Unfortunately, the girls aren't as 'into' history as we adults are. So they could only take so much of the historical sites.
Never-the-less, we did visit several of them, including...
Pecos National Monument - an old centrallized, key location for an Indian pueblo, which was later re-built as a Catholic church.
Here, you're looking at an old Native American pueblo ruin. The raised sides on the left and right of the picture used to be Indian homes that were about 2 to 3 stories high.
And this... is the catholic church, or what remains of it. This was built by the Spanish settlers to help the Indians transition into their new religious background. The catholics usually recognized an important religious and social location and then built their churches there so they could solidify their dominant position.
Ft. Union National Monument - A huge central supply hub for the Union forces during the Civil War. The confederates (Southerners) - tried to move up from the south and take over this Fort, in order to better supply their western advances and fund their further fighting in the east. Honestly, I studied history in college, and I NEVER knew the civil war was fought this far to the west.
Bandelier National Park - More SWEET cliff dwellings, with a short 3/4 mile hike allowing you to see most of the important spots quickly and easily.
Here's a shot of what used to be the cliff dwellings. The small round spots are the holes where they used to have floor poles for their second, third, and fourth floor rooms. Pretty neat place!
Oh, this is an original, native rock wall carving of a 'parrot', or at least that is what they tell you it must have been. Obviously the natives carved a parrot into the rock. The fact that it doesn't have wings is apparently not that important. To all of us it looked a lot like a dinosaur. But that's not possible... RIGHT?
1 comment:
Love the picture of Ma and Pa! Michael Landon should have been more "period" correct with his hair, don't you think? Actually, your great-great-great grandfather William Maxwell had hair like that! Except the pictures I have he had very white hair, but very wild! So glad you got those pictures!
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