November 5, 2020 - Santa Fe and Pecos National Historic Park
Lynnette and I had visited Santa Fe back in 2011 and really enjoyed it. So we had already seen most of the main attractions. But Lynnette hadn't seen Pecos National Historical Park -- I had -- and I thought she might like it since it also includes some hiking in a scenic place.
Pecos National Historic Park, east of Santa Fe -- encompasses thousands of acres of landscape infused with historical elements from prehistoric archaeological ruins to 19th-century ranches, to a battlefield of the American Civil War. Its largest single feature is Pecos Pueblo also known as Cicuye Pueblo, a Native American community abandoned in historic times. First a state monument in 1935, it was made Pecos National Monument in 1965, and greatly enlarged and renamed in 1990. Two sites within the park, the Pueblo and the Glorieta Pass Battlefield, are National Historic Landmarks.
Surprisingly, the Visitor's Center was open and it had a small, but excellent museum which gave the fascinating history of the area. Native Americans, Spanish, Mexicans and Americans all lived and/or came through here.
The Pecos Pueblo thrived around 1450 AD.
The first church at the Pecos Pueblo was probably built by the Franciscan Fray Pedro Zambrano Ortiz by 1619. In 1625, a more permanent church was constructed outside the walls of the pueblo of Pecos, New Mexico. The church building was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, wherein the Spanish were ejected from New Mexico. After the Spanish reconquest in 1693, a smaller church was built in 1717. The walls of this later church still stand on top of the earlier church's stone foundation.
This is what's left of the 1717 church.
"Less than twelve months after the start of the Civil War, the Confederate Government took a bold step. Troops from Texas invaded the Territory of New Mexico. They wanted to capture silver and gold mines and recruit more troops in Colorado and Utah. Then a larger rebel force would march west to seize the ocean ports in California. "
The Confederate forces won a battle at Valverde, south of Albuquerque, and then occupied Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Short on supplies, they headed east towards Fort Union but ran into Union forces in Glorietta Pass. During the fighting at Glorietta Pass, the Union split their forces and sent 500 troops around the Confederate flank. By chance, the union forces discovered the main Conferederate supply base near Apache Canyon and destroyed all the Confederate supplies, wagons, horses and mules. Despite winning the battle in the Pass, without supplies the Confederates had no choice but to retreat back to Texas.
Written on the four sides of the cardinal directions of the plinth:
TO THE HEROES OF THE FEDERAL ARMY WHO FELL AT THE BATTLE OF VALVERDE, FOUGHT WITH THE REBELS FEBUARY 21, 1862
TO THE HEROES WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE VARIOUS BATTLES WITH SAVAGE INDIANS IN THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO (the word SAVAGE was chiseled off in 1974)
TO THE HEROES OF THE FEDERAL ARMY WHO FELL AT THE BATTLES OF CANON DEL APACHE AND PIGEON'S RANCH (LA GLORIETA) FOUGHT WITH THE REBELS MARCH 28, 1863 AND TO THOSE WHO FELL AT THE BATTLE FOUGHT WITH THE REBELS AT PERALTA APRIL 15, 1862.
ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF NEW MEXICO THROUGH THEIR LEGISLATURES OF 1866 - 7 - 8. MAY THE UNION BE PERPETUAL.
as transcribed from the monument, January 2018
Well, if you've never seen it, you missed your chance. This is what it looked like before it was vandalized, in better, non-Orwellian times.
