Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, well-preserved remains of ancient Native American pueblos and 17th-century Spanish missions, central New Mexico, U.S. The monument’s three separate sites—Quarai, Abó, and Gran Quivira—are loosely clustered around the town of Mountainair, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Albuquerque. It was established in 1980 from the former Gran Quivira National Monument (1909) and two state monuments and covers about 1.7 square miles (4.4 square km). The monument is named for the salt deposits found in the area; the Spanish word salinas means “salt mines.” A visitors’ centre is in Mountainair.

Permanent human settlement in the region began about 700 ce. By the 1300s the Anasazi, the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians, were building the pueblos. These had become sizable communities by the time Spanish explorers arrived in the late 16th century. In the 1620s Spanish Franciscans founded several missions, but the sites had been abandoned by the end of the 1670s as a result of famine and tribal raids. The area remained empty until new attempts at settlement began in the 19th century.

Each site contains the ruins of a mission church and pueblos, some of which have been excavated; visitors can follow interpretive trails. The largest site, Gran Quivira (also known as Las Humanas), contains two churches: the huge unfinished San Buenaventura and the smaller San Isidro. Kivas, the subterranean ceremonial chambers used by the Pueblo people, are scattered across the site.