Out Here We Love Our Ruts

 

While not universal many people have an inborn desire to, in some way however small, leave their mark on the world.

Long before the arrival of Europeans in America the Ancestral Pueblo people memorialized themselves by incising petroglyphs onto the dark, patinated rocks of New Mexico.  The meaning of many carvings is known only to their creators, but virtually all hold deep spiritual and cultural meanings to contemporary Native communities.  Some images such as deers, mountain lions, snakes, and birds seem self-evident, but may not be.   Patterns, zigzags, and lines might represent lightning, water. mountains – or not.  Humanoid figures and masks can be downright eerie and otherworldly in appearance –  ideal fodder for the “ancient alien theorists” on the eponymous History Channel television program.

The self-effacing English Pilgrims who came to New England on the Mayflower in 1620 however eschewed their opportunity to register their presence publicly on Plymouth Rock – instead signing the Mayflower Compact a month prior to settling at Plymouth in a private ceremony onboard ship while anchored near present day Provincetown, Cape Cod.  The Brits’  3,000 mile oceanic trip took 66 days following a long-established sailing route used by English explorers and fishermen.   However severe, unseasonal storms pushed them significantly off course causing them to land at P’town rather than their target of Northern Virginia.  

Twenty-two years earlier the recognition-seeking Spanish who settled New Mexico in 1598 incongruously left perhaps their most enduring mark in the form of a series of unobtrusive, long deep tracks imbedded in the earth.  Fortunately for them, out here we love our ruts.

Spanish colonizers led by Juan de Oñate y Salazar came to New Mexico on their feet – trekking 1,600 miles in about six months.  Unlike the Pilgrims Oñate absolutely nailed his intended destination – the Tewa village of Ohkay Owinge (“place of strong people”) – by adapting a series of centuries-old, well-defined Indigenous foot trails into a roadway that could accommodate a caravan of massive European-style wagon trains, soldiers, and livestock.   He christened the resulting thoroughfare “El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro” –  “The Royal Road of the Interior Land.”

(The Spanish Empire's “Caminos”  were a system of government-created routes connecting missions, forts, and mining centers to Mexico City or other regional capitals. They were paired with an equally well-organized network of oceanic routes to efficiently connect the various parts of the Spanish Empire e.g the Galleon Trade Route linked the Philippines to New Spain.   Other major Caminos in North America were El Camino Real de los Tejas (connecting East Texas/Louisiana to Mexico) and El Camino Real in California (connecting the 21 missions, presidios, and Pueblos from San Diego to Sonoma.)  In South America major networks extended from the Viceroyalty of Peru down to the Río de la Plata, connecting cities and mining regions in present-day Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia. The original Camino Real was in Spain, connecting cities like Gijón, León, and Madrid.) 

Oñate proclaimed Ohkay Owinge the first Spanish capital of New Mexico renaming it San Juan de los Caballeros to honor his patron saint, John the Baptist and to recognize the “gentlemen” (“caballeros”) of his expedition.  The location was chosen based on reports from an earlier scouting party in July of that year.   Its position at the confluence of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama provided fertile land and water; its inhabitants welcomed the Spanish and it was centrally located among the Native villages (“pueblos”) allowing for easy, surveillance of the region.  Perhaps most importantly, driven by the myths of Cibola and “Cities of Gold,” Oñate absolutely expected to find that precious metal and/or other wealth at Ohkay Owingeh and the surrounding area.  He didn’t.

Lack of riches and insufficiency of day-to-day resources led to low morale among the settlers.  San Juan de los Caballeros was abandoned the next year and the capital moved up the road near present-day Española to another village Oñate called San Gabriel del Yunque to recognize the displaced Tewa pueblo site of Yunque-Ouinge (“anvil pueblo”) and to honor another of his patron saints. (Oñate had several guiding spirits including The Virgin Mary, St. James and San Miguel.)  The new location however also failed to meet expectations leading to the capital moving to its ultimate home in Santa Fe in 1610. 

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro however was definitely a winning proposition, serving as the primary trade and colonization route between Mexico City and New Mexico for over 300 years facilitating goods transportation, economic development, and cultural exchange  – America’s first cross-country highway.

Key to the success of the Caminos were their parajes – stopping points 10-15 miles apart (one day’s travel.)  Not all of them were manned, but they all were planned. In the beginning most were simply unattended designated campsites that provided fresh water and a resting place for animals and travelers.  Some were mission churches or Native Pueblo villages with food and trading goods, fresh livestock and safety.  The Texas routes relied almost exclusively on the former, while California's route was anchored by missions.  de Tierra Adentro began with mostly unwatched sites plus a few churches and Native Pueblos – then grew to include managed locations such as working ranches and other businesses that provided paraje services.  Some parajes eventually evolved into permanent settlements with a few growing into modern cities like Albuquerque, Socorro, and El Paso.  El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum where we volunteer, became a working sheep ranch and full-service paraje around 1720.  Santa Fe’s “first and last” – first stop out, last stop in.

Oñate's 1598 expedition to New Mexico was made up of over 400 soldiers and settlers including 130 families, 83 wagons/carts and over 7,000 head of livestock (mules, horses, sheep, goats, cattle) stretching for four miles.  Subsequent supply caravans generally consisted of 32 wagons with around 100 people, including Franciscan missionaries and merchants accompanied by military and roughly 1,000 head of animals.  Each wagon was typically pulled by eight mules and carried about 4,000 pounds of freight.  During the 1600s, these government-organized supply caravans usually traveled north from Mexico City only every three to four years.  Annually in the 1700s and 1800s.  Trips were usually scheduled to avoid the worst of the summer heat and winter snow.  Northbound, they brought new settlers, missionaries, clothing, metal farming and mining tools, religious items, and food.   Southbound, they transported sheep, wool, hides, and pinyon nuts.  By the mid-19th century, private trader caravans were smaller, often consisting of around 14 wagons.  Big or small the trip still took about six months.

Travel was hazardous for the convoys.  Apache and Chichimeca Indians targeted the livestock.  The trail was made up of steep rocky terrain, deep sand, and treacherous arroyos that broke wagon wheels and brought progress to a halt.  Lack of fresh water, and the immense length of the trip led to sickness and death among settlers.  Unrelenting desert heat, sudden cold, droughts, and lack of forage for animals plus flash floods from the Rio Grande provided environmental dangers.

Perhaps the most perilous part of the trail was a 100-mile section of desert between Las Cruces, NM and Socorro, NM known as “Jornada del Muerto” (“Route of the Dead Man.”)  Most of the time de Tierra Adentro tracked closely to the path of the Rio Grande providing nearby access to water and forage.  Here however, the trail diverged from the river due to rough terrain and arroyos, which the caravans could not traverse.  It took five days of little water to cross this segment.   As one Spaniard wrote,  “Oh Dios, qué tierra tan solitaria,” “Oh God, what a lonely land.”     

So, with no GPS or Rand-McNally maps how did the travelers of de Tierra Adentro know where to go?  In most cases the caravans contained trail-experienced traders and Spanish soldiers.  But the basic rule for finding your way was to “follow the ruts” – the deep, enduring tracks left in the landscape by previous journeyers.

Segments of those same ruts are still visible today.  At La Bajada Mesa, south of Santa Fe, you can see the paths used by wagons to descend the rugged escarpment from mesa into the valley below.  And the National Park’s Yost Draw in Jornada del Muerto features a 1.5-mile interpretive path where you can walk directly alongside original trail tracks and wagon ruts.  

Yost Draw also provides a glimpse of  Spaceport America, which now occupies the middle portion of the Jornada – “the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world.”  On May 22, 2021 Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity ascended over those centuries-old furrows on that company’s first crewed flight to the edge of space with the ship’s owner Richard Branson onboard.  

One has to wonder why Branson chose this particular location to launch his business.   Could it be that he was aware of earlier space flights that took place in the area?  Furthermore, could it be that those 1598 Camino Real de Tierra Adentro travelers might themselves have gazed in amazement at one such high-flying spaceship?  And if so did they wonder if its inhabitants might have been responsible for the otherworldly petroglyphs the caravans continued to encounter on their own terrestrial travels?   

Nah!  They were probably too focused on just staying alive to think of anything else.