Images of Pecos National Historical Park – Northern New Mexico, taken in September 2017.

The Pecos area of northern New Mexico has been a key path to the west for hundreds of years. The reason is Glorieta Pass, a channel through the Sangre de Christo Mountains traveled by the Indians, Spanish and settlers alike. It is the path used by the Santa Fe Trail, a major travel route in the 1800’s; the railroad in the late 1800’s through the twentieth century; Route 66 starting in the mid 1920’s and by I-25 today.

The Pueblo Cicuye was established in the mid 1300’s and eventually expanded by Spanish Franciscan Friars with the destruction of Pueblo religious beliefs and the construction of the mission midway through the 1500’s. The area went through waves of revolts, Comanche attacks and eventually drought and disease and was abandon around 1838 just as the wagon trains along the Santa Fe Trail were moving steadily west right past the once booming cultural center.

The pass was also the sight of the 1862 Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass, also known as the Gettysburg of the West. With Union soldiers routing the Texas Confederates the South was forced to end their campaign to take over New Mexico and their quest to capture lands all the way to the Pacific Ocean.