Exploring Pecos National Historical Park: A Journey Through History and Culture

Ever wondered how the rich history of Pecos National Historical Park intertwines with diverse cultures and ancient traditions? Join me, Craig, your natural medic, as we traverse through time, exploring the architectural marvels and historical significance nestled in the heart of New Mexico. From the mission church built in 1717 to the sacred Kiva central to Puebloan religious practices, this episode promises a fascinating journey into the past, revealing the unique blend of indigenous and Franciscan cultures that once coexisted here.

Step inside the remnants of the mission church, marvel at the intricate adobe walls, and walk the convento, a covered walkway that connects key structures of the site. Discover the Ramada and the Torreon watchtower, and get a glimpse of the South Pueblo site just north of the church. With every step, you'll uncover layers of history that make Pecos National Historical Park a captivating destination for history enthusiasts and curious travelers alike. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation of the stories and architectural wonders that have stood the test of time.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, welcome. This is Craig, a natural medic. I'm at Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos, new Mexico. A lot of stuff happened here. Just made a little stop into the visitor center and there was a long history of Pueblo people here. There was history of the Santa Fe Trail, lots of different people coming through this area, so it served as a kind of a crossroads for a lot of different peoples and we're going to go explore that today, so I hope you'll join me. So, as I said, pecos National Historical Park is a real diverse park with covering a lot of history.

Speaker 1: 0:37

This was the mission church and it was excavated, and they started excavating in the 1880s and it looks really nice today. This was one of the mission churches that was built here to serve the Pueblo people. Okay, so I'm actually inside the Kiva at Pecos National Historical Park, this Kiva structure, if you can see me walking around it, it's a big cylinder and was central to the Puebloan people's religious practices and it's very unusual to have something like this actually at the mission site. When you see me pop my head out up here, you'll see that this is actually at the church site where the Franciscans built their mission to service the Puebloan people and very unusual. Let's just take a look around here. It's built of a wooden structure, a roof area with timbers. I would imagine this has probably been rebuilt over time been rebuilt over time. I imagine most of this rock and mud structure here pretty much is similar to how it was and you climb down into the ladder or come down into the kiva via ladder, which is right here, just about one story down, so about ten feet. You're actually allowed to go in here. The public is allowed. I did ask one of the rangers because they're working on the corral section over there. I'm not sure what this little area is here. That's pretty interesting. You can see me popping my head out of the Kiva structure right here, the Mission Church right behind me.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Interestingly enough, right around the corner from the Kiva area there is a series of stone structures. Those are the kind of foundational blocks, for lack of a better term. That was called the Ramada and the Torreon, the large formation that is to the right of the ramada, which is over here. This was called the torreon and what that is, a watchtower. So there was a watchtower. That was built because there was a lot of comanche raids that came through here from the plains to the east but this was like a little brush shelter right here. That was built and you would tie your horse up to that. When you visited the mission and I was a visitor commented that I was going backwards. But right here this kind of walkway that I'm on is called the convento and it was like a covered walkway which kind of connected a lot of the different buildings and structures here at the church. You had a kitchen area and other important places that were important here at the church.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So right here is the majority of the remnants of the last church. It was built about 1717. You can see the adobe walls are pretty sound but it has been subject to vandals over the years. Before it became a park you got wooden timbers up at the top. That forms its structure. You have all kinds of really interesting structures here. I'm guessing people were a lot shorter back then because the doorway is a little lower than I would expect. We have some little what I would call little porticos here either side that allow you to go to these chambers here. Just a lookout Tide point right here Probably were taller at the time. Maybe. Pretty neat, pretty neat Little wooden sticks here making up the wall here. What a cool structure, wow, making up the wall here, what a cool structure, wow, so cool.

Speaker 1: 4:50

And then right over there you can see from here, there's trucks going down interstate 25. That's right here in the midst of that. You don't even know this is over here. Yep, the trail backwards, that's okay. So this is the south pueblo. This is another pueblo site that's located just to the north of the churches. You'll see in a second. I was partially right on those churches, not completely, but this is the Pueblos. I don't want you to leave the trail and get in there, because that stuff's very fragile. It's been sitting here for centuries, largely undisturbed, just being weathered, naturally. Pretty amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:30

And they have another kiva structure over here. On this one it says it's a ceremonial room for a kiva and it's been reconstructed. I'm assuming the one I saw earlier also was too. I'm down inside the kiva at the South Pueblo. You can see right here behind me. That's what's behind the mud walls you have a series of rocks that are stacked up, not unlike the ones that we saw that were ruins when I walked up. You have wooden timbers that hold the roof up, you have a place for a fire and you also have behind the ladder. There you have what's called a ventilation shaft and of course it says enter with care because if you fall down in here it might be hard to get you out. But pretty interesting and pretty amazing. This has been reconstructed but it does show you their structure.

Speaker 1: 6:26

So just to give you a little bit of behind the religious beliefs of the Pueblo people the Kiva represents the emergence from the underworld. Coming up the ladder, the Siapu represents the underworld, or, sorry, what lies below the Kiva floor symbolizing the wall and the roof representing what is above. There's a small hole in the floor which is over here. I don't see that hole in the floor. That's called the Sivapu, but I don't see that. But it is supposedly in here in the design of it. A lot of native beliefs I have learned recently do have the people rising up above from the underworld. I'm about to do that myself. Okay, here we go up. Craig is rising from the underworld. The natural medic emerges.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Interestingly enough, right here, at the pretty much the end of the trail where it turns and goes back towards the church, you have a trash pile. This would be, if we gave it a name, the Pecos landfill for the Puebloan people, and archaeologists and anthropologists use this evidence to determine a lot of things about a people. What do you think they're going to determine about us In our future? Archaeologists 100 years from now, 200 years from now or 1,000 years from now digging through our landfills? What are they going to find out about us? But archaeologists do use this stuff because you know what happens when we have something that we use that no longer can be used, it's broken or it's unusable Throw it away. This pile represents lots of things. They found all kinds of pottery shards and, of course, animal bones and all kinds of stuff that were discarded over centuries of people living in the area.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Interesting, nice little overlook of the valley sangria de cristo mountains over here to the. You can see them in this view here. You can see some way off in the distance. I don't know what the names of those particular peaks are, but they still have snow on them and it's currently May the 14th here in New Mexico. So, contrary to popular belief, new Mexico not all of it at least is a desert. Pretty crazy, interestingly enough. The Pueblo artist reconstruction of it. At least it's a desert. Pretty crazy, interestingly enough. The Pueblo Artist Reconstruction, of course, right here on the post, on the wayside exhibit, they're estimating it to be five feet tall, or, excuse me, five stories tall. The Kiva see before us. Of course, it was covered back in the day and it had a ladder to go down and access it. That was the center of their religious practices, that was their church. So everything that was central to them was right here in this whole area. This is what they call the North Pueblo. I believe it's amazing. You can see the church in the distance. We're headed back that way.

Speaker 1: 9:42

Of course, for any settlement, human or otherwise, you have to have sustainability. Sustainability includes water. So what made this area thrive? As you can see down here, some of the trees are changing. You have some probably willow trees and things like that, some more water-loving species. Glorietta Creek is right down there and just a mile away you also have the Pecos River. You can see in this picture. Here they did have to carry water in jugs back up here, but they were able to farm. Here. They were able to raise livestock. They were able to grow crops, but they were able to farm. Here. They were able to raise livestock. They were able to grow crops, even though it was up at a higher elevation it's about 6,900 feet, 7,000 feet somewhere around there they still were able to have a pretty good living here, considering these were pre-European contact people that were living here and thriving here. Yeah, what I said earlier is definitely it's a prime location.

Speaker 1: 10:40

So, looking, using this panel here as a guide for us, the Glorieta Mesa is located up here, to your right there it is. Glorieta Pass is right to the well, to the right of that. As you go, follow the mesa down, there's Glorieta Pass and then you have the Sangre de Cristo Mountains going up over here. So you had a natural pathway for travel, but you also had Glorieta Creek and the Pecos River giving you water and you also had the advantage of being up on this high spot to look for enemies that were coming to do you harm.

Speaker 1: 11:21

So when the Franciscan priests arrived here as part of the Spanish contingent that came to this area and claimed it for a new Spain, they changed the Pueblo people's life like forever and much like the Romans. You know that came before them in Europe. You know they found people and they assimilated those people into their empire and that's what happened here and a lot of other settlements throughout the Southwest, where the Spanish formed colonies. A lot of these people were trying to be assimilated into the Catholic Church as subjects of the Spanish kingdom. And you see, here I was partially right.

Speaker 1: 12:00

This is the 1717 church walls that are left, and the ones here in the foreground are the 1625 church. So they had two churches here. One was built in 1625. One was built in 1717. They both on the same site and, as I said, that drastically changed the lives of the Pueblo people, some for the good and some for the bad. Let you decide which one was worse or better.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So at 1640, the pueblo revolted and they had a unique system of coordinating the attack. They had ropes, they would knot the ropes and the plan was to untie the rope knots, untie the knots and the revolt would begin whenever the knots were totally untied. They viewed the Spanish as oppressors, and the church that was built here in 1625, that was the large church, was completely demolished, which was a symbol of the Spanish power that they had over the Pueblo people. The last church that was built, as I said, was the 1717 church, which was built after they returned to New Mexico. They retreated back into Mexico and this is what you would have seen had you had been there. Their patron saint would have been above the altar Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, which is Our Lady of the Angels, and she would have been hanging basically on that wall back there, which would have been the sanctuary itself as their patron saint. And every August it says St Anthony's Parish in the village of Pecos and the Pueblo of Jimenez would bring a painting of the patron saint and they would have a mass day celebration.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Last part of the mission they're actually doing some construction over here in this area was an area that the Pueblo people used for livestock, not too unlike today's modern New Mexican. They had corrals and pens and raised livestock cattle and goats and things of that nature and used that as part of their way of life. As I said, they made stacked rocks which formed these kind of primitive livestock corrals, or they had the friars that came here as part of the church, introduced domesticated livestock, including sheep, goats, chickens, horses, cows and pigs. They became central to the regional economy here and the Puebloan people kept them in primitive looking stone pins and they are, like I said, they are working on that right now repairing that area as part of a National Park Service project.

Speaker 1: 14:48

So the Battle of Glorieta Pass occurred here, which is also something historic in the National or the Pecos National Historical Park. You saw the Pueblo in the church earlier. So what happened here is referred to as the Gettysburg of the West. The Confederacy wanted to take over the gold mines in Colorado to the north. They wanted to take over the silver mines in Nevada to the west and the ports of California, often referred to as the Gettysburg of the West. Not a very well-known battle, but it did happen and the Confederate forces were defeated and returned back to Texas. It was a group of New Mexico and Colorado volunteers or Union forces, and that was the end of it. What did you think about today's visit to Pecos National Historical Park? We didn't even scratch the surface on a lot of other things that happened, but if you enjoyed it, make sure to give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment below if you've ever been here before or have some questions about the site. Hope you have a great day. See you out on the trail. Bye.