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Lots of history in Pecos and Glorieta |
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By | The New Mexican
May 17, 2006
People have lived in the Pecos area for at least 900 years, according to archaeologists’ dating of the Pecos Pueblo origins. By the 14th century, Pecos was a thriving center of trade between Puebloans and the Plains tribes. Pecos Pueblo at its apex was home to about 2,000 people living in a complex up to five stories high.
The impact of the 1580 Spanish conquest, along with disease, diminished trade, and intra-tribal conflicts caused the demise of the Pueblo. In 1838 the last 17 Pecos Indians abandoned the site. They went first to Sandia Pueblo and then were invited to join Jemez Pueblo, according to a short history of the region in Mi Pecos (Aspectos Culturales, 2002).
In May 1999 the remains of more than 2,000 people were returned by the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology in Massachusetts to Pecos. The people from Jemez Pueblo walked from Jemez carrying the remains to Pecos, following the same route the Pecos people had followed in 1838.
The Spanish settlement of the Pecos area began in the late 1700s. After the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed property rights to preexisting settlers, but much of the land was claimed by the United States government or snatched by powerful Anglo merchants and politicians.
During the Civil War an important event took place in the Glorieta-Apache Canyon area. The bloody Battle of Glorieta Pass on March 26-28, 1862, foiled a Confederate advance out of Texas that was designed to facilitate the expansion of the Confederacy into Colorado and west all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Historians refer to the battle as the “Gettysburg of the West.”
The main battlefields are within the boundaries of today’s Pecos National Historical Park but further protections are needed, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Civil War Preservation Trust. “Pigeon’s Ranch, the very heart of the Glorieta Pass battlefield, is suffering from neglect and public indifference,” according to the trust’s Web site. “An adobe building that was a battle landmark and served as a field hospital sits only feet away from State Route 50. Vibrations from the traffic are slowly weakening the structure.”
Pecos National Historical Park also holds the ruins of Pecos Pueblo and of two Spanish mission churches there. The earlier church, Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Porciuncula, was completed in 1625 and was the largest European structure north of the Mexican border. It was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, then was rebuilt in 1717.
Also in the park are 5,500 acres of the Forked Lightning Ranch built in 1925 by famed rodeo producer Tex Austin and later owned by Buddy Fogelson and actress Greer Garson. The old ranch, designed by Santa Fe architect John Gaw Meem, was donated to the National Park Service in 1993.
In 1926 Meem also designed a Pecos home for Tom Wyles. “This house, called El Rinconcito, was designed in the early stages of Meem’s career, and was evidently a proving ground for some of his more famous design concepts,” Bainbridge Bunting wrote in John Gaw Meem: Southwestern Architect.
Pecos and Glorieta are home to several important religious buildings, among them the Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, the 54-year-old Glorieta Conference Center owned by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church in Pecos.
Among the adornments in Saint Anthony’s is a painting of Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles given to the Pueblo of Pecos by the king of Spain in the early 18th century and entrusted to Saint Anthony’s after the abandonment of Pecos Pueblo.
Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church is one of the finest surviving examples of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy’s Frenchinspired Gothic architecture in New Mexico, according to Juan B. Varela, writing in Mi Pecos. Completed in 1906, it is constructed of local quarried stone instead of the traditional adobe.
The Pecos Benedictine Monastery, in partnership with the Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, has a new business in brewing. “Things are moving along,” said brewmaster Brad Kraus. “We’ve had product out since mid-January.”
The main product, Monk’s Ale, is available on tap at Bishop’s Lodge, Aqua Santa, Café Paris, and Cafe San Estevan.
“This is a Belgian-style abbey ale, more in the style of what the monks would consume in cloister,” Kraus said. “In most cases the monastery breweries in Europe would brew stronger ales for the outside, but we thought we would turn that around so our main product is the beer the monks would drink.”
Tests of the local well water at the monastery showed it to be nearly identical to the water used for the famous Chimay Monastery beer in Belgium. Kraus employs yeast from the Trappist monastery in Orval, Belgium; three Belgian malts; and “noble” hops: hallertauer, Saaz, and Styrian golding.
Kraus is experimenting with recipes at a small pilot brewery at the Pecos monastery, but the main production is done by contract with Sierra Blanca Brewing Company in Carrizozo.
“We’re not doing anything to try to upset the monastic existence at Pecos,” Kraus said. “This is really to help them be more self-sustaining, since they get no money from the Archdiocese.”
Nearby Monastery Lake, which the State Game Commission leases from the Benedictines, is open to the public for fishing. A little further up the road is Lisboa Springs State Hatchery, the state’s oldest hatchery. Built in 1921, the hatchery provides stocker rainbows for anglers on the Pecos River and many other northern waters, as well as fingerlings and fry to grow in the wild. In April 2005, after a wet late winter and early spring, the state stocked hundreds of trout from the Lisboa Springs Fish Hatchery into the Santa Fe River, which uncharacteristically flowed for several months.
Speaking of fishing, the state record for longnose gar was made on the Pecos River in 1986. Fishing and hunting attract people to Cow Creek Ranch, Santa Fe Flyfishers, Bear Creek Adventures, and the Pecos Bar X Bar Ranch.
Pollution from old mining operations has resulted in catastrophic fish kills in Pecos waters. In 1991, contaminants carried by snow melt caused the death of 90,000 fish in the Pecos River.
The local history of mining dates to 1881, when prospector J.J. Case discovered an ore body containing fairly high-grade copper, lead, and zinc near the confluence of the Pecos and Willow Creek. Miners later discovered some silver and gold in the area.
On Jan. 1, 1927, the American Metal Company began operations at the Terrero Mine, which soon supported the state’s largest payroll. Many local people - those who weren’t earning livelihoods farming or cutting trees for railroad ties - worked at the Terrero mines, according to Mi Pecos. At its height there were 3,000 residents, and 14 dance halls, in Terrero.
During the 12 years of operations nearly 2.3 million tons of ore from the Terrero Mine were loaded on an aerial tramway and transported 12 miles to a 50-acre mill and tailings complex, known locally as El Molino, along Alamitos Creek.
Large-scale mining ceased in 1939 but tailings were left to leach poisonous metals into the soil and water. In recent years the state and the companies with responsibility for the site have worked to clean up the mine waste, which has leaked pollutants including lead, copper, zinc, silver, and cyanide into Willow Creek and the Pecos River.
Pecos has grown dramatically in recent years. According to a housing study by the Northern New Mexico Economic Development District, the population of the village increased by more than 42 percent - from 1,012 to 1,441 people - between the 1990 and 2000 census counts. The 2000 census listed 241 residents at poverty status, although the authors of the 2004 San Miguel County Comprehensive Plan found, “Residents who attended planning forums feel they have a high quality of life even though incomes tend to be low.”
Citizens who attended meetings during work on the plan spoke of deep pride in their Hispanic heritage, with its strong family ties and community spirit. All affirmed a strongly held ethic of self-reliance, independence and an eagerness to pitch-in and help others.
Many residents, according to the plan document, see themselves as “weekend” farmers or ranchers, commuting to work at desk jobs in Santa Fe and Las Vegas during the week and returning to manage family landholdings and care for elderly parents on their days off.
Concerns identified in the plan include affordable housing, jobs, preservation of historic buildings, and water supply.
--------------------------It was an arranged interview, but when the reporter showed up at the Pecos resident’s door the first thing he said was, “No pictures, no names.” We’ll call him Mr. X.
As a little kid he worked at dude ranches up at Cow Creek. After high school we went up to Los Alamos as a laborer, then had a career in the military. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and in the Army in Korea.
He built his house in 1959 using local adobes. The walls inside he covered with tongue-and-groove boards made from local ponderosa pine and finished it with spar varnish. It still looks good after 40 years or so. “It was blood, sweat, and tears,” he said, quoting from Winston Churchill’s first speech as prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1940. “Once I was making more than $1 an hour,” Mr. X added, “I put in hardwood floors.”
He made the kitchen cabinets and many of the furnishings himself as well. “There were woodworking classes in Santa Fe and some of us veterans got together and had them come out here,” he said. Eliseo Rodriguez was one of the teachers.
Mr. X remembered that most people in the old days didn’t ever lock their doors. He mentioned a tuberculosis epidemic in the area during the 1930s. He said junipers and Chinese elms have taken over since he was a kid, when there was mostly grass and piñon trees.
He used to go fishing a lot “in all the little creeks before there were ‘No Trespassing’ signs everywhere, and it’s the same thing with hunting.”
A history in the San Miguel County Comprehensive Plan notes that the county was one of the most prosperous agricultural counties in the state during the 19th century. Mr. X lamented that today a lot of the old agricultural parcels now have mobile homes on them. He wishes the young people would build adobes like he did instead of bringing in all these “trailers.” He said some people still use acequias for farming and gardening, and raising feed for cattle.
Commuting is a way of life for most Pecos residents nowadays - except for those who work for the schools and the village government and the few stores and restaurants. Everybody else, said Mr. X, has to get up at 5 a.m. to get ready to drive to jobs in Santa Fe or Las Vegas.
I had a talk with Pecos resident Mike Varela, who works part-time as a parking-garage attendant in Santa Fe. In fact, he takes turns there with another Pecos man, Felix Sena. Both are retired from the National Park Service. Sena is a music man. He has a band, singing corridas, stories of Northern New Mexico.
Varela was born and raised in Pecos. After high school he went to Victorville, Calif., then to Korea in the U.S. Marine Corps. “I was wounded, then I came back and found me a girl,” he said. That was Frances Lujan. The two will celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary on April 28. They have four children, all living in Northern New Mexico, and six grandchildren.
Varela built his house starting in 1967 when he began working for the Park Service. He got his adobe bricks in Santa Fe and built the walls on a concrete-block foundation with river rocks at the corners, then added a pitched, metal roof.
“I did a lot of excavations at Pecos for the Park Service archaeologists,” he recalled. “I worked at Pecos National Monument [the precursor to Pecos National Historical Park] for four or five summers then I transferred to Arizona. I worked as facilities manager at El Morro then Hubble Trading Post, then I retired at the new park El Malpais.”
Varela said Pecos has been a good place to live. He used to do a lot of fishing and hunting when he was younger.
Pecos has so far been fortunate in not losing too many piñon trees to the drought and the bark beetles, unlike many areas to the west. That’s good for people who love the nuts. “We picked about 80 pounds just recently around our house,” Varela said.
How does he prepare the nuts? “You just toast ‘em and eat ‘em,” he said.
Ignacio de Herrera was taking a break on a recent afternoon at Kristina’s, a popular Pecos restaurant for the past 15 years. He’s a landscaper who works with plants and rock, mostly in the Santa Fe area. The continuing drought may mean trouble for him.
“The problem is work,” he said. “People don’t want to plant if you can’t water things. If it gets too slow I might want to go up to Denver, but my family might not want to move.”
De Herrera has a son who will graduate from high school soon. He might not mind going up to Denver, but his other boy is a freshman and he won’t be too happy if he has to leave all his friends.
Dad has seen another impact from the dry times in the alfalfa crop. “I have racehorses and I get my hay in Las Vegas and it’s already gone up from $6.50 to $8.50,” de Herrera said. “I have one horse, A Major Mojo, who’s running Wednesday [March 22] at Albuquerque Downs. We’ll see how he does.”
De Herrera was born in Rowe and still lives there. I asked him what’s going on in Rowe these days.
“The wind,” he answered. “That’s what everybody always says when you ask ‘em what’s happening in Rowe.”
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