A History of Colonia Dublan and Guadalupe, Mexico

By Wayne Stout

The cover most likely makes you think this book is about Colonia Dublan. That’s not its focus. The full title, A History of Colonia Dublan and Guadalupe Mexico, comes closer to revealing the contents, and Wayne Stout’s book is more memoir than history. He does not recount events objectively, and little is specifically about the town of Dublan.

Early in my efforts to research the Mormon Colonies, I ran across a few brief references to Guadalupe. It sounded like a colony, but the books I considered the gold standard for information about the various Mexican settlements didn’t mention the place, and I couldn’t locate it on any map, old or new. What was Guadalupe and where? This little book (and maybe only this little book) answers those questions. I found a physical copy at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.

Guadalupe was a small farming community seven miles south of Colonia Dublan on the east side of the Casas Grandes River. Mexicans had lived there for decades when the area’s demographics shifted to half Mexican, half American after several large families of colonists purchased land in 1906. Before long, a branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in Guadalupe under the direction of the Colonia Dublan Bishopric. That is the connection to Dublan.

The first part of Stout’s 74-page book recounts details regarding three murders in the area. His uncle, George Black, was killed in 1908 in a dispute over irrigation water. Three years later, Elizabeth Mortenson was brazenly murdered along with George Koch, the man who tried to come to her aid. The author states that the Mexican authorities “applauded the killers” instead of working to bring them to justice. No doubt, the attitudes of all involved were colored by the rising tensions that caused the revolution a few years later. The rest of the book gives Stout’s version of the events surrounding the Exodus.

Erased by the revolution, Guadalupe no longer exists. Most people wouldn’t know a thing about it without the help of Stout’s little book. Good thing we have it.