Pecos National Historical Park, National Historical Park in San Miguel County, United States
Pecos National Historical Park is a protected area in San Miguel County and Santa Fe County, New Mexico, preserving pre-Columbian settlement remains and a colonial mission church. The site stretches across a wide highland plain overlooking the surrounding hills, showing wall remains made of adobe bricks and stone.
The settlement began in the 12th century and grew into one of the largest pueblos in the Southwest before Spanish missionaries built a church in the 17th century. In the 19th century the last inhabitants left and moved to relatives in other communities.
For centuries this location served as a meeting point where traders from east and west exchanged furs, pottery, and food. Visitors today see the remains of kivas, the round ceremonial rooms where the community's religious life unfolded.
Visitors can walk a loop trail through the ruins that takes about an hour and is easy to navigate. A visitor center at the entrance displays artifacts and explains the layout with panels and models.
Parts of the historic trade route between Missouri and Santa Fe cross the grounds, and wagon ruts are still visible in the soil at some spots. These grooves formed through decades of heavy carts passing over the soft ground.
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