The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, N.M.

Monday, June 15

After picking up a park brochure at the visitor's center in Mountainaire yesterday, and a good night's rest, we were ready to tour the two missions out of the three in the monument that we had selected for this trip. (Park map his here)

 As far back as 7,000 years ago agricultural based Pueblo societies flourished here. Then, in the late 1500's Spanish explorers established a permanent colony for the primary purpose of mining salt and other valuable minerals they expected to find. Though not much in the way of valuable minerals was ever discovered, the Spanish king decided to finance the colony for the purpose of Christianizing the natives.   The Salinas Pueblo Missions  are the result of those efforts, which spanned about 70 years.

Admittedly, there has been much restoration and preservation work done to keep enough of the original structures intact to enable visitors to visualize the original complex. You can see a comparison of two different repair/preservation operations in this photo. A ranger we talked with said they make the rounds and try to work on each mission every five years or so, so this demarcation is due to differing ages and possibly different materials used in the mortar. He explained that while the fallen wall tops are topped with colored stucco to prevent further erosion, the mortar between stones is a combination of adobe soil and stucco. It does erode with the weather, but not as quickly as plain adobe.

These missions were complexes, or small cities, not just churches. A model in the museum, as well as the maps in the brochure clearly indicate huge settlements. These were all at their peak during the late 1500's through the middle of the 1600's.  Then, around the 1660's or '70's, drought and famine, disease, and the inability of the Spanish government and the Catholic church to maintain the desired level of control over this area led to the Spanish retreating. The people from this area joined other pueblo cultures further to the south, and these villages were never occupied again.

Archeological excavation has revealed some of the structures, but others remain buried under hundreds

of years of melted adobe, sand, and rubble.

A walk around the area however reveals the remaining stones peaking through mounds of adobe, and with a good imagination one can envision a thriving community. The area behind this main ruin at the Abo site is covered with mounds, most with bits of wall protruding.

In Pueblo tradition, the men do the weaving and the women build the houses (perhaps because they own and control the property!). . . lending a new meaning to the term "house work"! 
This church was built by Tia Pueblo women over a span of five years. The complexity of the church is amazing, and there was considerable help from men as the heavy timbers used for the roof and windows had to be lifted up and installed as the walls were built.

There are a few more photos of the mission ruins in the album here if you'd like to see some of those details.


After touring the ruins of the missions at Quarai and Abo we moved on to Datil Well Campground,http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/socorro/datil_well_campground.html just outside the town of Datil. We've stayed here before and have always enjoyed the quiet.

The campground is never very full, and it's well maintained. The signs displaying the historic information for the area, and the little visitors center, are nice touches that one doesn't usually find in a BLM campground. The best part is, the camping fee is only $5, which is cut in half with a Golden Age Pass. Now, you can't beat that! From the BLM website: "Datil Well Recreation Area Campground includes one of 15 water wells along the old Magdalena Livestock Driveway. The old cattle trail was established in the 1800s and stretched 120 miles from Springerville, Arizona, to Magdalena, New Mexico. The area includes 3 miles of hiking trails in piñon-juniper and ponderosa pine woodlands, with scenic views of the San Augustin Plains."

I had never noticed the sign leading to the trail before, but when we saw it on our loop around the campground this time I decided to give it a try. In the morning Steve was occupied with trying to resolve some electronic gremlins  (I think your gremlins hitched a ride with us Grayce!) so Shiner and I explored part of the trail.

It's beautifully maintained, and probably not heavily used. There wasn't a spec of litter anywhere!

The trail starts at space 6, then crosses a gravel road where you hit the trail head sign and a log book box. A few yards from the trail head there is a nice little gazebo with benches. This time we took the loop to the Crosby Canyon overlook. At the overlook there is another shelter with a bench, clearly marked so you know you've arrived at your destination. Next time we visit we'll try out some of the other branches of the trail. Here is a great map of the campground and the hiking trail.

As the day was ending Steve brought my attion to the view just behind me. . . what a perfect way to end the day!