Fort Union and Petroglyph National Monuments
Fort Union and Petroglyph NM script.
Fort Union National Monument is located about 7.7 miles north of Waltros, New Mexico off I25.
Fort Union had at least three forts. The first, built in 1851 after the Mexican American war, was off in the woods seen in the video a few miles away. They were poorly built and fell apart, so it was rebuilt in a more suitable place, where the present fort is.
While the second fort was better built, it too suffered from quick and unprofessional construction. The fort seen in the photos was built of adobe and wood using more professional tradesmen and more appropriate materials for this high mountain valley fort. The Mountains provided limestone, the soil the clay for the adobe, and the forests the wood for framing.
Why was it so important that the fort be “durable”? It was built where two main branches of the Santa Fe Trail joined. It was the largest fort west of the Mississippi. Not only was the trail itself dangerous and hard on the people and wagons, the Apache, Ute, and the Jicarilla raided wagon trails and declared war on them and the fort. It was the major trading and supply post for the further west forts and then there was the Civil War.
Most people don’t think of it coming as far west as New Mexico, but it did. It was the troops from Fort Union that defeated the attempt to put New Mexico in Confederate hands at Glorietta Pass and regain both Santa Fe and Albuquerque as a part of the Union.
The fort has enlisted barracks, officer’s homes, stables, storage areas for both human and animal supplies, trading stores, a jail, a quartermaster’s depot, commissary, and corrals for pack, riding, and draft animals as well as other animals, and the best hospital west of the Mississippi, which was not a small building.
The Santa Fe Trail was THE route from Missouri to Santa Fe. The Fort was strategic in keeping Indians at bay. In peace it was the passageway for people and wagons and traders using the trail and providing military support to those living both further west and east to Texas.
By 1879 the Santa Fe Railroad reached from Kansas City to Trinidad, Colorado. The 90 miles (without any current roadway services like gas) from Trinidad to La Junta is an interesting drive as the road follows the Santa Fe Trail and just west of the road is the railroad. The railroad was extended to Raton Pass in 1880 and onto Las Vegas, NM. Later that year it reached Santa Fe. Once the railroad was functional there was no need for Fort Union. The last soldier left Fort Union in May 1881. It and the wagon tracks leading to it were made a National Monument in 1954.
The trail around and through the Monument is a little over 1.5 miles. The gentleman in the video in the reflective vest on the riding mower keeps the grass lower on the sides of the trail so one can see before hearing a rattlesnake, another reason, as all National Park signs tell us, to stay on the trail.
Petroglyph National Monument is a sacred place for the Reo Grande and Western Pueblos of northern New Mexico. It also holds significance for the Dine (Navajo), Hopi, Comanche and Apache indigenous ones. These people came here for ceremonies, to gather – after asking permission from what was gathered – rocks, seeds, soils, plants, and animals. They gave cornmeal as an offering of gratitude. Close to the basalt boulders, shewned from ancient, 1000,000 to 200,000 years ago, volcanoes which show the spiritual petroglyphs are lava flows. Canyons, and grasslands also a part of the indigenous sacred lands.
What is a petroglyph? It is an image that was pecked, scratched, or carved into a boulder’s surface. A pictograph is an image that was painted with yucca fibre brushes and natural pigments from local plants and/or blood from local animals. These images were scratched through the desert black patina on the rock. They still remain for us to see and the indigenous to revere.
Nineteen Pueblo and ten Tribes call this land sacred and historical home. Together they formed groups to preserve the petroglyphs in the 1970’s, establishing several state parks. Petroglyph National Monument was formed in 1990.
As you can see from the video taken atop Mesa Point trail, Albuquerque has grown very close to the monument. It is because of the efforts of these organizations that the sacred petroglyphs and lands are now preserved for all to see and wonder over and to preserve these sacred indigenous lands for the sacred uses.
No one has yet determined the specific meaning of any of the petroglyphs. There is one cross, that appears to be a Christian cross, which probably indicates it was made after the Spanish arrived in the area in the 1500’s.
I hiked two trails here. The trails are not connected to the visitor center; one must drive through the out shirts of Albuquerque to each one. None of the trails are designed for people with limited mobility.
The Mesa Point Trail is set apart by desert. The parking area has several picnic tables with ramadas and doesn’t seem to be a part of the city until one gets to the top and looks down and there it is. The trail goes up to the top of a lava flow to an elevation of 5,2678 feet. The trail winds up, with chains mounted on wooded posts to keep people “on the trail”, not for support. Some of it, again to keep people on the trail, has had a thin layer of blacktop put down to preserve the trail. The rock “steps” are not for short people, but I managed.
The second trail was the Piedreas Marcadas Canyon trail. The parking area here was behind a commercial business and started between two housing developments. It led along the bottom of the base of an escarpment where the petroglyphs were at various heights. The trail was sand, so hiking was a little difficult.
Just click the link below to see the video.