This section of the Camino Real came to be called the Jornada del Muerto, or Deadman’s Journey, after the fate of German trader Bernardo Gruber, El Alemán. In 1670, the Inquisition accused him of witchcraft, and after escaping he attempted to cross ninety miles of forbidding desert south of Socorro, between the Paraje de Fray Cristóbal on the north and the Paraje de Robledo on the south. After days without water, Gruber’s Apache servant Antonio went in search of it, and when he returned El Alemán was gone. Weeks later, travelers found Gruber’s clothing and scattered remains. The route was also used by Spanish and Mexican merchants, the U.S. Army, the Texas Confederates in 1862, and the railroad in the 1880s.