11, 1936) and Hoffecker's initials, L.W.H., were prominent between the dates 1635-1935, below a triangular ornament. On the coin the initials, smaller than proposed on the model, appear to the right of the 1935 date. These models were auctioned by Superior Galleries in February 1987 (Lot 5205 in the L.W. Hoffecker Sale). An early proposal for the Old Spanish Trail half dollar design omitted the word UBERTY, had the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM in a straight line above the cow's head, and had the designer's initials, L.W.H., at the base of the yucca tree. The 1935 Old Spanish Trail half dollar bears a resemblance on the reverse to Hoffecker's design for the unsuccessful 1929 Gadsden Purchase half dollar; both show a plant as the central motif (a yucca tree on the Old Spanish Trail coin and a tall saguaro cactus on the Gadsden Purchase piece), and both show a map with EL PASO as the only feature on the map identified by name.)
L.W. Hoffecker told of the procedure (In a letter to Trygve Rovelstad (designer of the 1936 Elgin half dollar), September 26, 1935.) "I corresponded with two or three [sculptors] in the East and came to the conclusion I would not be able to get our coin for another six months as I could not convince them we knew what we wanted even after the Commission of Fine Arts had approved our design and volunteered the information it would make a fine coin. They still claimed it would not look well in plaster and I must give them a free hand to make what changes they saw fit.
"This is not my method of doing business, so I looked up a local sculptor [Senn], who is just as crazy as the rest of them, and as our time was limited it was necessary that he put in every minute to get the models ready for the next meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, who meet only once a month. To keep him at work it was necessary for me to go and get him and bring him to my garage and stay with him all day and take him home every night. Even then he made changes in the few minutes I had to be away from him, but I finally got the models finished and to New York the day before the Commission met. Notwithstanding what all the other sculptors had said, our models were approved by the Commission with a suggestion for one or two minor changes which they were willing to waive in order to expedite the issuing of the coin."