20210425 - 0427 Las Vegas, NM

On the way to Las Vegas, New Mexico

The VLA - Very Large Array 50 miles west of Socorro NM - 24 April 2021

National Radio Astronomy Observatory. There are 27 active 25-meter radio telescopes and 1 spare. Astronomers use the VLA to make key observations of black holes, young stars etc.

Las Vegas, New Mexico

Pecos National Historical Park, NM - 25 April 2021

People have traveled through and lived in the Pecos Valley for thousands of years entering via the Glorieta Pass which lies between the Sangre de Cristo mountains and Glorieta Mesa.    
This included Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Mexican and Anglo armies, Santa Fe Trail settlers and adventurers. Abandoned during the 1700s, the settlement ruins were witness to the struggle between the Union and Confederate forces who clashed in the Pass to the west deciding the fate of the Civil War in the West. 

 
The remains of the Spanish Church above dates from 1717. This is the second and last church. It was smaller than the first church built in 1625 which was destroyed by the Pueblo revolt in 1680. 

Another view of the remains of the 1717 church. The extensive grounds surrounding the church are sectioned off by short stone walls and paths leading to dwellings on the nearby hills.

Kiva? This is the only covered underground space we have seen in our travels. It does not appear to be a Kiva (though there are similarities) because there are no ledges around the walls for participants to sit on plus the roof is flush to the ground outside. The kiva examples we have previously seen had post holes on the outer edge to support the roof. 

Bob took his turn going into the below ground space while Dakota patiently waits at the ladder. 

Fort Union National Monument, NM - 26 April 2021

Fort Union was established in 1851 as the guardian of the Santa Fe Trail. It commanded the intersection of the Mountain and Cimarron Branches of the Trail. Fort Union served both military and civilian functions. Prior to the Civil War, the Fort’s troops patrolled the trail and later escorted mail stages. During the Civil War, the combination of Native American conflicts and raids by Confederates from Texas led to the troops’ protection of all travelers and efforts to keep open the Santa Fe Trail. Three different forts were built close together on the site during its forty-year history. The third Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the Southwest. The railroad bypassed Fort Union in 1879, and its supply operations were gradually phased out. 1883 saw the closure of the depot. Today at Fort Union National Monument (FOUN), one can tour fort remains and see the largest visible network of Santa Fe Trail ruts.

Exposed to the prairie winds, these adobe walls are all that remain of one of the largest US Army Supply Depots of pre-Civil War era. In use from 1862-1891, Fort Union was constructed of native resources such as clay, stone and lumber. The walls was made of adobe brick that stood on a foundations of stone and coated with plaster fired in limekilns. Other materials, such as nails, roofing tin, tools, window glass, and fire bricks were transported from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  

The Mechanic's Coral employed mostly civilians to maintain the constant stream of wagons, military and civilian, which rolled along the Santa Fe Trail. With four companies of both cavalry and infantry, the Depot Quartermaster was equipped to supply every fort in the New Mexico territories. 

Depot Transportation Coral for storing, loading and unloading supplies destined for the other frontier forts. The eight acre footprint of Fort Union provided barracks for enlisted soldiers, housing for officers, storehouses (these are massive and hundreds of feet long), blacksmith/tinner shops, saddler and carpenter shops, stables for horses and mules, coal house, bakery, tool house, clerk quarters, cisterns for water collection and gun shed. The military arsenal was outside the Fort, about a mile away for safety. An 1862 Inspection report of the arsenal listed 21 cannon of various calibers, some 5,600 rounds of artillery ammunition, almost 7,100 small arms (muskets, rifles and revolvers), and 2.8 million small arms cartridges.  

Separated from the workings of the depot and the housing for troops and officers, the hospital was segregated away from the activities, smells and noises associated with the Depot. 

 As the second fort was being completed in early 1862, the Confederates were already marching north up the Rio Grande Valley. Under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry H Sibley, the Confederates were on their way to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Fort Union and eventually the Colorado gold fields. By early March 1862, the Confederates had taken Santa Fe, with only Fort Union standing between the invaders and the Colorado gold fields. Their plan was to use the gold and silver mines of California and Colorado to fund the expansion of the war into the western territories thereby stretching the Union Army over the entire south even as far as California. They also wanted to seize the seaports of California to evade a Union naval blockade.

The soldiers of Fort Union joined forces with the Colorado Volunteers and headed south to challenge the Confederates. The two armies confronted each other at Glorieta Pass, between Santa Fe and Pecos, NM. The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26-29, 1862, was the decisive battle in the New Mexico Campaign during the Civil War in the West. Union forces successfully defeated the Confederate forces when the southerner's wagon trains were destroyed. With the loss of their supplies, the Confederates were forces to retreat back to Texas.