Aardbargain Guide to New Mexico
An Intelligent Guide to the Land of Enchantment
A Visit to the Aboriginal Ruins in the Valley of the Rio Pecos
About thirty miles to the south-east of the city of Santa Fé, and in
the western sections of the district of San Miguel (New Mexico), the
upper course of the Rio Pecos traverses a broad valley, extending in
width from east to west about six or eight miles, and in length from
north-west to south-east from twenty to twenty-five. Its boundaries
are,—on the north and north-east, the Sierra de Santa Fé, and the
Sierra de Santa Bárbara, or rather their southern spurs; on the west
a high mesa or table land, extending nearly parallel to the
river until opposite or south of the peak of Bernal; on the east,
the Sierra de Tecolote. The altitude of this valley is on an average
not less than six thousand three hundred feet,
while the mesa on the right bank of the river rises abruptly
to nearly two thousand feet higher; the Tecolote chain is certainly
not much lower, if any; and the summits of the high Sierras in the
north rise to over ten thousand feet at least.
The Rio Pecos (which empties into the Rio Grande fully five degrees
more to the south, in the State of Texas) hugs, in the upper part of
the valley, closely to the mountains of Tecolote, and thence runs
almost directly north and south. The high mesa opposite,
known as the Mesa de Pecos, sweeps around in huge semicircles, but
in a general direction from north-west to south-east. The upper part
of the valley, therefore, forms a triangle, whose apex, at the
south, would be near San José: whereas its base-line at the north
might be indicated as from the Plaza de Pecos to Baughl's Sidings;
or rather from the Rio Pecos, east of the town, to the foot of the
mesa on the west, a length of over six miles. Nearly in the
centre of this triangle, two miles west of the river, and one and a
half miles from Baughl's, there rises a narrow, semicircular cliff
or mesilla, over the bed of a stream known as the Arroyo de
Pecos. The southern end of this tabular
cliff (its highest point as well as its most sunny slope) is covered
with very extensive ruins, representing, as I shall hereafter
explain, three distinct kinds of occupation of the place by man.
These ruins are known under the name of the Old Pueblo of Pecos.
The tourist who, in order to reach Santa Fé from the north, takes
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad at La Junta,
Colorado,—fascinated as he becomes by the beauty as well as by the
novelty of the landscape, while running parallel with the great
Sierra Madre, after he has traversed the Ratonis at daybreak,—enters
a still more weird country in the afternoon. The Rio Pecos is
crossed just beyond Bernal, and thence on he speeds towards the west
and north: to the left, the towering Mesa de Pecos, dark pines
clambering up its steep sides; to the right, the broad valley,
scooped out, so to say, between the mesa and the Tecolote
ridge. It is dotted with green patches and black clusters of cedar
and pine shooting out of the red and rocky soil. Scarcely a house is
visible, for the casitas of adobe and wood nestle mostly in
sheltered nooks. Beyond Baughl's, the ruins first strike his view;
the red walls of the church stand boldly out on the barren
mesilla; and to the north of it there are two low brown ridges,
the remnants of the Indian houses. The bleak summits of the high
northern chain seem to rise in height as he advances; even the
distant Trout mountains (Sierra de la Trucha) loom up solemnly
towards the head-waters of the Pecos. About Glorieta the vale
disappears, and through the shaggy crests of the Cañon del Apache,
which overlooks the track in awful proximity, he sallies out upon
the central plain of northern New Mexico, six thousand eight hundred
feet above the sea-level. To the south-west the picturesque Sandia
mountains; to the west, far off, the
Heights of Jemez and the Sierra del Valle, bound the level and
apparently barren table-land. An hour more of fearfully rapid
transit with astonishing curves, and, at sunset, he lands at La
Villa Real de Santa-Fé.
Starting back from Santa Fé towards Pecos on a dry, sandy
wagon-road, we lose sight of the table-land and its environing
mountain-chain, when turning into the ridges east of Manzanares.
Vegetation, which has been remarkably stunted until now, improves in
appearance. However rocky the slopes are, tall pines grow on them
sparsely: the Encina appears in thickets; Opuntia arborescens
bristles dangerously as a large shrub; mammillary cactuses hide in
the sand; even an occasional patch of Indian corn is found in the
valleys. It is stunted in growth,
flowering as late as the last days of the month of August, and
poorly cultivated. The few adobe buildings are mostly recent. Over a
high granitic ridge, grown over with piñon (all the trees
inclined towards the north-east by the fierce winds that blow along
its summit), and from which the Sierra de Sandia for the last time
appears, we plunge into a deep valley, emptying into the Cañoncito,
and thence follow the railroad track again through a deep gorge and
pleasant bottom, overgrown with pines and cedars, past Glorieta to
Baughl's. It required all the skill and
firmness of my friend and companion, Mr. J. D. C. Thurston, of the
Indian Bureau at Santa Fé, to pilot our vehicle over the steep and
rocky ledges. From Baughl's, where I took quarters at the temporary
boarding-house of Mrs. Root (to whose kindness and motherly
solicitude I owe a tribute of sincere gratitude), a good road leads
to the east and south-east along the Arroyo de Pecos. In a direct
line the distance to the ruins is but a mile and a half; but after
nearing the banks of the stream (which there are grassy levels), one
is kept at a distance from it by deep parallel gulches. So we have
to follow the arroyo downwards, keeping about a quarter of a
mile to the west of it, till, south of the old church itself, the
road at last crosses the wide and gravelly bed, in which a fillet of
clear water is running. Then we ascend a gradual slope of sandy and
micaceous soil, thinly covered by tufts of grama; a wide,
circular depression strikes our eye; beyond it flat mounds of
scarcely 0.50 m.—20 in.—elevation are covered extensively with
scattered and broken stones. Further on distinct foundations appear,
rectangles enclosed by, or founded originally upon, thick walls of
stone, sunk into the ground and much worn,—sometimes divided into
small compartments, again forming large enclosures. To the south a
conspicuous, though small, mound is visible. Immediately before us,
due north, are distinct though broken walls of stones; and above
them, on a broad terrace of red earth, completely shutting off the
mesilla or tabulated cliff, on which the Indian houses stand,
there arises the massive former Catholic temple of Pecos.
The building forms a rectangle, about 46 m.—150 ft.—long, from east
to west, and 18 m.—60 ft.—from north to south. The entrance was to
the west, the eastern wall being still solid and standing. The roof
of the building is gone, and on the south side a part of the walls
themselves are reduced to a few metres elevation. The church may
originally have been not less than 10 m.—33 ft.—perhaps higher. It
had, according to tradition, but one belfry and a single bell,—a
very large one at that. The Indians carried it off, it is said, to
the top of the mesa, where it broke. It is certain that a
very large bell, of which I saw one fragment, now in possession of
Mr. E. K. Walters, of Pecos, was found on the western slope of the
Mesa de Pecos, about three miles from its eastern rim, in a
cañada of the Ojo de Vacas stream, towards San Cristóbal. Mr.
Thomas Munn, of Baughl's, took the pains of piloting me a whole day
(6th of September) through the wilderness of the mesa, and
showing me the place where this interesting relic was finally
deposited. I shall return to this by and by.
Mrs. Kozlowski (wife of a Polish gentleman, living two miles south on the arroyo) informed me that in 1858, when she came to her present home with her husband, the roof of the church was still in existence. Her husband tore it down, and used it for building out-houses; he also attempted to dig out the corner-stone, but failed. In general, the vandalism committed in this venerable relic of antiquity defies all description. It is only equalled by the foolishness of such as, having no other means to secure immortality, have cut out the ornaments from the sculptured beams in order to obtain a surface suitable to carve their euphonious names. All the beams of the old structure are quaintly, but still not tastelessly, carved; there was much scroll-work terminating them. Most of this was taken away, chipped into uncouth boxes, and sold, to be scattered everywhere. Not content with this, treasure-hunters, inconsiderate amateurs, have recklessly and ruthlessly disturbed the abodes of the dead.
"After becoming Christians," said to me Sr. Mariano Ruiz, the only
remaining 'son of the tribe' of Pecos, still settled near to its
site, "they buried their dead within the church." These dead have
been dug out regardless of their position relative to the walls of
the building, and their remains have been scattered over the
surface, to become the prey of relic-hunters. The Roman Catholic
Archbishop of New Mexico has finally stopped such abuses by
asserting his title of ownership; but it was far too late. It cannot
be denied, besides, that his concession to Kozlowski to use some of
the timber for his own purposes was subsequently interpreted by
others in a manner highly prejudicial to the preservation of the
structure.
What alone has saved the old church of Pecos from utter ruin has
been its solid mode of construction. Entirely of adobe, its walls
have an average thickness of 1.5 m.—5 ft. The adobe is made like
that now used, wheat-straw entering into it occasionally; but it
also contains small fragments of obsidian,—minute chips of that
material and broken pottery. This makes it evident that the soil for
its construction must have been gathered somewhere near the
mesilla; and the suspicion is very strong on my part that it was
the right bank of the arroyo which furnished the material.
It is self-evident that the grounds which were used for that purpose
must have antedated, in point of occupation, the date of the
construction of the church by a very long period. I have measured
all the adobe bricks of the church that are within easy reach, at
various places, and found them alike. They all measure .55 m. × .28
m.—22 in. × 11 in.—and .08 m.—3 in.—in thickness.
The regularity with which these courses are laid is very striking.
The timbers, besides, are all well squared; the ornaments, scrolls,
and friezes are quaint, but not uncouth; there is a deficiency in
workmanship, but great purity in outline and in design.
To the south of the old church, at a distance of 4 m.—13 ft.—there
is another adobe wall, rising in places a few metres above the soil;
which wall, with that of the church, seems to have formed a covered
passage-way. Adjoining it is a rectangular terrace of red earth,
extending out to the west as far as the church front. A valuable
record of the manner in which this terrace was occupied is preserved
to us in the drawing of the Pecos church given by Lieutenant W. H.
Emory in 1846. It appears that south of the church there was a
convent; and this is stated also by Sr.
Ruiz. In fact, the walls, whether enclosures or buildings, which
appear to have adjoined the church, extend south from it 74 m.—250
ft.
Looking northward from the church, a wall of broken stones, similar
to the one we already noticed at the south, meets the eye. The
mesilla itself terminates east and west in rocky ledges of
inconsiderable height, and the wall stretches across its entire
width of 39 m.—129 ft. Its distance from the church is 10 m.—33 ft.;
and it thus forms, with the northern church wall, a trapezium of 10
m.—33 ft. This enclosure is said to have been the church-yard.
Beyond it the mesilla and its ruined structures appear in full view;
and from the church to the northern end, which is also its highest
point, it has exactly the form of an elongated pear or parsnip.
Hence the name given to it by Spanish authors of the eighteenth
century, "el Navon de los Pecos." This
fruit-like shape is not limited to the outline: it also extends to
the profile. Starting from the church, there is a curved neck,
convex to the east, and retreating in a semicircle from the stream
on the west. At the end of this neck, about 200 m.—660 ft.—north of
the church, there is a slight depression, terminating in a dry
stream-bed emptying into the bottom of the Arroyo de Pecos
south-westward; and beyond this depression the rocks bulge up to an
oblong mound, nearly 280 m.—920 ft.—long from north to south, and at
its greatest width 160 m.—520 ft.—from east to west. At the northern
termination of this mound the mesilla curves to the
north-east, and finally terminates in a long ledge of tumbled rocks,
high and abrupt, which gradually merges into the ridges of sandy
soil towards the little town of Pecos.
The rock of the mesilla is a compact, brownish-gray limestone. It is crystalline, but yet fossiliferous, very hard, and not deteriorating much on exposure. Its strata dip perceptibly to the south-west; consequently the western rim is comparatively less jagged and rocky than the eastern, and the slope towards the stream more gentle, except at the north-western corner, where the rocks appear broken and tumbled down over the slopes in huge masses.
From the church-yard wall, all along the edge of the mesilla, descending into the depression mentioned, and again rounding the highest northern point, then crossing over transversely from west to east and running back south along the opposite edge, there extends a wall of circumvallation, constructed, as far as may be seen, of rubble and broken stones, with occasional earth flung in between the blocks. This wall has, along its periphery, a total length of 983 m.—3,220 ft.—according to Mr. Thurston's measurement. It was, as far as can be seen, 2 m.—6 ft. 6 in.—high on an average, and about 0.50 m.—20 in.—thick. There is but one entrance to it visible, on the west side, at its lowest level, where the depression already mentioned runs down the slope to the south-west as the bed of a rocky streamlet. There a gateway of 4 m.—13 ft.—in width is left open; the wall itself thickens on each side to a round tower built of stones, mixed with earthy fillings. These towers, considerably ruined, are still 2 m.—6 ft. 6 in.—high, and appear to have been at least 4m.—13 ft.—in diameter; at all events the northern one. At the gateway itself the walls curve outward, and appear to have terminated in a short passage of entering and re-entering lines, between which there was a passage, as well for man as for the waters from the mesilla into the bottom and the stream below. But these lines can only be surmised from the streaks of gravel and stones extending beyond the gateway, as no definite foundations are extant.
