Pecos National Historical Park, NM (Tim)

10/28/17 - Northeast New Mexico

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This a very significant historical site. This is in the Glorieta Pass, the primary path through the mountains from the US Great Plains to the Rio Grande Valley and points west. Indians have lived here for 12,000 years and by the 1400s had built a four-story pueblo town named Pecos to hold 2,000 people.

In the 1500s, the Spanish came and conquered the indians. In the 1600s, indians revolted and kicked the Spanish out, but the spaniards came back with a bigger army. In the 1700s, Mexico kicked the Spanish out and became an independent country. In 1848, the US kicked Mexico out. During the Civil War, a Confederate army came through this pass to try to defeat the the union army at Fort Union, and thus gain control of New Mexico and California. The confederates lost.

The Santa Fe Trail, Route 66, and I-25 all run through this pass.

The only Pecos ruins to be seen are on trails much longer than I cared to attempt at 7,000 feet and with a bad hay fever attack. (Sorry, I have no pictures.)