Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

On September 24 we followed my (Raymona’s) parents down to the Salinas Pueblo Missions area just south of Albuquerque. They were on their way home and we all wanted to see the Pueblos and Missions located at the three sites that make up the National Monument.
We headed south on I-25 to Belen then cut across east to NM 47 and then to NM 60 and Mountainair. All three Pueblo Missions (Abó , Gran Quivira and Quarai) are within short drives of Mountainair, NM – Mom & Dad stayed the night at Turner’s RV Campground on NM 60 , not a great location but at $12 a night for full hookups… It makes an OK overnighter location.

Gran Quivira was established as a national monument in 1909, making it one of the oldest units of the NPS. In 1980 it was combined with Abó and Quarai to form the Salinas (salt) Pueblo Missions National Monument.

East of the Manzanito & Manzano Mountains is the Estancia Basin, once well known for its salt. During the Ice Age, the Estancia Basin encompassed a large lake that was frequented by paleo hunters. Later, after the lake dried up the Mogollon culture built their pit houses in the basin and later the Puebloans began living in the region. (Insight Guides New Mexico-2007) Hundreds of years later the Spaniards arrived and quickly saw the value in the salt deposits, and ‘free’ Indian labor. By the 1600’sFrancisican priests began building missions at several of the pueblos.

Since we didn’t arrive until 12:30 PM we decided to see Gran Quivira first as it was the furthest away and the largest of the ruins; located 26 miles south of Mountainair on NM 55. According to the NPS, Gran Quivira was a powerful trading hub at the time of the Spanish conquest, known then as Pueblo de las Humanas. Water was scarce then, Indians used pozos (cisterns) to collect water and mastered the art of dry-farming. This lack of water doomed the missionary efforts and ultimately the decline and desertion of the pueblos and their missions.

Gran QuiviraMission

Inside Gran Quivira Mission and Dad

Pueblo Ruins at Gran Quivira

This ruin is terrific, they have unexcavated some of the actual pueblo ruins as well as the first church (San Isidro, 1629) and the outer walls of the second church (San Buenaventura-1660) are still standing. Neither of the churches were ever completed and the constant drought conditions inevitably doomed it – by the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, Gran Quivera and the other Salinas Pueblos were empty.

The second mission we made it to was Quarai. Quarai is located 8 miles north of Mountainair on NM 55 and has the largest, most well preserved mission church of the three pueblo ruins. This mission is located in a much greener valley than the high, lonely plateau that Gran Quivera inhabits. The most spectacular scene here is by far the beautiful mission church “Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepcíon (1626). The pueblo of Cuarac still lies buried underneath grassy mounds. The pueblo trail lead under giant cottonwood trees and winds through these large mounds, just leaving you to guess at the hustle & bustle that everyday life must have entailed for these people.

Mission at Quarai

Mission at Quarai

Window above Quarai Mission entry

Unfortunately, these Puebloans way of life changed and not necessarily for the better with the coming of the Spaniards. They were required to convert to Christianity and to serve the friars and settlers . They were also required to support a tribute system, encomienda, which allowed soldiers and settlers to collect cloth, grain, etc annually from the Pueblo people in exchange for “protection”.

By the time of the Pueblo Revolt most of the surviving Puebloans from this area were dispersed to the Pueblo regions of the middle & upper Rio Grande leaving behind these magnificent ruins and little else to tell us of their lives.

We did not make it to Abó as the missions all close at 5 PM but someday, I hope we can come back and explore it as well. We bid Mom & Dad good-bye after a dinner in Mountainair and then we headed back home to Bernalillo. We took a different way home – a bit more scenic and perhaps a smidgen bit faster as well: NM 55 to Hwy 337 to Tijeras, then I-40 to Abq and I-25 home.