The link is the importance of man's adjustment to a marginal land and the man-land relationship during the past 1,000+ years of occupation. 'Salinas Pueblo Missions was set aside because of the importance of the cultural resources, however, there is a major connecting link to the natural resources.

To learn why, visit the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument visitors center in Mountainair and/or the abandoned pueblos at Quarai, Abó, and Gran Quivira. However by 1677 the entire Salinas District, was depopulated of both Indian and Spaniard.” Early in the 17th-century Spanish Franciscans visited the area and found it ripe for their missionary efforts. In return, she made her home nearby in a lake, so that people might come there with offerings and take away the salt that is her body.Īs noted at the National Park Service website, the “once, thriving American Indian trade communities of Tiwa and Tompiro speaking Puebloans inhabited this remote area of central New Mexico. Long ago, a Pueblo man showed Salt Woman hospitality, even though her body was rough and scaly. Located generally east of Willard and Estancia in central Torrance county, these lakebeds, or more accurately the remains of a once larger lake, played a unique role in the history of this area.Īlthough the more recent history of the area centers around ranching (Estancia means ranch), the Pueblo people and the Spanish colonizers recovered salt from these lakebeds, the largest of which is known as Laguna del Perro.

New mexico salt flats