New Mexico's Historic Sites
New Mexico is home to a rich array of historic sites that reflect its diverse cultural heritage, spanning Native American history, European settlement, and significant military events. One notable site is the Big Bead Mesa, an ancient fortified Navajo village that illustrates the complex interactions between the Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache peoples from the 18th century. The Folsom Site, known for its archaeological significance, confirms early human presence in North America, showcasing the region's long history. Art enthusiasts may find the Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio in Abiquiu particularly intriguing, as it captures the essence of O'Keeffe’s artistic vision and her connection to the New Mexico landscape.
The civil war era is represented by the Glorieta Pass Battlefield, where a pivotal conflict shaped the course of the Confederate invasion of New Mexico. Other notable sites include the historic Lincoln District, a preserved cowtown with ties to the infamous Lincoln County War, and the Mesilla Plaza, which retains its traditional Mexican village character. Sites like the Trinity Site, the location of the first atomic bomb test, and the White Sands V-2 Launching Site highlight New Mexico’s role in military and scientific advancements. These historic sites offer a glimpse into the complexities of New Mexico's past, attracting visitors interested in exploring its multifaceted identity.
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New Mexico's Historic Sites
Big Bead Mesa
Location: Near Ojo del Padre, Sandoval County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Occupied from about 1745 to 1812, this is an impressive fortified Navajo village site. After moving into the Big Bead Mesa region, the Navajos established a stronghold that menaced the pueblos of Laguna and Ácoma and formed an alliance with the Gila Apaches. The site is an important representative of patterns of trade and raiding that characterized Navajo relations with Pueblos, Apache, and Hispanics.
Folsom Site
Location: Folsom, Colfax County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: The archaeological discoveries at this site confirmed theories of the early advent of humans in America.
Georgia O’Keeffe Home and Studio
Location: Abiquiu, Rio Arriba County
Relevant issues: Art and architecture
Statement of significance:Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) occupies a pivotal, pioneering position in American art. She created her own style by adapting early modernist tenets to quintessentially American motifs. Her stark paintings of cattle skulls bleached by the desert sun are familiar to all. From 1949 until her death, O’Keeffe lived and worked here at Abiquiu. The buildings and their surroundings, along with the views they command, inspired many of her paintings, and continue to provide great insight into her vision. The home and studio are maintained by the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation and are open to the public.
Glorieta Pass Battlefield
Location: Santa Fe, Santa Fe County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history
Statement of significance: In February, 1862, a Confederate brigade of 2,500 Texans marched up the Rio Grande Valley, with the intention of driving through Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and on to Denver; 1,300 federal soldiers moved to intercept them. The armies met at Glorieta Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26-28, 1862) ended a Confederate invasion of New Mexico that threatened to seize a large part of the Southwest.
Hawikuh
Location: Zuñi, Valencia County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, European settlement, Latino history
Statement of significance: Established in the 1200s and abandoned in 1680, the Zuñi pueblo of Hawikuh, largest of the “Cities of Cíbola,” was the first pueblo seen by Spanish explorers. In 1539, the black scout Estevan became the first non-Indian to reach this area; he was killed by the people of Hawikuh as he entered their city. The next year, when the Coronado Expedition reached the fabled pueblo, they found not gold but a small, crowded, dusty sandstone village.
Lincoln Historic District
Location: Lincoln, Lincoln County
Relevant issues: Cultural history, Western expansion
Statement of significance: This is one of the best preserved of the cowtowns that sprang up along the cattleman’s frontier in the years following the Civil War. To it drifted cowboys, badmen, gunfighters, rustlers, soldiers, and famous lawmen; it was the scene of courtroom battles, public executions, and gunfights. Disputes over water, government beef contracts, and grazing rights led to the armed conflict known as the Lincoln County War of 1878, which ended in a three-day gun battle on the streets of Lincoln.
Mesilla Plaza
Location: Las Cruces, Dona Ana County
Relevant issues: European settlement, Latino history
Statement of significance: Mesilla was founded in 1848 by the Mexican government to bring Mexican citizens from territory recently ceded to the United States into Mexican domain; by the terms of the Gadsden Purchase Treaty (1851), the town became part of the United States. The town retains the flavor of a Mexican village.
Raton Pass
Location: Raton, Colfax County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history, western expansion
Statement of significance: In 1821, Raton Pass was “opened” for wagon traffic to Santa Fe by Captain William Becknell. The pass played a crucial role in Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny’s conquest of New Mexico in 1846, and the Colorado Volunteers’ stanching of the Confederate invasion in 1862. From 1861 to 1865 much of the traffic to Santa Fe crossed the Pass, as Confederate raiders and the threat of attack by some Southern Plains Indians halted traffic over the Cimarron Cutoff.
Seton Village
Location: Santa Fe, Santa Fe County
Relevant issues: Cultural history
Statement of significance: The Village grew up around the forty-five-room “castle” built by Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946), artist, author, scientist, and one of America’s greatest naturalists. Seton was chair of the committee that brought the Boy Scout movement to the United States; he served as Chief Scout and wrote the first Scout manual.
Trinity Site
Location: Bingham, Socorro County
Relevant issues: Military history, science and technology
Web site: www.wsmr.army.mil/paopage/pages/trinst.htm
Statement of significance: Here, on the bleak and barren desert of the Jornada del Muerto, the world’s first atomic device was exploded on July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 A.M.
Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong
Location: Columbus, Luna County
Relevant issues: Military history
Statement of significance: On March 9, 1916, approximately 485 Mexican revolutionaries under the command of General Francisco “Pancho” Villa (1878-1923) crossed into the United States and attacked the sleeping border town of Columbus, killing ten civilians and eight soldiers. Without consulting the Mexican government, President Woodrow Wilson ordered a punitive expedition, led by General John J. Pershing, into Mexico to capture Villa and prevent further raids across the international border.
Watrous (La Junta)
Location: Watrous, Mora County
Relevant issues: Western expansion
Statement of significance: Here, at the settlement of La Junta de los Rios Mara y Sapello, the Mountain and Cimarron Cutoff Routes of the Santa Fe Trail joined. Wagon trains organized here before entering hostile Indian territory. In 1879, the Santa Fe Railroad laid out the present town of Watrous to the east.
White Sands V-2 Launching Site
Location: White Sands Missile Range, Dona Ana County
Relevant issues: Aviation history, science and technology
Statement of significance: This site is closely associated with U.S. testing of the German V-2 rocket, the origins of the American rocket program, and the leadership of Dr. Wernher von Braun (1912-1977). The V-2 Gantry Crane and Army Blockhouse here represent the first generation of rocket testing facilities that would lead to U.S. exploration of space.
Zuñi-Cíbola Complex
Location: Zuñi, Valencia County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: A series of sites on the Zuñi Reservation, containing house ruins, kivas, pictographs, petroglyphs, trash mounds, and a mission church and convent. They have proven to be an important source of material for ethnological studies of the early Zuñi, Mogollon, and Anasazi cultures. They include the Village of the Great Kivas, Yellow House, Hawikuh, and Kechipbowa.
Julyan, Robert. Hiking to History: A Guide to Off-Road New Mexico Historic Sitis. University of New Mexico Press, 2016.
Pike, Arthur and David Pike. Detour New Mexico: Historic Destinations and Natural Wonders. The History Press, 2017.
"Seven New Mexico Historic Sites--Embrace the Stories That Make New Mexico." Sante Fe!, 28 Aug. 2023, santafe.com/7-new-mexico-historic-sites/. Accessed 3 June 2024.