Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument Review

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is made up of three sites—Quarai, Abó, and Gran Quivira —each with the ruins of a 17th-century Spanish-colonial Franciscan missionary church and an associated pueblo. The sites represent the convergence of two Native American peoples, the Anasazi and the Mogollon, who lived here for centuries before the Spanish arrived. Quarai, the nearest to Albuquerque, was a flourishing Tiwa pueblo whose inhabitants' pottery, weaving, and basket-making techniques were quite refined. On the fringe of the Great Plains, all three of the Salinas pueblos were vulnerable to raids by nomadic Plains Indians. Quarai was abandoned about 50 years after its mission church, San Purísima Concepción de Cuarac, was built in 1630. If you can arrange it, arrive in time for the late-afternoon light—the church's red sandstone walls still rise 40 feet out of the earth, and are a powerful sight. At Abó are the remains of the three-story church of San Gregorio and a large unexcavated pueblo. (The masonry style at Abó, also built of red stone, bore some similarity to that at Chaco Canyon, which has led some archaeologists to speculate that the pueblo was built by people who left the Chaco Canyon area.) Gran Quivira contains two churches and some excavated Native American structures. There are walking trails and small interpretive centers at each of the pueblos, and expanded exhibits at the monument headquarters in the old cow town cum arts center of Mountainair. You'll come to Quarai first via this route, and this is the loveliest of the three; Abó—which you can swing by easily enough if you loop back to Albuquerque via U.S.60 west (through Mountainair), then north on either NM 47 (for the scenic back route through Isleta) or Interstate 25—is a close second. Gran Quivira is more a detour, and you might find yourself wanting to take a little time to stroll down Mountainair's quaint main street then getting a bite at Pop Shaffer's Café instead.