Pecos National Historical Park

I must have driven past this park of New Mexico a dozen times in the past few years, but I have never stopped in this park. That all changed on this day when Kerri and I went well out of our way to drop in. We arrived with just 1 hour before the gates closed, but since two of the three sections of the park were closed to the public the time was enough to complete a visit (66th National Park).

The main part of the park, and the area we were visiting, preserves Pecos Pueblo and the mission church which really only consisted of a few large stone and mud walls. The real excitement was dropping into the Kivas (underground pits with a roof).

As we were leaving I was reading up on the literature supplied by the park. It describes how Coronado’s expedition, in search of gold, killed many of the natives only to find no gold. This didn’t stop Coronado from continuing in his search, and killing, before finally returning to New Spain empty handed (and nearly dead himself). Read it here. The pamphlet ends with a single sentence that just boiled my blood, and it went something like this, “The natives and the Spanish traded weapons, blankets, food, etc to the benefit of both…” To the benefit of both? Seriously, white-man arrives, kills the natives, and that is a benefit? I am a firm believer that historical fact should trump political correctness, and in this case the Park Service failed miserably.