Geological Survey Bulletin 613 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part C. The Santa Fe Route

At Pajarita (pah-ha-ree'ta), a small Mexican settlement north of the railway, 3 miles beyond Gise siding (see sheet 13, p. 88) and for a mile or two west of that place, the railway is on or near the top of the Magdalena, the same limestone as that which is exposed between mileposts 792 and 794. This limestone is deeply trenched by the Rio Pecos, which flows in a deep canyon 1 to 2 miles north of the railway in the vicinity of Pajarita and Rowe. The high mesa cuts off the view to the south, but there is in this region an extended vista to the north up the valley of the Rio Pecos and along the many rocky ridges constituting the southern extension of the Rocky Mountains.

SHEET No. 13 (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

A short distance beyond milepost 819, 3 miles north of Rowe, the remains of Old Pecos Church are visible about 2 miles north of the railway, and they continue in sight to and beyond Decatur siding, 1 mile beyond milepost 820. They are shown in Plate XII, A (p. 74). These ruins mark the site of the old pueblo of Cicuye (see-koo'yay), which occupied a large area on the top and slopes of a long low ridge of red sandstone.

PLATE XII—A (top), RUINS OF OLD PECOS CHURCH, NORTHWEST OF ROWE, N. MEX. The ruins of a very large pueblo cover a hill near the church. B (bottom), SANTO DOMINGO, N. MEX. An Indian pueblo on the Rio Grande at the mouth of Galisteo Creek. Rio Grande in the distance.

The traveler is now entering the land of the Pueblo Indians, who have an interesting history, extending back many centuries. The name Pueblo (pweb'lo) was applied to them by the earliest explorers because they lived in well-established permanent villages (pueblos in Spanish), in marked contrast to the transient camps of the nomadic tribes to the east and west. With the Spanish conquerors and after them came many self-sacrificing missionaries and other colonists from Mexico and Spain, endeavoring to civilize the Pueblo people. It is not easy to-day to appreciate the heroism of the men who so bravely entered this strange and isolated country and ruled its natives for 300 years. There were many struggles and massacres, and the early chronicles are touching in their evidence of a religious zeal that overcame severe privations.

At the time of Coronado's march of conquest there were reported to be 71 pueblos in New Mexico and eastern Arizona, but numerous remains of habitations of this character show that originally there were many more of them and that they occupied a much wider territory in ancient times. In the seventeenth century the missionaries endeavored to concentrate the Pueblo people into fewer settlements, not alone to strengthen them against attacks from the savage nomadic tribes, but also to facilitate their conversion to Christianity. The revolt of the Pueblo people against Spanish authority, in 1680 to 1692, caused the abandonment of still more pueblos. Only about 20 pueblos are now occupied, and of these only Acoma and possibly Isleta (ees-lay'ta) are on the same sites as before the revolt of 1680.

The Pueblo houses are of uniform architecture, built of stone or adobes in terraces one upon another, the roof of one house being the yard of the next. Ladders were used both for exterior and interior climbing. Entrance was effected through a hole in the roof, through which also the smoke escaped. Doors, chimneys, and the dome-shaped ovens which seem so characteristic now were all introduced by the Spaniards. The women built the houses and later the churches as well.

The Pueblo people have always been weavers and potters, and it is believed that the "Navajo blanket" was introduced to the Navajos by Pueblo women. They raised cotton prior to the conquest, and the Spaniards introduced sheep. The Spaniards imposed an annual tax on the Indians of a yard of cotton cloth and a bushel of corn from each house.

In general the Spaniards were received with hospitality on their arrival in 1540, but the lightness with which Coronado viewed his promises to the Indians caused serious hostility. Not until Juan de Oñate (ohn-yah'tay) arrived in 1598 were the Pueblo tribes favorably influenced toward civilization. Oñate divided the country into districts, to each of which a priest was assigned. Missionary work flourished during the seventeenth century until the successful revolt of the Indians against the civil authorities in 1680. Then for 12 years the Pueblo people were free from Spanish dominion, but as during this time they were also deprived of Spanish protection, they suffered from the attacks of their ancient enemies, especially the Navajos and the Apaches. They were reconquered in 1692 by De Vargas, probably the greatest of the Spanish governors, and since then the Pueblo Indians have been at peace with the white men, both Spaniard and American. They still live in pueblos on their own land, most of which was covered by Spanish grants and is now in Government reservations. Their population has remained for several centuries at about 8,000.

The ruins of one of the most famous of these historic pueblos is Pecos, the one above referred to, which lies 3 miles northwest of Rowe. In Coronado's time Pecos was a well-established city, known as Cicuye, much admired by the Spaniards. At that time it had two communal structures four stories high, with over 500 rooms on the ground floor, as well as other buildings, and a population estimated between 10,000 and 20,000. In 1617 the Indians erected an elaborate church, with four high towers, and a convent, under the encouragement of the missionaries, who established schools of reading, writing, and music. These Indians belonged to the Jémez (hay'mace) tribe, though their isolation led to their being considered a separate nation. The decline of this stronghold began with its revolts against the Spaniards. Then followed sanguinary raids of hostile Indians, one band of Comanches killing nearly every man of the tribe. Epidemics also devastated their ranks, so that finally only 17 survivors remained. They were removed to the parent village, Jemez. When Maj. Emory passed through this region in 1848 he found that the place had been abandoned only recently and learned that the devotional fire had been kept burning in the estufa (a sacred ceremonial chamber found in all the pueblos) until within a very few years. Now only the low mounds of ruins remain, except for the church, of which the heavy walls falling into ruins are still a landmark (see Pl. XII, A), as in the days of the Santa Fe Trail. These ruins have recently been acquired by the Historical Society of New Mexico, which has made provision for their preservation. Half a mile away was the favorite eating station on the entire trail, where notably substantial meals were served, including delicious trout caught in the stream near by. In this part of his journey the traveler passes picturesque canyons, cliffs, and mesas of varicolored rocks, among which deep reds and browns are the prevailing tints.

The train makes a long, steep climb to Glorieta Pass, just west of Glorieta siding, where the road reaches an altitude of 7,421 feet in a cut 30 feet deep through the summit.¹ This pass is at the divide between the waters of the Pecos and those of the Rio Grande. To the north are fine views of the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains. One of the higher pinnacles, known as Thompson Peak, 10,546 feet above the sea, is about 7 miles northwest of Glorieta and plainly in view, and other peaks, some of them 2,000 feet higher, may be seen farther north. The range which culminates in these peaks and whose axis is crossed at Glorieta is described as the Santa Fe Range by some authors and as the Glorieta Mountains by others, but the entire system of higher ridges constituting the southern extension of the Rocky Mountains is usually called the Sangre de Cristo Range. It extends continuously northward through northern New Mexico into Colorado. After passing through Glorieta Pass the railroad turns southwestward and follows a series of canyons and valleys, the headwaters of a branch of Galisteo (gah-lis-tay'o) Creek, on a continuous down grade to the Rio Grande at Santo Domingo. In 40 miles the descent is 2,175 feet, of which the steeper part (963 feet) is between Glorieta and Lamy.

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¹The rocks at Glorieta station and in the slopes east and west are the lower members of the great series of red beds, in part of Pennsylvanian age, which are extensively exposed all the way from milepost 775. The rocks in the cut are red shales, including many beds of red, brown, and gray sandstones. They contain numbers of the leafy twigs, branches, and cones of Walchia, an ancient type of cone-bearing trees nearest related to the Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria), now so common in conservatories. The fossil plants found in this cut show the age of the rocks to be Permian. The red beds, most of which were laid down in fresh mater, extend some distance up the slopes of the ridge north of the cut, where they give place to underlying limestones (the Magdalena) rising on a steep dip toward the east. Not far beyond appear the granites and schists of the main Rocky Mountain range. These rocks have been brought up by arching and faulting, and they rise rapidly into prominent peaks that constitute the main ridge.

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This portion of the journey takes the traveler over a historic battle ground, for here occurred a decisive clash between Union and Confederate forces in 1862. A preliminary skirmish ending in favor of the northern forces was followed by a battle that lasted nine hours and ended in a truce. The Confederates, who were from Texas, were superior in numbers and equipment, but their stores were burned in a brilliant flanking movement. They returned to Santa Fe and the northern forces to Fort Union. This is variously known as the battle of Glorieta, of Apache Canyon, and of Pigeon's ranch, which was near the scene of battle.

Beyond the big cut at Glorieta there are extensive exposures of the lower red beds for some distance, extending up to the great cap of hard sandstone that constitutes the mesa to the east. This is the western face of Glorieta Mesa, which at Glorieta Pass turns southward. In a cut about 2 miles beyond the summit some thin-bedded blue clays, included in the red beds, contain the remains of fresh-water shells and insects, and ferns of Permian age. A short distance below milepost 829 the sandstone that caps the mesa is brought down below the track by an abrupt bend of the beds, and at this place it is well exposed in cuts and canyon walls. Not far west it is cut off by a great fault.

On leaving the narrow pass in the canyon the train passes the little Mexican village of Canyoncito on the right. At this place the Santa Fe Trail, which the railway has followed thus far down the canyon, turns to the west to cross the hills to Santa Fe. Canyoncito was a well-known point on the trail in the old days, when its stores, saloons, and hotels were well patronized. Not all the caravans, however, used this route, many of them, especially in the earlier days, leaving the main trail near Cimarron and crossing the range to the Indian pueblo of Taos and thence to the city. Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is 12 miles to the northwest, at the west foot of the mountain range which is crossed at Glorieta.

Below Canyoncito the railway follows Apache Canyon, in which there are extensive exposures of the lower red beds on both sides. Just beyond milepost 832 the train enters a narrow gorge in granite which has been brought up by a fault. This granite extends for nearly a mile to another fault that cuts it off on the west. The canyon in the granite is very narrow, deep, and winding and presents many picturesque features carved in hard rock. This is the only place at which the oldest rock of the Rocky Mountains is crossed by the railway, and its presence here is due to two faults, or breaks in the earth's crust, along which a narrow wedge of the granite has been uplifted in relation to the adjoining red beds. At the mouth of the granite canyon, just east of the track, are the remains of the Lamy church and convent, built by the Spanish missionaries several centuries ago. It is now in ruins, but the general character of the building is evident.

Most trains stop at Lamy, some of them to connect with a branch that extends north to Santa Fe, 18 miles, and some for meals at the remarkably pretty little hotel named El Ortiz. Lamy takes its name from the first American archbishop of Santa Fe. At Lamy the valley of Galisteo Creek widens, and although on its east side there are high masses of the southern continuation of Glorieta Mesa, the region to the west and south is mostly a rolling plain. This is part of the broad basin of the Rio Grande, which is occupied by a widespread accumulation of sands, gravels, and loams of Tertiary age. This basin extends far westward to the foot of the mountains, which may be seen in the distance, and down the Rio Grande valley though all of central New Mexico. The eastern edge of the Tertiary deposits lying against the older rocks is exposed in the ridges a short distance north and west of Lamy.

Eighteen miles north of Lamy and easily accessible by trains on the branch line is the quaint and interesting town of Santa Fe, one of the oldest white settlements in the country. It was established in 1605 by Juan de Oñate as a seat of the Spanish Government. Many of the ancient buildings and churches still remain. In the excellent museum kept by the State Historical Society in the old palace there are many souvenirs of the early and late history of New Mexico. This history has been one of extraordinary interest, from the time when a mere handful of Spaniards made Santa Fe their headquarters in controlling thousands of hostile Indians to the later days of the American occupation, beginning in 1846. The first Territorial legislature of New Mexico (then including Arizona) met here June 1, 1851. The church of San Miguel, the oldest church in the United States, is in Santa Fe.

To the transcontinental traveler the town is of special interest as the terminus of the old Santa Fe Trail. Every summer the caravans found on their arrival that people had come to Santa Fe from all sides, even from places as far away as El Paso, to purchase their wares, and many stores were opened in Santa Fe expressly for the sale of their goods. The wagons of many of the traders had a capacity equal to that of a small canal boat. They carried a load of domestic cottons, silks, hardware, etc., which they were able to sell at 50 to 100 per cent profit. This high rate was necessary considering not only the long and perilous journey of transportation but also the import tax that was levied upon these merchantmen of the plains by the Mexican authorities—an exorbitant duty, sometimes as high as 100 per cent. This entry duty was succeeded by another duty on the money carried away, so the early traders frequently invested their gains in beaver skins, which passed through free and yet netted a good profit on sale in St. Louis.

At the ruins of San Cristobal (cris-toe'bahl), which is only about 7 miles south of Lamy and is easily reached by a good road through the Pankey ranch, there are sandstone cliffs marked with many well-preserved Indian pictographs. They are opposite the site of San Cristobal pueblo, which has recently been extensively excavated. The pictographs were apparently traced by a hard-pointed stone or arrowhead. Pictures were of great importance to the Indians, not only those on rocks but the markings on their own bodies. The body markings often acted as personal badges—of bravery, marriage, freedom, or slavery—and in the same way, it is believed, most of the rock pictures recorded the achievement of some individual.

Just west of Lamy station shales and limestones of Upper Cretaceous age (Mancos) are well exposed, dipping steeply eastward, and the Dakota sandstone and underlying Morrison shale crop out half a mile north of the station. On the east side of the flat east of the village these rocks are cut off by a prolongation of the fault which passes down Apache Canyon. East of this fault rise steep slopes of the red beds which underlie the high mesa extending southward from Glorieta Mesa. The relations of the rocks at Lamy are shown in figure 14.

FIGURE 14,—Section across Galisteo Valley at Lamy, N. Mex.

The prominent butte just south of Lamy, known as Cerro Colorado, consists of Mesaverde sandstones overlying the Mancos shale. These sandstones dip southwestward and underlie the country on both sides of the railway for some distance. They are exposed extensively in railway cuts and form prominent ridges along the railway at intervals from Lamy to and beyond Kennedy.

A short distance north of Kennedy the Santa Fe line is crossed by the New Mexico Central Railroad, which extends from Santa Fe, 25 miles north of Kennedy, to Torrence, on the El Paso & Southwestern system, 90 miles south. Just north of Kennedy the railway crosses a vertical dike of basalt which extends east and west across the country for a long distance, cutting the sandstone. Its width averages about 30 feet, and, owing to the great resistance to erosion offered by the hard igneous rock, its course is marked by a distinct ridge from 30 to 100 feet high.

Two miles east of Kennedy is the Mexican village of Galisteo, which was an important settlement two centuries ago. A short distance north of it are numerous low red mounds with traces of walls marking the site of the Galisteo pueblo. In 1680, or at the time of the massacre, it had a population of about a thousand Tanos Indians under control of the Spaniards, who had erected a handsome church. Six miles east, up the creek, was another pueblo, San Cristobal, now marked by extensive ruins. Galisteo remained prominent until late in the eighteenth century, when the Tanos, greatly depleted by smallpox and the depredations of the Comanches, removed to the village of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, a little farther west, where their descendants now live, preserving their language and many customs.

About 5 miles south of Kennedy is a prominent butte, known as Cerro Pelon (pay-lone', Spanish for bald), which consists of a thick mass of igneous rock lying on sandstones.

A few rods beyond Ortiz, at milepost 847, is a quarry where a rock known as breccia is taken out in large blocks to be used in protecting the railway embankment at various places. This breccia consists of angular masses of volcanic rocks of various kinds with more or less mixed sand and cemented together into stone of considerable hardness. The cementing agent is lime or silica deposited by underground water passing through the deposit. This rock crops out in extensive cliffs on the north side, of the track for some distance on both sides of Ortiz. It is a member of the Galisteo sandstone (of probable Tertiary age), which occupies a basin of considerable area extending northward under the sands and clays known as Santa Fe marl.

The name Ortiz, applied to various features in central New Mexico, belongs to a family which has been prominent in the history of the Southwest since the arrival of its founder with De Vargas's expedition of conquest after the pueblo revolt of 1680-1692.

A mile and a half beyond Ortiz siding the Ortiz Mountains are visible, 10 miles southwest of the railway. They consist of a thick body of igneous rock intruding the coal-bearing Mesaverde sandstone. Considerable gold ore has been found here and there along the slopes of these mountains and also in placer form in the wash of many of the draws leading out of them. The mining is done mainly by Mexicans; none of it is on a large scale, but it has been in progress for more than two centuries and at intervals still yields a small profit. Gold was taken from the Dolores mine in this district as early as 1830.

At milepost 849 the sandstones of later Cretaceous age rise from beneath the Tertiary beds and appear in ledges of considerable prominence just north of the railway, the ridge of breccia dropping back to the north. Halfway between mileposts 849 and 850, this sandstone contains numerous petrified logs,¹ some of them 50 to 60 feet long, exposed in a small area a short distance north of the railway. From this place westward the sandstones are conspicuous in prominent ledges, in which most of the beds dip steeply to the southeast. Buff is the prevailing color, but some of them are red.

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¹These appear to be the remains of a forest of Cretaceous age. The stems are largely chalcedonized, but the micro-structure shows that they were conifers. (See also the description of the Petrified Forest, pp. 107-109.)

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FIGURE 15—Section through Madrid, 3 miles south of Los Cerrillos, N. Mex., showing relations of coal beds to the sheets of igneous rock.

Just north of the railway, halfway between mileposts 851 and 852, a large mass of igneous rock cuts across the beds of sandstone and shale. It was forced up in molten condition through cracks in the strata. A short distance farther west, where the igneous rock is quarried extensively, it is exposed cutting across vertical shales. This is in the eastern part of the village of Los Cerrillos.

Los Cerrillos (sair-reel'yos, locally sair-ree'yos; Spanish for little hills) is an old village sustained mostly by mining in the adjoining hills. At Madrid, a few miles south of it, are large coal mines whose product is taken by a branch railway to Waldo, the next station beyond Los Cerrillos. The total amount of coal so far mined is more than 2,500,000 tons, and the output in 1913 was approximately 68,000 tons. Coal was discovered here in 1835. Before the railway was constructed the output of the mines was small, but in 1882 the deposits here became a very important source of supply, and a large area has since been worked out. There are three principal beds of coal, ranging from 3 to 5 feet thick in greater part. The field is about 12 miles long and 3 to 8 miles wide. The coal occurs in sandstone and shale of the Mesaverde formation. An interesting feature of this place is that a considerable part of the coal has been converted into anthracite and some of it into coke by the heat of two extensive sheets of igneous rock which have been forced in a molten condition between the beds. A large amount of this anthracite is mined, most of it from a bed which in other parts of the area yields bituminous coal.

Four miles north of Los Cerrillos are the mines from which for many years our principal supply of turquoise was obtained. The mineral is found in small veins and other masses in an igneous rock (diorite porphyry), which cuts the Cretaceous shales and sandstones. It occurs very irregularly through the decomposed portions of the rock and also varies greatly in size, color, and suitability for use as a gem. It is believed that the turquoise has been deposited in cracks in the igneous rock by percolating waters which brought together, in solution, its constituents derived from the decomposing diorite porphyry. Besides the principal mine there are several small openings in which small pockets of turquoise have been found from time to time. The value of the product has risen to $500,000 in some years; in 1895 one stone obtained was valued at $6,000. The locality has been known to the Indians for many centuries and was the source of the material used by them, in large amount, for beads and jewelry. Some of them regard it as a specific against contagion. When Pedro de Tovar, one of Coronado's men, visited the Hopis in Arizona they presented him with specimens of turquoise which undoubtedly came from this place. Many of the early explorers visited the locality under the guidance of the Indians, for the place is referred to in the journals of all the expeditions which passed in this vicinity. On the slopes of Mount Chalchihuitl (tchal-tchi-wee'tl, the old Mexican name for turquoise), one of the minor peaks of the hills called Los Cerrillos,¹ the earliest observers discovered large pits that had been long abandoned, for the débris was overgrown with good-sized trees, and found numerous stone hammers. It was evident that the workings were of great antiquity.

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¹The hills north of Los Cerrillos station are of similar origin to the Ortiz Mountains, on the south—that is, they consist of masses of igneous rock (diorite porphyry) that has been forced up in molten condition through the Cretaceous shales along irregular vents of various sizes. They constitute a group of six conical peaks occupying an area of about 12 square miles. The relations of one of these masses is well exposed a short distance east of the station, and other contact phenomena are visible at intervals in the next mile west. Nearly a mile west of Los Cerrillos a wall of the igneous rock rises 150 feet above the railway track and continues for nearly a quarter of a mile. At intervals westward past Waldo many large dikes of the igneous rock cut the shale, and most of them give rise to low but conspicuous ridges extending several miles across the country. Some of these dikes are plainly visible a short distance north of the railway.

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The ruins of the old pueblo of San Marcos stand a short distance north of Los Cerrillos.

At Waldo the branch railway from Madrid joins the main line. West of Waldo the route crosses a thick body of Mancos shale, dipping mostly eastward. Near milepost 858, about 4 miles west of Waldo, the Dakota and associated sandstones and shales are brought up in regular succession from under the shales, and they present excellent exposures not far from the railway. The main mass of sandstone, which rises in a ridge of considerable prominence, is underlain by a thick series of sandstone and light-colored clays, believed to be the Morrison formation. These beds are underlain by a 60-foot bed of gypsum, which comes to the railroad in a high bluff at milepost 859 and continues in sight to the north for nearly a mile. This thick deposit of gypsum,¹ on account of its snow-white color and the large mass exposed, is one of the most conspicuous occurrences of the mineral in the Southwest.

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¹Gypsum consists of calcium sulphate with about 20 per cent of combined water. It is the source of plaster of Paris, which is used extensively in the arts and which is prepared by heating gypsum to a moderately high temperature to drive off the combined water and grinding the resulting mass to a fine powder.

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At Rosario siding the cliff of gypsum may be seen to bear off to the northeast, and the country for many miles west of that place is occupied by the sands, gravels, and loams of the formation known as the Santa Fe marl, which is of late Tertiary age. There are conspicuous exposures of this formation all along the slopes of the valley of Galisteo Creek, past Domingo station, to the Rio Grande, The beds lie nearly level and are mostly carved into badland forms. In some of the mesas in view far to the northeast these marls are overlain by some thick sheets of black lava (basalt), which were poured out over the plain before the valleys had been excavated as deep as they are at present.

By looking up the Rio Grande from the mouth of Galisteo Creek, which is 2 miles west of Domingo, the traveler may discern White Rock Canyon, through which the river flows for several miles and in which it is joined on the west by Pajarita and Frijole (free-ho'lay) creeks. In the deep canyons of these creeks are some of the most extensive and remarkable cliff dwellings in the West. The rock of the canyon walls is a volcanic tuff of very massive structure and only moderate hardness. This great body of tuff lies against the east flank of the Valle Grande (vahl'yay grahn'day) Mountains, which rise prominently 20 miles to the northwest. In the canyon walls this tuff rises in high cliffs, in which thousands of excavations were cut by the aborigines. These places afforded particularly favorable conditions for dwellings, owing to their inaccessibility to the enemy and comparative ease of defense.

The cliff dwellings, of which there are many in New Mexico and Arizona, were occupied by Pueblo Indians and their ancestors, especially in time of danger from hostile tribes. Some of them were located near streams and fields and it is likely that they were occupied as dwelling places and for storage of grain and other property at times when no danger threatened. In the edge of the Jemez Plateau, which faces the Rio Grande a few miles north of Santo Domingo, there are thousands of caves that were thus used. The early history of the Pueblo people affords many examples of their willingness to abandon an old home, or even a pueblo, when it suited their interests to do so. This, in some measure, accounts for the great number of ruins in the Southwest, and thus it must not be imagined that cliff dwellings were deserted only because of the extermination of the tribe that had occupied them.

The Rio Grande, the east bank of which is followed by the railway from the mouth of Galisteo Creek to Albuquerque and beyond, is one of the longest streams in the United States, draining a wide area of the central Rocky Mountains in Colorado and northern New Mexico. Its valley was the natural route for all the exploring parties and the site of the settlements of many of their colonists. It was named by Hernando de Alvarado, of the Coronado expedition, Río de Nuestra Señora (River of Our Lady). The bottom lands that extend along the river at most places have been utilized for many centuries for agriculture and there are almost continuous settlements and ranches along both sides. As early as 1680 there were 19 ranches of Spaniards in the general Albuquerque region.

Many of the present ranches and villages are peopled by Mexicans, but there are also numerous settlements of Indians. One large Indian village is at Santo Domingo (see Pl. XII, B, p. 74), not far north of the railway, half a mile below the mouth of Galisteo Creek. This pueblo, known to be the third one built on this site, was established as Gipuyi 200 years ago. Because of its proximity to the Rio Grande it has suffered disastrously in three great floods. There are at Santo Domingo now about 800 Indians living in fairly comfortable adobe houses and cultivating an extensive area of adjoining fields, largely irrigated from the Rio Grande. These Indians have for a long time been the chief traders in the turquoise from Los Cerrillos. Together with those at San Felipe (fay-lee'pay), Cochiti (co-chee'tee), and several other pueblos, they are remnants of the eastern division of the Keresan tribe, of which the Acoma and Laguna Indians form the western division. They have a language very different from that of other Indians in New Mexico. On their feast day, which is about August 4 to 7, a great celebration occurs, with dances and other features. This is attended by a large number of people, who are made welcome.

Southwestward from Santo Domingo along the east bank of the Rio Grande there are extensive exposures of the Santa Fe marl in long slopes, partly of a badland character. In places on the west side this material constitutes the slopes of mesas of considerable height, which are capped by lava flows (basalt).

Opposite milepost 875, 2-1/2 miles beyond Elota (ay-lo'ta) siding, there is another Indian pueblo, known as San Felipe. Although it is on the west bank of the river it is plainly visible from the trains, and many of its features may be seen in passing. A conspicuous building is the large church of curious architecture in the center of the settlement. As early as 1607 San Felipe had a church. The present town was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century. On top of the mesa a short distance north of San Felipe are ruins of a still older pueblo built for protection against the Spaniards. At a still earlier time the Indians had other places of residence, including Cubero (koo-bay'ro), all bearing the name Katishtya. These Indians, like those at Santo Domingo, are of Keresan stock. They now number about 500.

Behind San Felipe there is a moderately high mesa of Santa Fe marl capped by a sheet of black lava (basalt). The edge of this sheet shows the columnar structure characteristic of rocks of this kind. The lava came out of cracks some distance to the west and spread over a considerable area at a time when the bottom of the valley was about 150 feet higher than it is at present. There have been many of these eruptions at different places in the valley of the Rio Grande, as well as on some of the adjoining highlands, and volcanic activity appears to have continued until very recent time. The Pueblo Indians have traditions of "floods of fire," and it is stated that volcanic ash fell in seven of the twelve years following their revolt for independence from Spanish rule.

Algodones (ahl-go-doe'nace) is a Mexican village which is an important center and shipping point for ranches and the sheep industry. The valley of the Rio Grande in this vicinity contains many large fields of alfalfa and other crops irrigated by water supplied by canals from the river. The hills on both sides consist of the gray to pink Santa Fe marl, which extends along the valley in a belt of considerable width. On the west side of the river these beds are capped by a lava sheet forming a high mesa. This material is called marl because it is a fine light-colored silt, similar to the true marl deposited in ponds. Ridges rising out of the Santa Fe marl, at a point 6 miles northeast of Algodones, consist of the Dakota and associated sandstones and the red beds, while farther south the underlying rocks appear in a ridge of limestone (the Magdalena) which rises gradually to a high range known as the Sandia Mountains (sahn-dee'ah, Spanish for watermelon). This range is a very prominent feature that extends along the east side of the Rio Grande valley for 7 miles. Its higher summits rise somewhat above an altitude of 10,000 feet—that is, 5,000 feet above the river.

Ruiz (rwees) is a contraction of the name of the Franciscan friar Rodríguez, who organized a small expedition from Mexico in 1581. On an exploring trip through the pueblos, he and two other Franciscans remained after the departure of their soldiers. The three friars were murdered by the Indians, Rodríguez being the last of the three. He was killed in this neighborhood, and his body was thrown into the Rio Grande, which was then in flood.

On the west side of the river opposite Ruiz, a small body of black volcanic rock (basalt) is exposed, cutting across the marls and forming a small peak. Probably this represents a feeder for the lava flow on the mesa, which here trends off to the northwest.

Near Bernalillo the steep western front of the Sandia Mountains is plainly in view (Pl. XIII, A, p. 75). The greater part of the slope is granite and schist, but at the top there is a capping of several hundred feet of limestone, which also dips continuously down the more moderate eastern slope of the range. This limestone presents to the west a light-colored, almost unbroken cliff of considerable height, which is readily recognized above the darker, rugged, granite slopes. A cross section of the Sandia Mountains¹ is given in figure 16.

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¹This range is the northernmost of a series of nearly similar ranges which stretch from north to southeast of the Rio Grande, extending as far south as El Paso, where they abruptly end. The limestone capping the Sandia Mountains is of later Carboniferous age (Magdalena group), and in the valley east of the mountains it dips beneath a thick series of red beds (Pennsylvanian to Triassic), as shown in the section. It has long been supposed that the beds on the west front of these mountains are cut off by a great fault, or in other words that they are due to an uplifted block of the earth's crust broken off along its west side. There is, however, considerable evidence afforded by small exposures of limestone along the west foot of the mountains to show that they are due mainly to an upward arch of the strata, effected mostly by bending, but doubtless with minor local breaks. Most of the limestone and the overlying rocks that extend along the west foot of the mountains are covered by a thick sheet of the Santa Fe marl, which occupies a large part of the Rio Grande valley. These deposits crop out at many places in the slopes on both sides of the river. They are sands and fine loams with some layers of reddish tint, all lying nearly horizontal. The broad basin or old valley which they occupy is excavated in soft shales of Cretaceous age.

FIGURE 16.—Section through Sandia Mountains, near Bernalillo, N. Mex., looking south. a, Sandstone; b, Magdalena limestone; c, red sandstone; d, gray sandstone and limestone; e, red shale; f, massive red sandstone (Wingate); g, gypsum and limestone h, Morrison shale; i, Dakota sandstone j, Mancos shale; k, Mesaverde coal measures.

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PLATE XIII.—A (top), WEST FRONT OF SANDIA MOUNTAINS NEAR BERNALILLO, N. MEX. Granite and schist capped by sandstone and thick beds of limestone (Magdalena group). Plain of Santa Fe marl in foreground. B (bottom), CRATER OF EXTINCT GEYSER THREE MILES WEST OF SUWANEE, N. MEX. View northward, railway in distance. The material is silica deposited by hot water, which has built up a low cone around the crater.

Bernalillo (bare-nah-leel'yo, locally ber-nah-lee'yo; Spanish for little Bernard) was so named because it was settled by descendants of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who was associated with Cortez in the conquest of Mexico. The population consists mainly of Mexicans, and the village is one of the oldest settlements in the valley. The fertility of the wide valley and the favorable conditions for irrigating by use of the water of the Rio Grande have been the principal factors in sustaining a large settlement at this place. De Vargas, the Spanish governor who restored Spanish domination after a lapse of 12 years, died here in 1704. There have been Indian villages on the same site and in the vicinity for centuries.

A short distance north of Bernalillo began the province of the Tigua group of Pueblo people, who became famous through the narratives of the early historians. They comprised three geographic divisions, of which the one living in the region extending from Bernalillo 35 miles south was the middle. The reported population in 1630 was 7,000, living in 15 or 16 pueblos. Their principal settlement, Puaray (pwa-rye'), called by the early explorers Tiguex, lies in ruins at the south end of the present village of Bernalillo. It was probably here that Coronado spent his first winter and here that he conducted a 50-day siege during the revolt of the Tigua villages against him. His success led to the first plundering of the town by the Spaniards; the last occurred at the time of the general revolt of the Pueblos against Spanish rule in 1680 and resulted in the final abandonment of the village by the Indians.

From Bernalillo to Albuquerque, a distance of 16 miles, the railway continues along the east side of the Rio Grande, but in some places it is separated from the stream by wide alluvial flats, which at Albuquerque are more than a mile across. The Tigua pueblo of Sandia is on the east side of the Rio Grande about 12 miles north of Albuquerque. It was visited by Coronado and had many vicissitudes of abandonment and burning, but was reestablished by the missionaries.

Ten miles from Albuquerque is the ruined pueblo of Alameda (ah-lah-may'da, Spanish for row of cottonwoods). This was a Tigua village which was built upon the banks of the Rio Grande, but owing to a change in the course of that variable stream, it lies now a mile from the river's edge. Here Cárdenas had 200 Indians burned at the stake, a crime for which he was thrown into prison when he returned to Spain. Like its companion villages of Puaray (at Bernalillo) and Sandia, Alameda was burned by the Spaniards at the time of the general uprising in 1680.

To the east there are fine views of the west front of the Sandia Mountains. (See Pl. XIII, A, p. 75.) Near Albuquerque it may be seen that this range is terminated on the south by a deep gap, south of which rises another range, of similar structure, known as the Manzano Mountains.

The portion of Albuquerque (ahl-boo-care'kay) known as "old town" extends along the river bank a mile to the west; the part near the railway is much younger. The city was founded in 1701 by Gov. Pedro Rodríguez y Cubero, who established 30 families there and applied to it the name of the Duke of Alburquerque, who had been viceroy of New Spain. The duke, who never came to America, ordered the name changed to San Felipe de Alburquerque as a compliment to the reigning king. In the course of years the name has been reduced to one word and a slight change has been made in the spelling. Albuquerque was an important center in the Spanish and Mexican occupation, and Gen. Phil Sheridan made it his headquarters until 1870. It is now the largest city in New Mexico and is an important commercial and industrial center. It is a railway division point, with large machine shops and a plant for creosoting railway ties. All the trains stop for half an hour or longer, close to the large Alvarado Hotel, named for Hernando de Alvarado, who accompanied Coronado on his journey of discovery and conquest. In one part of this beautiful building is an interesting salesroom of Indian goods, which is a museum of Indian arts. The entire building is in the mission style. Indians from Isleta frequent the corridor of this building, offering pottery and other products of their handicraft at low prices.

In the eastern part of the city, about a mile from the station, are the State University buildings, of Pueblo Indian style, and in the old town to the west still stands the mission church of San Felipe de Neri, built in 1735.

From Albuquerque an important branch of the Santa Fe continues south down the Rio Grande valley to El Paso, and from this branch another diverges at Rincon to Deming, Silver City, and Lake Valley. The railway was built through to Albuquerque in 1880 and the line to Deming was opened in the spring of 1881. For some time before the building of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, now the western part of the Santa Fe system, this line by way of Deming and thence over the Southern Pacific was the principal outlet to the Pacific coast.

There are but few mines in the vicinity of Albuquerque, although some small ones are worked for gold and other metals in the mountains to the east. Much of the product of the many ranches is brought to the city, and the wool from a wide area is received there, most of it passing through a scouring plant that handles 7,000,000 pounds a year. The gross annual trade in sheep in the vicinity amounts to about $10,000,000.