NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Major Bibliographical References

Adams, Eleanor B. and Fray Angelico Chavez (1975).  The Missions of New Mexico, 1776. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Adler, Michael A. and Herbert W. Dick (1999).  Picuris Pueblo through Time: Eight Centuries of Change at a Northern Rio Grande Pueblo. Dallas: William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.

Anderson, Allen (1864 [reprint Museum of New Mexico Press, no date]).  Map of the Military Department of New Mexico. Accompanying Report of Brigadeer General J. H. Carleton Series I Vol XLVIII. US Government Printing Office.

Bauer, Paul W. (2004).  There’s Gold in Them Cliffs…or is There? The Fleeting (and Fleecing?) Glen-Woody Mining Venture. In Geology of the Taos Region, Edited by Brian S. Brister and Others. Page 69. Albuquerque: New Mexico Geological Society.

Bennett, C., Dickson, P., Ramsay, B. H., & Ramsay, J. B. (no date). The "Winter" Route between Velarde and Taos before 1875.

Bloom, Lansing B. (1927). Early Weaving in New Mexico. New Mexico Historical Review Vol 2, No. 3: 228-238.

Blumenschein, H. G. (1968). Historic Roads and Trails to Taos. El Palacio , 75 (1), 9-19.

Boyle, Susan Calafate. (1994).  Comerciantes, Arrieros, Y Peones: The Hispanos and the Santa Fe Trade. Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 54. Santa Fe: Division of History, Southwest Region, National Park Service.

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Historic Narrative specific to the “Apodaca Trail”

The “Apodaca Trail” on the Cañada de Apodaca drainage has been documented as part of the “North Branch” of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail (Kessler, 1998; Nelson, 2003; Colville, 1996; Hafen & Hafen, 1993). The only known historical accounts which specifically document the trail connecting Taos to Santa Fe during the Old Spanish Trail period of significance of 1829-1848 are related to the Insurrection Against the Military Government in New Mexico (McNierney, 1980). The first treatment of historic roads and trails into Taos was prepared by Helen Blumenschein in 1968. John Ramsay has prepared two manuscripts reporting fieldwork tracing the “winter route” or “Apodaca Trail” between Velarde and Pilar [Ramsay, Bennett, Dickson, & Ramsay, 2002; Bennett, Dickson, Ramsay, & Ramsay, no date]. Corky Hawk has reported on trail traces between Taos south to Pilar and Picuris.

      Mexican Territorial (1821-1845) and early American Territorial (1846- 1875) Commerce

At the time of Mexican Independence, the frontier trade center and commercial functions at Taos Pueblo were being supplanted by commercial trapping, particularly for beaver pelts harvested from the Great Basin by Spanish, English and French speaking entrepreneurs based in the agrarian settlements in the Taos Valley. The pre-Columbian aboriginal network of footpaths had been reorganized to accommodate draftdraft animals including both horses and mules and for transport of commercial items produced in new settlements based on European-style market economies. The nature and quantity of the commodities being transported, the centers of production (supply), the locales of consumption (demand) and the technology for transport required different vernacular “design criteria” for the “pack trail” and “livestock driveway” transportation technology. The Cañada de Apodaca trail was known as a particularly difficult obstacle situated between the impassable Rio Grande Gorge and the rugged Picuris range in the connection between Taos on the northern frontier and the core settlements and governmental administration at Santa Fe in the Mexican Territorial Period.

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

National Register Criteria

Criterion A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; 

The Cañada de Apodaca is documented to be the primary link between the northeastern Mexican frontier portal settlement of Taos, the core weaving settlements in the Española Basin, governmental administration in Santa Fe, and the northwest portal for the California trade at Abiquiu. The role of the Cañada de Apodaca trail was not to transport fabrics to California, which probably did not occur on the “North Branch” of the OSNHT.  Rather, Taos was the source of guides, scouts and traders who had geographic knowledge required by the merchants and packers, or arrieros, transporting woven woolen goods through the northwestern frontier portal at Abiquiu to California.  By 1829 “Americano” expatriate trappers and traders had also placed their imprint on the commercial interests of the Taos Valley, and through the isolation afforded by the treacherous route to Santa Fe, could manipulate government permits, licenses and taxes administered from the government center there.  The route of the Cañada de Apodaca Trail -through fantastic colorful rock formations between the choked “Embudo” of the Rio Grande - avoided the nearly impassable Rio Grande Gorge - offering both an obstacle and an asset for the Taos entrepreneurs.  The Cañada de Apodaca provides an outstanding opportunity to see a

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Narrative

By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary 

The Cañada de Apodaca is a distinct topographic and geographic segment of the historic commercial goods pack trail and livestock driveway that connected settlements and Spanish Colonial towns in the Espanola Valley to the agrarian “plazuelas” in the Taos Valley and on to markets in “Nuevo Mexico” and beyond, during the Spanish Colonial, Mexican Territorial and early US Territorial periods. The corridor, established in the 1720s, followed aboriginal foot paths (Blumenschein 1968) along the Rio Grande and then followed those paths to turn slightly eastward to avoid the fragoso, or rugged, Rio Grande Gorge. The “high road” – Camino Alto or “Summer Route” – passed through the mountain Colonial settlements of Chimayo, Truchas, Ojo Sarco, Las Trampas, and Chamisal as well as Picuris Pueblo, which were placed alongside pre-Columbian aboriginal settlements and trade routes. 

The Apodaca trail occurs on the “low road” alignment – the Camino Abajo or “Winter Route” – one of two major routes between Santa Fe and Taos before, during and after the Old Spanish Trail period of significance of 1829-1848. Roque Madrid wrote in 1705 of the passage through the area, though it is unclear which route he took. Catholic Friar Francisco Atanasio Dominguez (Adams and Chavez 1975:101-113) wrote specifically about each of the two routes in his account of 1776. As a wintertime connector between Santa Fe and Taos, the Apodaca trailis associated with the  “North Branch” as well as the “Main Route” of the Old Spanish Trail.  Taos was the information center where guides could be hired to navigate the trails from Abiquiu in New Mexico through vastly varied and often complicated terrain, as well as establish positive relationships with the many different tribes along the trail to California. The “low road” between Taos and Santa Fe fell into disuse with the completion of a US military road in 1876 in the Rio Grande Gorge (Ruffner 1876:9). By the early 20^th century, the Cañada de Apodaca route was relegated to “historic trail” when the route to the Harding and Copper Hill Mines and the modern highway from Dixon to Penasco was developed on a bypass to the south. Subsequent use of the Cañada as “commons” for pasturage, woodcutting and – in the lower portions – refuse dumping, continues today.  The contributing site is a largely intact historical landscape which includes a contributing structure of braided trail that features an intact packtrail alignment. Non-contributing features include portions of intact improved grades constructed after the period of significance. The Cañada de Apodaca segment of the “North Branch” of the Old Spanish Trail provides visitors with the opportunity to experience the setting which has changed little since its original travelers transported goods, services, and people to markets near and far. 

NM Final Nomination Phtoos

Sites being nominated in this project

OSTA's contract for the Old Spanish Trail Documentation project requires that individual nominations be produced in each state. The first 6 projects that will be done as a part of this project are:

AZ - Main and Armijo Routes - Beaverdam Reach - Camp Springs to Beaverdam
CA - Main Route - Emigrant Pass - Stump Springs to Resting Springs
CO - North Branch - Whitewater Reach "Wells Gulch" - Delta to Grand Junction
NM - North Branch - Apodaca Reach - Embudo to Taos
NV - Main Route - Mormon Mesa Reach - Virgin River to Muddy River
UT - Main Route - Hamblin Reach - Newcastle to Mountain Meadows

As each state's nomination is drafted, we'll post it here so you have access to it. And we'll post updates as they become available!

NM State Contact List

The following people are our state contacts for NM for 2011. They are OST experts and might be of great help in your projects. Just replace the <> with the correct @ symbol to email them.

SHPO

Terry Moody                 Terry.Moody  <>  state.nm.us

Jan Biella                      jan.biella  <>  state.nm.us

ARRA Project

Robby Heckman            rheckman  <>  sricrm.com 

                                      state and cultural lead for AECOM

Carrie Gregory               cgregory  <>  sricrm.com

cultural landscapes lead

OSTA Reps

             Margaret Sears             margsears  <>  cybermesa.com

Pat Kuhlhoff                 pglk  <>  cybermesa.net

OSTA invited connections

Paul Williams                Paul_Williams  <>  nm.blm.gov

Corky Hawk                  cchawk  <>  taosnet.com