A Grander Church Abó's first priest, Friar Francisco Fonte, supervised construction of the original “San Gregorio de Abó” from 1622-27. In 1640, Friar Francisco de Acevedo became guardian here and began church renovation. When completed in 1651, . . . — — Map (db m235479) HM
A Kiva Here? Rock walls and unearthed relics can tell us only so much about what people believed 350 years ago. The mysterious, round structure before you resembles a kiva. In Pueblo tradition, kivas are underground meeting chambers for . . . — — Map (db m235521) HM
Crossroads In the 17th century, an ancient trade route that linked the Rio Grande to the Great Plains shared this fragile mountain valley with a bustling pueblo full of people who spoke Tompiro. When a single Spanish priest walked into town in . . . — — Map (db m235524) HM
Fred Sisneros' Grave Don Federico “Fred” Sisneros (1894-1988) had close ties to these ruins. His ancestors helped to resettle Abó in 1869. Fred's father owned this land and charged his young son with caring for the old mission. Later, Fred . . . — — Map (db m235527) HM
Mystery in ruins On December 17, 1853 – almost 175 years after the Tompiros and Franciscans left – a U.S. Army expedition came upon Abó. Their leader, Major James H. Carleton, wrote:
In the mystery that envelops everything . . . — — Map (db m235528) HM
New Songs The worn stairs before you endured over 50 years of small Tompiro boys hurrying to join the adults in the choir loft above. Franciscans in Mexico in the 1500s had noted how powerfully music aided their mission efforts. Friars here in . . . — — Map (db m235506) HM
People at Work Ahead and to your right you see a complex maze of rooms: the convento of Mission Abó. Here, two dozen Tompiros tackled many tasks crucial to running a mission – from herding livestock and maintaining church properties to grinding . . . — — Map (db m235501) HM
[English] No one lived at Abó from the 1680s until 1815, when Spanish sheep ranchers resettled here. To protect themselves from hostiles, they built this plazuela – a fortified ranch – with barn and corrals completely enclosed by . . . — — Map (db m235445) HM
Prayers and Hymns For 17th-century Catholics, this church nave was the spiritual heart of Mission San Gregorio de Abó. When worshippers – both the indigenous people and nearby settlers from Spain – came to hear Mass, they stood and knelt. There . . . — — Map (db m235519) HM
These mounds are all that is left of a pueblo that for 300 years was a center for commerce and ceramic production. Indigenous traders from the Great Plains and nearby pueblos came to Abó to barter for pottery, salt, corn, and piñon nuts. . . . — — Map (db m235447) HM
Edward Smith, William Taylor and Oliver P. DeWolfe of Cedarvale Kansas laid out this community in 1908. Hundreds of homesteaders arrived on immigrant trains. Most farmed pinto beans, shipping their crops to distant markets. In 1917 the community . . . — — Map (db m280255) HM
In 1941, Doña Concha became the first female majority whip of a state legislature in the United States. She championed legislation for women's rights, the disabled, and bilingual education. Previously, she founded the first state vocational . . . — — Map (db m280256) HM
Estancia, "resting place", has been on the map since 1776. Known for its spring fed pond, now its city park. It become the county seat in 1905 and was the scene of the last hanging in New Mexico in 1922. — — Map (db m73509) HM
Incorporated in 1909 and county seat of Torrance County since 1905, Estancia is located in an enclosed valley or basin. It was ranching country until the early 20th century, when the coming of the railroad opened it to homesteaders and farmers. . . . — — Map (db m280257) HM
Incorporated in 1909 and county seat of Torrance County since 1905, Estancia is located in an enclosed valley or basin. It was ranching county until the early 20th century, when the coming of the railroad opened it up to homesteaders and farmers. . . . — — Map (db m280258) HM
Eighty-million acres of public land in the West went into private ownership by 1900 through the 1862 Homestead Act. New Mexico drew hundreds of settlers who built homes and farmed 160-acre allotments in pursuit of a better life. Mollie Klapp was . . . — — Map (db m280259) HM
These fodations you see here are 200 years younger than the surrounding walls of the pueblo and mission of Quarai. When Spanish settlers moved back to the Salinas district, they started to build a small church here, using old mission building . . . — — Map (db m274801) HM
Any town in dry country must hunt hard for enough water. But the people who lived on this ridge 400 years ago had no stream nearby to tap for drinking, cooking, and building. Look for a hollowed-out shape on the ground ahead. The basin you see here . . . — — Map (db m281249) HM
Located adjacent to the major east-west trade route through Abó Pass, the Tompiro Pueblo of Abó (ca. 1300s-1670s) was one of the Southwest’s largest Pueblo Indian villages. Extensive Indian house complexes are dominated by the unique buttressed . . . — — Map (db m119761) HM
Franciscan friars were already administering and building for the faith in the neighboring pueblos of Abó and Chililí when the first Spanish missionary came to Quarai in 1627. Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica arrived with only a cartload of tools and his . . . — — Map (db m274841) HM
Crossroads
In the 17th century, an ancient trade route that linked the Rio Grande to the Great Plains shared this fragile mountain valley with a bustling pueblo full of people who spoke Tompiro. When a single Spanish priest walked . . . — — Map (db m62066) HM
Drought-resistant corn, planted eight inches deep on this north slope, was the staff of life for this pueblo. Archeology here reveals tiny fragments of beans, squash, piñon nuts, yucca, and prickly pears, along with the bones of tens of thousands of . . . — — Map (db m281253) HM
...this kingdom is...nearly exhausted...the whole land is at War... no road is safe; everyone travels at risk of his life, for the heathen patrol them all.
...for three years no Crops have been harvested. Last year a great many Christian . . . — — Map (db m274844) HM
The Tompiro Indian “Pueblo de las Humanas" (ca. 1300-1670s) had 1,500 to 2,000 inhabitants and was a trading center with Plains Indians. The village evolved for centuries on the fringe of the Mogollon and Anasazi cultures. There are two large . . . — — Map (db m119759) HM
Founded in 1902, Mountainair developed as a major center for pinto bean farming in the early 20th century until the drought of the 1940s. The region had been occupied earlier by Tompiro and eastern Tiwa pueblo Indians from prehistoric times through . . . — — Map (db m280260) HM
Founded in 1902, Mountainair developed as a major center for pinto bean farming in the early 20th century until the drought of the 1940s. The region had been occupied earlier by Tompiro and eastern Tiwa pueblo Indians from prehistoric times through . . . — — Map (db m280261) HM
This central plaza was a busy place in the 1500s. Here the Jumanos of this village - called Cueloze - cooked, made pottery, fashioned tools, performed ceremonies, and traded their wares. Located at a gateway between Rio Grande Pueblo and . . . — — Map (db m281281) HM
On the edge of the Plains stands the abandoned Tiwa Pueblo Indian village of Quarai (ca. 1200–1670s), the southernmost of the Tiwa villages, located along the eastern flanks of the Manzano Mountains. The Spanish Franciscan mission church of La . . . — — Map (db m119760) HM
Founder of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (Little Brothers), born at Assisi in Umbria, Italy 1181(82) - died 1226.
St. Francis, the Catholic patron saint of animals and the natural world, is remembered for his tenderness to and power over . . . — — Map (db m274798) HM
Located 10 miles from the center of the state, this high desert town was established in 1902. Ancient cities, pinto beans and ranching make its history. The railroad, natural beauty, Salinas Pueblo cultures and a pioneering spirit are reflected in . . . — — Map (db m92608) HM
The "seat of the Inquisition" was wherever the churchman named to head the "Holy Office" resided. In the 1630s, that was here at Quarai.
Hearings to investigate Spanish settlers accused of wrong doctrine or behavior were often . . . — — Map (db m274842) HM
Born in 1602, the venerable Sôr María de Ágreda was a seventeenth century cloistered nun and abbess in Ágreda, Spain.
She was the author of many spiritual treatises, including The Mystical City of God, and was a spiritual and political advisor . . . — — Map (db m274799) HM
The streets and plazas of Quarai stood empty for over 140 years. When Hispanic settlers returned to the Salinas district in the early 1800s, they often built a round watchtower - called a torreón - as part of the fortifications protecting their . . . — — Map (db m274843) HM
Imagine the flat ground you see ahead as a busy square, surrounded on three sides by blocks of stone houses three stories high. Some 600 southern Tiwa people hunted and farmed this area, trading their goods and salt gathered from nearby lakebeds in . . . — — Map (db m274800) HM
...when I began preaching at Las Humanas an Indian sorcerer became infuriated (when) he saw they were satisfied with my explanations and that the whole town had decided to be Christian. He shouted: 'You Spaniards and Christians must be crazy! And . . . — — Map (db m281285) HM
The pueblo-mission of San Miguel de Tajique was established in the 1620s. In the 1670s, famine, disease and Apache raids caused the abandonment of the Jurisdiccion de las Salinas (1598-1678) which included Tajique. Modern occupation of Tajique began . . . — — Map (db m280262) HM
Numerous salt ponds and lakes of which Laguna del Perro is the largest, occur in the lowest part of the Estancia basin, a closed depression between the Manzano Mountains to the west and the lower Pedernal hills to the east. The Basin was filled by a . . . — — Map (db m280263) HM
