![]() ![]() Oñate, along with settlers and herds of cattle, traveled through the arid Chihuahua Desert and crossed the Rio Grande River at modern-day El Paso in 1598. In the mid-1500’s, explorer Juan de Oñate received permission from the king of Spain to conduct the first colonization expedition 1,500 miles north of Zacatecas into what is today the State of New Mexico. The bumpy wagon trail was flooded with silver being carted back to the capital where it was smelted, stamped, and shipped to Spain. The Spanish renamed the captured capital city of Tenochtitlan, Cuidad de Mexico (Mexico City), and soon the first leg of the Camino Real began there, going north to the Zacatecas mountains where massive deposits of silver had been discovered. Spanish explorer Hernán Cortéz landed in Mexico in 1518 and conquered the Aztec empire by 1521. Spanish conquistadors and colonizers created what would eventually be known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro by connecting old indigenous footpaths and trade routes. ![]() Mesilla Plaza is home to Spanish-inspired architecture The 52-acre park is also the site of an archaic wetland and botanical garden, with walking paths where visitors can view the 193 species of birds that live there. Some are over 4,000 years old and are believed to indicate the location of one of the largest and oldest villages in the present-day United States. Keystone Heritage Park, which is a certified partner of the National Park Service, also showcases ancient ruins. For more information, the NPS has also published an online book about the early Pecos People and their interactions with the Spanish: Kiva, Cross and Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540 – 1840. The National Park Service manages the site of Pecos Pueblo, an almost 500-year-old adobe ruin and offers tours and educational programs regarding the pueblo, the park’s other historic structures, and the natural landscape. Kuaua Ruin is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is featured in the American Southwest Travel Itinerary.īoth Pecos National Historical Park near Santa Fe, NM and Keystone Heritage Park in El Paso, TX preserve remains of early American Indian cultures in the Southwest. Accessible to the public, these paintings are some of the finest examples of Pre-Columbian mural art in the United States. A Works Progress Administration excavation of the site in the 1930s revealed a square kiva with many layers of mural paintings. Kuaua Ruin (Coronado State Monument) in Bernalillo, New Mexico, features the archeological remains of a Tiwa settlement from around 1300 AD. Visitors along the El Camino Real National Historic Trail have many opportunities to learn more about these early people through the built environment and cultural remnants they left behind. When Spanish explorers first entered the area in the early 1500s, American Indian peoples often guided them through the unfamiliar and daunting landscape. These footpaths, such as the Rio Grande Pueblo Indian Trail, were likely established around 1000 AD and branched throughout the northern Rio Grande region, spanning south through the Rio Grande Valley. Long before Europeans arrived in what is now the Southwestern United States, American Indian groups had established trade routes for commerce between tribes as well as the ancient cultures in present-day Mexico. Tribes such as the Pecos Indians populated northern New Mexico during the Spanish exploration in the early 1500s Many historic destinations listed in the National Register of Historic Places and hiking trails welcome travelers and tourists along the historic route, and much of El Camino Real is easily accessible by car. Visitors along the trail route can experience these influences through the traditional architecture, landscapes, place names, cultural institutions, music, folklore, foods, and language that still distinguish the region. The commercial and social exchanges that occurred over the centuries helped create the rich cultural mix that is still present today in the American Southwest. El Camino Real helped make possible the European exploration, conquest, colonization, settlement, religious conversion, and military occupation of a large area of the borderlands from 1598 to 1885.ĭesignated a National Historic Trail in 2000, El Camino Real is a symbol of the early cultural interaction between nations and multiple ethnic groups in the Southwest. For nearly 300 years, the trail remained the principal trade route between New Mexico and the regions of Spanish-occupied New Spain, located to the south. It is the earliest Euro-American trade route in the United States and historically continued roughly 1,000 miles further south to Mexico City. The United States’ segment of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, spans 404 miles between San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, and the present-day national border with Mexico at El Paso, Texas. ![]()
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