Pecos
The Village of Pecos
Pecos, situated along the Pecos River, is a mixture of old Spanish and modern west. The village is 35 miles west of Las Vegas and 25 miles east of Santa Fe. Its quaint adobe buildings and narrow winding streets are a charming compliment to a community. The 7,000 foot elevation brings Pecos cool refreshing summers enhanced by the tang of pine-scented dry air. Winters are mild with weeks of continuous sunshine which add to its year-round appeal.
Modern shops and stores complement a growing business district. New gift shops and galleries add to existing services and provide shopping for both residents and tourists.
History
At midpoint in a passage through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the ruins of Pecos Pueblo and a Spanish mission share a small ridge. Long before Spaniards entered this country, this town commanded the trade path between Pueblo farmers of the Rio Grande and the hunting tribes of the buffalo plains. Its 2,000 inhabitants could marshall 500 fighting men. Its frontier location brought both war and trade. At trade fairs here, Plains tribes — mostly nomadic Apaches — brought slaves, buffalo hides, flint and shells and exchanged them for the pottery, crops, textiles and turquoise of the river Pueblos. The Pecos Indians were middlemen in this trade, transmitters and partakers of the goods and cultures of the very different people on either side of the mountains. They became economically powerful and practiced in the arts and customs of two worlds.
These cultural blendings did not change the essential nature of their life. The Pecos Indians remained Puebloan in culture, practitioners of an ancient agricultural tradition that had spread north from Mexico, borne by the seeds of sacred corn. By the late Pueblo period — the last few centuries before the Spaniards arrived in the Southwest — people in this valley had congregated in multi-storied towns overlooking the streams and fields that nourished their crops. In the 1400s these groups gathered into Pecos Pueblo, which became a regional power. A Spanish conquistador saw the pueblo in 1584. It sits on a "high and narrow hill," he wrote, "enclosed on both sides by two streams and many trees. The hill itself is cleared of trees...It has the greatest and best buildings of these provinces and is most thickly settled...They possess quantities of maize, cotton, beans and squash. [The pueblo] is enclosed and protected by a wall and large houses, and by tiers of walkways which look out on the countryside. On these they keep their offensive and defensive arms: bows, arrows, shields, spears and war clubs."
The Pecos enjoyed a rich cultural tradition, with an inventive architecture and beautiful crafts. Their elaborate religious life, evidenced by many ceremonial kivas, reached out to the nurturing spirits of all things, animate and inanimate. Their finely tuned adjustments to their natural and cultivated world rested on a practical science infused with spirituality, transmitted by tradition-bearers who by story and dance conveyed the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of centuries past. Regulation of individual, family and social life stemmed from a religion that bound all things together and counselled balance, harmony and fitness as the highest ideals.
These ideals did not always prevail. Warfare was fairly common. The frontier people of Pecos had to be especially vigilant in their relations with the nomadic Plains Indians, who varied war and trade unpredictably. Neighboring pueblos viewed the Pecos as dominant. The Spaniards, about to make their entradas, soon learned that the Pecos could be determined enemies or powerful allies.
Before the Spaniards
The first settlers were a pre-pueblo people who lived in pithouses along drainages about AD 800. Around 1000, the first Puebloans began building their rock-and-mud villages in the valley. Some two dozen villages rose here over the next two centuries, including one where Pecos pueblo stands today. Sometime during the 14th century, settlement patterns changed dramatically. Within a single generation, small villages were abandoned and Pecos pueblo grew larger. By 1450, it had metamorphosed into a well planned frontier fortress, five stories high with a population of 2,000. Why this sudden growth? The answer is unclear. Perhaps there was a need to gather on a rocky ridge to free up land for farming. More likely there was a need for defense against newly arrived Plains Indians. Whatever the reason, Pecos soon became a force to be reckoned with.
Land and Life
The land surrounding the pueblo was a storehouse of natural products which the Pecos knew intimately. They used virtually every plant for food, clothing, shelter, or medicine and turned every part of the game they hinted into something useful.
Farming supplied most of their diet. The staple crops were the usual trio of corn, beans and squash cultivated along Glorietta Creek and the numerous drainages in the area. Water was as important to the Pecos as to us. They built check dams to slow runoff and planted their crops where the topsoil collected. Yields were apparently considerable. When Coronado came through in 1541, he found the pueblo's storerooms piled high with corn, three years supply by one estimate.
Trade
Location, power and the ability to supply needed goods made Pecos a major trade center on the eastern flank of the Puebloan world. The Pecos Indians bartered crops, clothing and pottery with Apaches and later with Spaniards and Comanches for buffalo products, alibates, flint and slaves. These Plains goods were in turn swapped west to other pueblos for pottery, parrot feathers, turquoise and other items. Trading could go quickly or take weeks. The rings left by tipis set up for long spells of bartering are still visible in the area. Because of uneasy relationships between Pueblos and the Plains tribes, hostilities were a continual threat. The rock wall circling the pueblo is also a relic from trading days. Too low to serve a defensive purpose, it was probably a boundary that other tribes were not allowed to cross.
Encounters with the Spaniards
The idea of a "new" Mexico — another land of great cities weighted with gold — appealed to the latecomers who thronged into Mexico City after the conquests of the Aztecs and Incas. These ambitious seekers needed only direction. Tantalizing legends of rich cities to the north, lost bishops and their seven cities, provided that direction. In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an army of 1,200 into the country north of Mexico. The Indians at Pecos welcomed the Spaniards with music and gifts. Nearly 60 years passed before Spaniards came to stay, this time bringing settlers to farm and herd, making the objective to convert the Indians and colonize their lands. In 1598, Don Juan de Onate assigned a friar to Pecos, the richest and most powerful pueblo. The new religion got off to a shaky start, until 1621, when missionary Fray Andres Juarez came to Pecos as a healer and builder. Under his direction, the Pecos built an adobe church south of the pueblo. It was the most imposing of New Mexico's mission churches, with towers, buttresses and great pine-log beams hauled from the mountains. Spanish demands and Indian resentments climaxed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the indians united to drive the Spaniards back into Mexico. Led by Diego de Vargas, the Spaniards came back to their lost province 12 years later. The Pecos Indians welcomed Vargas and even supplied 140 warriers to help him retake Santa Fe. A new and smaller church was built on the ruins of the old church, the first mission re-established after the Reconquest. From then to the end of Spanish rule, the majority of the Pecos helped sustain that rule and the Pecos — as allies and traders — became partners in a relaxed Spanish-Pueblo community. By the 1780s, disease, Comanche raids and migration had reduced the Pecos population to less than 300. Perhaps long-standing internal divisions between those loyal to the Church and things Spanish and those who clung to the old ways contributed to the decline of this once powerful city-state. Pecos's function as a trade center faded as Spanish colonists established new towns to the east. Pecos was almost a ghost town when the Santa Fe trade began flowing past in 1821. The last survivors departed in 1838, leaving a decaying pueblo and an empty mission church. They joined their relatives at Jemez Pueblo, 80 miles west, where their descendents live today.
Pecos and Southwestern Archeology
The mysterious ruins of Pecos inspired much speculation among Santa Fe Trail travelers, who veered from the main trail to camp among the ruins. These stories vanished when archeologist Alfred Vincent Kidder began to dig in the ruin in 1915. Kidder had come to Pecos because of its extensive trash mounds. He wanted to try out his theories of dating by stratigraphy. Kidder's 12 field seasons at Pecos laid the groundwork for the new science of Southwestern archeology. The great trash mound on the lee side of the Pueblo which appeared to be a natural part of the ridge, proved a time capsule. When he trenched into the mound, Kidder found centuries of discard in exact chronological order. It was a trove of scientific data. Kidder identified the periods of occupation at Pecos through changes in pottery styles and techniques. In 1927, he invited archeologists to come to Pecos and develop a classification system to help identify the cultural development of the Southwestern people. The system they came up with — Basketmaker and Pueblo — is still in use today and the Pecos Conference is still an important annual meeting for archeologists of the Southwest.
Pecos National Historical Park
Glorietta Mesa Area
Pecos National Historic Park is 30 miles from Las Vegas. From I-25, take the Rowe Interchange 307 and go north on Hwy 63 for five miles to the park entrance. There is no public transportation to the park. For an introduction, go first to the visitor center to see the film and exhibits. In summer, Native Americans and Spanish artists demonstrate traditional crafts.
Guided tours are not regularly scheduled but groups can make arrangements in advance for a guided tour by calling 757-6032. A 1.25 mile self-guiding trail starts at the visitor center and winds through the ruins of Pecos Pueblo and the Mission Church. Visitors are invited to enter two reconstructed kivas.
Accommodations
The park has no overnight lodging; but the town of Pecos, two miles north of the park, has two small inns, and a guest ranch 21 miles north operates during the summer months.
Camping
No camping is permitted in the park. The nearest camping is in Santa Fe National Forest, just north of the park. For information, write: Santa Fe National Forest, Pecos District Ranger Station, Box 429, Pecos, NM 87552.
Access
The visitor center and about 80 percent of the Ruins Trail is accessible by wheelchair. A signed version of the park interpretive film is shown upon request.
The Park of the Future
New lands authorized by Congress in 1990 greatly expanded the park's scope and mission. The Forked Lightning Ranch adds 5,500 acres surrounding the core park. Its resources include 1.5 miles of the Pecos River, several early Puebloan sites, a 19th century Spanish frontier settlement, Santa Fe Trail ruts and the old Kozlowski's Stage Station, a tavern and watering stop on the Santa Fe Trail. A short distance west two 300-acre tracts were set aside to preserve sites associated with Civil War engagements at Glorieta Pass. Check with a park ranger about facilities and programs open to the public.
Pecos National Historical Park
Superintendent
P.O. Box 418
Pecos, NM 87552-0418
Other Points of Interest
Small Villages, Old Mills and Chapels
Don't forget to visit the small villages, old mills and chapels which dot the countryside and valleys of San Miguel County.
Historic St. Anthony's Catholic Church is a landmark and only one of several churches in the area providing worship opportunities.
Heading east from Las Vegas is the historic village of San Miguel del Vado, the major river crossing along the Santa Fe Trail where tariffs were collected.
Take Hwy 518 north from Las Vegas for about 12 miles to Hwy 94 for a pleasant countryside drive that goes through several picturesque villages, including Sapello, Ledoux and Rociada.
Heading east on Hwy 104 between Las Vegas and Conchas Dam, drivers will pass through the village of Trujillo and suddenly descend into the Canyon del Cerro del Corazon, so named because the hill is shaped like a heart. The scenery is dramatic and every curve of the road brings a new view of colorful scenes.
Villanueva
This settlement on Hwy 3, 12 miles south of I-25, is situated on a bluff overlooking the Pecos River, just outside of Villanueva State Park. The village was founded in 1808 and was originally called La Cuesta "the hill, slope". The location was chosen because it was easy to defend against attacks by Plains Indians. In 1890, the villagers petitioned that the village be called Villanueva, for the Villanueva family, whose members still live here.
Trementina
At the junction of Hwys 104 and 419, this settlement is located near Trementina Creek. Trementina means turpentine in Spanish but in local Spanish, it is the term for fresh pitch from New Mexico's state tree, the pinon. Trementina Apaches dwelled there and named it because they applied pinon pitch to woven bottles as waterproofing. The Indians left their name on a creek and the village of farmers and stock raisers was named after the creek. The village was founded in the mid-1870s. By the end of the century, the village had grown to 30 to 40 substantial buildings, with walls of layered stones finished off with mud plaster. The Dust Bowl and Depression caused an exodus, and the last family left in 1959. Shortly before the village's abandonment, several episodes of the television series "Rawhide" were filmed here. While the old town is in ruins, a new village has formed to the west.
