New Mexico Historic Sites

01/16/2020

Our Friends do some amazing things! The Friends of Coronado Historic Site will be hosting their monthly lecture series at a new location: Bernalillo Town Hall! Join us Sunday, January 19th, for Stories from the Land of Enchantment with storyteller Cynthia Dobson. Details are below. Hope to see you there!

Friends! Join us on Sunday Feb 19th at the Bernalillo Council Chambers, free parking behind the building, 1:00 for the annual Friends meeting and election of board members, 2:00pm for the free lecture. Refreshments will be served.

01/11/2020

The staff of Coronado Historic Site would like to wish former ranger, Janet, best wishes as she leaves our ranks and returns to teaching. Good luck, Janet!

01/04/2020

At New Mexico Historic Sites, we know that no one ever really stops learning. Not even our educators! Yesterday, Emily Curtis, instructional coordinator of Coronado Historic Site, completed an eight-hour intensive workshop for the Bosque education guide at Rio Grande Nature Center. It is her hope that these tools will help her to foster a sense of admiration and stewardship for history – both natural and cultural - in her visiting students.

01/02/2020

The Price of Greed
By Rebekha C. Crockett

This week we share one of the most disastrous and corrupt incidents in the history of the Bosque Redondo Reservation when most of the $100,000 set aside by the government for supplies was embezzled in a scam orchestrated by Jesse H. Leavenworth and his business associates. This made the winter of 1864-1865 a particularly brutal one for the Navajo and Mescalero Apache families already suffering on the reservation. The events are as follows:

Back in the summer of 1864, Congress had appropriated $100,000 (the equivalent of about $1.6 million today) for supplies and provisions for the Navajo and Mescalero Apache interned at Bosque Redondo. William Baker and Jesse H. Leavenworth were in charge of making the necessary purchases. However, Leavenworth, an unscrupulous merchant, purposefully delayed the purchases so that they would have to buy supplies at the last minute without bids. He then went on to purchase the supplies from his friends and business associates at exorbitant prices. When Baker questioned Leavenworth, Leavenworth claimed that Baker was his assistant (a claim Baker angrily contradicted) and, when that failed, payed Baker in advance to appease him. Leavenworth did not accompany the supply train to Fort Union as instructed, instead letting Baker proceed alone. When the wagons carrying the supplies finally arrived, several months later than scheduled, Dr. Michael Steck, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for New Mexico, realized something was wrong. The supplies were far fewer and of much poorer quality than expected. Nevertheless, the supplies were desperately needed and were distributed on December 26th.

The Board of Officers in charge of distribution stated that, while some people received nothing, the distribution was as “equitable as could have been made under the circumstances”. They further noted that many of the articles purchased were not useful and the money could have been spent on more necessary items. Lastly they said that the high prices paid “warrants the Board in believing that the purchasers were either culpably negligent or entirely regardless of the interest of the Government and of the Indians” giving the example that blankets of the same or higher quality for which Leavenworth had payed $15.80 ($257 today) a piece, could easily be purchased for $5.85 ($95 today). The Board of Officers concluded that they estimated that the total goods were worth about $30,000 ($488,000 today). Transportation of the goods accounted for an additional $5,000 of the expenses. Because of this report from the Board of Officers, J. A. LaRue, the Sutler at Fort Sumner, and Assistant Adjutant General Lusby at Fort Sumner were both asked for their estimates.

On January 2nd, 1865, J. A. LaRue, reported to Captain Bristol in reply to their request for him “. . .to estimate the value of the goods distributed to the Navajoe Indians at this Post by Supt. Steck on the 27th inst. together with those remaining on hand, I have the honor to state that in my opinion they could be furnished at a cost not exceeding $40,000”

On this same day, Assistant Adjutant General Lusby reported to headquarters in Santa Fe that “at the distribution of presents made by Doctor Steck. . . to the Navajoe Indians on this reservation in December last, I was present, and made some examination of the goods both before and at the distribution, and having some experience in the mercantile business and a knowledge of the value of such goods. I give it as my opinion that the whole amount of goods distributed on that occasion exclusive of the wagons and oxen should have been purchased in the eastern market for the sum of $20,000”

While Commanding Officer Crocker at Fort Sumner stated the supplies would be “of great benefit to the Indians” he adds that “had the appropriation been faithfully expended for the articles such as they really need, so that they could have received the full benefit of it, it would have been a God send indeed”.
However, Captain Garrison (when asked to estimate the cost of providing for the captives) insisted that $500,000 a year would be the minimum amount needed to sustain the Navajo and Mescalero Apache each year, indicating that the $100,000 appropriated was already sorely inadequate even if it had been properly spent. Regardless, the fact remains that Leavenworth and his business associates pocketed between $55,000 and $75,000 ($895,000-$1.2 million today) of the money that was so desperately needed to supply the nearly 10,000 people interned at Bosque Redondo with food, clothing, and other essentials. Leavenworth was never held accountable for his actions.

12/28/2019

Surprise snow for the end of 2019! Monday, December 30th, is your last chance to see Kuaua before the new year begins. This past year saw so many new and interesting changes to our site. We’re ready for 2020, and we’re kicking it off with all sorts of educational opportunities in January. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for lecture series dates, school group announcements, and more!

12/27/2019

San Elizario, Texas,
December 24th, 1862.

"My Own dear Wife:

This is Christmas Eve. It is now after 8 o’clock at night. We have just had tattoo roll-call and I have sat down to write you a good, long letter. This has been a very lonesome day to me. I have never been so homesick since I have been a soldier, and this is a very lonesome, melancholy place, almost enough to make a man commit suicide. I am “Officer of the Day"; have been on duty all day, but have done nothing but wish myself at home with you and the babies. The Mexicans call this "Noche bueno," that is good night; because Christ was born on this night; nobody lives here but Mexicans, and they have been firing off pistols and muskets, and building bonfires ever since dark. I can see the mountains thirty miles from here, all ablase; their Church, - for they are all Catholics, - is illuminated at all points, and they have been keeping up their “good night” in grand style; it is now late and they have nearly finished. I hope you are enjoying yourself better than I am on this Christmas Eve.
When I wrote to you last, we were at Holt's. Mills. Well, the next day, we were ordered to proceed to this place, as the advance guard of the California troops, and with the expectation of soon receiving the Texians, if not meeting them before we reached here. We started on our march and arrived here on the second day, making short marches. If you have a good map, you will find this place about 30 miles below El Paso, on the Rio Grande, the most advanced post of Federal troops in this direction. I have been fortunate since we left Fort Yuma, in California, to be with the advance guard of Infantry, which is the post of honor, being the most dangerous, but I have gotten along very well so far. This town is like all Mexican towns, being built of adobes, or large sun-dried bricks,- dirty and unpleasant. It is a very old town, - as old or older than the City of New York, but it is about the same, I would suppose, now as it was a few years after it was first commenced. It was always used by the Mexicans as a fort, an outpost against the Indians, with whom the Mexicans have always been at war. It was at one time entirely surrounded by a high wall, but that was a long time ago, and has gone to ruin, only slight vestiges of it remaining.
Capt. Dresher is at Mesilla with his co., as is also Sergeant Upton. They were both well when I saw them last. They had just returned from a hunt after the Indians. Your letter with the pictures arrived here the other day, and you may be assured that I was very glad to get it. Your picture is very perfect; you look a little more womanly than you did when I left home, a little more motherly. George's, picture is so nice,- just as I pictured he would look, so manly, so old-looking; the baby’s picture I can not say I was pleased with; it is taken so badly with her mouth open; her hair is bad,- but is because, I suppose, that I did not know it, for you know that I could not tell her now from anybody else's baby, she was so small when I left home. Grandma's picture is very correct. She looks just the same as she always did.
I have just returned from a visit to the sentinels, for you must know that we are expecting to receive a visit from the Mexicans every day,- a large force is reported to be below. Yesterday there came into camp five men, who had been driven out of Texas for being Union men, and a great number of their party were killed by the Secessionists, they being the only ones that were left, and they presented a horrible experience, but our men gave them clothes and they were sent up to Mesilla, the headquarters of Gen.West, today.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

George."

The author of the above letter is George Pettis, a Union Soldier from California sent to the New Mexico-Texas border in preparation to fight confederate invaders. Soon after this letter, however, he was sent further west to fight Carleton’s war against the Navajo and Mescalero Apache instead, much to the disappointment of Pettis who felt left out of the “real” war between the Union and Confederacy. New Mexico was a relatively new territory of the United States, having been acquired in 1848 in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. While stationed in New Mexico, Pettis escorted groups of Navajo prisoners from other forts to Fort Sumner on several of the more than 50 different marches of the Long Walk. In future letters, Pettis would describe the awful conditions at Fort Sumner to his wife Anne Pettis, to whom he frequently wrote.
Photo: Fort Sumner Historic Site Nature Trail, taken by Ron Gauna

12/22/2019

What a beautiful, starry December night for some luminarias last week at Fort Selden Historic Site's Las Noches de Las Luminarias. These stunning images are courtesy of Stan Ford (2019).

12/21/2019

Coronado Historic Site will be closed Wednesday, December 25th but will reopen Thursday, December 26th at 8:30 AM. Our staff would like to wish our visitors, both new and returning, a safe and happy holiday.

12/20/2019

Name Our Lambs at Los Luceros Contest! Winner receives 2 Culture Passes - a $60 value. Post 3 clever names in the comments below. Staff will select a winner in January 3. To qualify, you must follow us on Facebook or Instagram.

#newmexicohistoricsites #losluceros #churro #sheep #babyanimals #newmexico #farmbabies

12/20/2019

Winter Wonderland at Fort Stanton Historic Site

A woman in period costume twirling on a wintery parade ground near a cannon at Fort Stanton New Mexico Historic Sites.

Entitled, “Tiffanie Twirling,” the subject of the photo, Historic Site Instructional Coordinator Tiffanie Owens says, “The clouds were low, the air was still. Larry was splitting wood for the fire. John kept the coffee hot while making biscuits, beans, and bacon in his crusty cast-iron skillet. And then it began to snow. I could not resist the urge to move to the parade ground and twirl.”

This photo is the cover of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Museums & Historic Sites Guide for 2019 Winter/2020 Spring, which is now available online for free at http://nmculture.org/guide!

12/19/2019

We love our volunteers! If you have skills that could benefit Lincoln or Fort Stanton Historic Site, we want you! Our volunteers assist with tours, historical interpretation, school groups and special events, groundswork/landscaping, maintenance/construction, site beautification/cleaning, sewing & costume design for living history and most importantly, they help staff two of our most interesting museums! If you are interested in volunteering at Lincoln Historic Site, please contact [email protected] or call 575-653-4025, ext. 111.

We love our volunteers! If you have skills that could benefit Lincoln or Fort Stanton Historic Site, we want you! Our volunteers assist with tours, historical interpretation, school groups and special events, groundswork/landscaping, maintenance/construction, site beautification/cleaning, sewing & costume design for living history and most importantly, they help staff two of our most interesting museums! If you are interested in volunteering at Lincoln Historic Site, please contact [email protected] or call 575-653-4025, ext. 111.

12/17/2019

We love our volunteers! If you have skills that could benefit Lincoln or Fort Stanton Historic Site, we want you! Our volunteers assist with tours, historical interpretation, school groups and special events, groundswork/landscaping, maintenance/construction, site beautification/cleaning, sewing & costume design for living history and most importantly, they help staff two of our most interesting museums! If you are interested in volunteering at Lincoln Historic Site, please contact [email protected] or call 575-653-4025, ext. 111.

We love our volunteers! If you have skills that could benefit Lincoln or Fort Stanton Historic Site, we want you! Our volunteers assist with tours, historical interpretation, school groups and special events, groundswork/landscaping, maintenance/construction, site beautification/cleaning, sewing & costume design for living history and most importantly, they help staff two of our most interesting museums! If you are interested in volunteering at Lincoln Historic Site, please contact [email protected] or call 575-653-4025, ext. 111.

12/16/2019

We are happy to welcome the newest member of our Los Luceros family! What should we name the little guy? 🐑 #losluceroshistoricsite #heritagefarm #churrosheep #norteño #babyanimals

12/14/2019

What exactly are the glowing bags we are displaying at some of our historic sites? Join Instructional Coordinator Alexandra McKinney for a brief history of farolitos and luminarias.

12/13/2019

Last night of this incredible event this decade! Saturday, December 14th!

The ruins of Giusewa Pueblo and San José de los Jemez Mission are decorated with hundreds of farolitos.

Saturday evening’s program will include traditional Native American flute music and Jemez Pueblo dancers’ performing between two illuminating bon-fires. The Historic Site will also host an arts and crafts fair and have food available for purchase.

Tickets for Saturday night are still available! Visit http://www.nmhistoricsites.org/jemez for more information.
https://tickets.holdmyticket.com/tickets/351568

12/13/2019

New Permanent Exhibit Is Almost Underway!

Fort Sumner Historic Site/Bosque Redondo Memorial is excited to announce that renovations for the Permanent Exhibit will begin in early January 2020! In preparation for this, some temporary changes are necessary:

-The Main Exhibit Gallery (our museum) will be closed starting Wednesday December 18th
-A temporary gallery will be opened by Christmas in our Resource Room in the Memorial Building (please note we are closed on Christmas Day).

The following will REMAIN OPEN:

- The Visitor’s Center in the Memorial Building
- Our grounds and outdoor exhibits
- The gift shop

Admission will remain FREE for all visitors throughout this process. The site is open Wednesday through Sunday 8:30am to 5:00pm, the ground close at 4:30pm

We are very excited to start renovations for our Permanent Exhibit which will culminate in our grand reopening in 2020. In the meantime we encourage visitors to come see our outdoor exhibits and temporary gallery. If you have any questions or comments feel free to call us at (575) 355-2573. Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this exciting transitional period.