New Mexico Historic Sites, 725 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, NM (2026)

05/28/2026

Greetings from Fort Selden!

Garden Update: We have sprouts! 🌱You may remember back in April, we posted about our Foodways Garden: Planting and Preparation program. During the program, participants learned about the history and cultural significance of plants like the three sisters (squash, beans, and corn) Indigenous planting methodologies and even got their hands dirty by sowing seeds and transplanting established chiles, grown courtesy of our friends over at the Chile Pepper Institute.

Take a look at these images to see a bit of what's growing and let us know in the comments below what's sprouting in your garden!

05/27/2026

Greetings from Lincoln,
Mark your calendars, folks! Here is a list of upcoming events at Lincoln Historic Site for the month of June. As we gear up for event season, be sure to follow us for updates.

Quickly approaching is Lincoln After Dark, hosted by Oso Productions, which will be held throughout historic Lincoln on Sat., June 6, - 9 p.m. MDT. Tickets are on sale through Oso Productions.

This year, Lincoln Lectures will be in the billiards hall of the two-story courthouse. Most lectures are on the first Saturday of the month, except during Old Lincoln Days, when we host on Friday and Saturday. Join us for these great programs:

🌟Saturday, June 6, 1 pm - Starlyn Bigrope, “Ndé (Mescalero Apache) History: Our Story, Our Experiences”

🤠Old Lincoln Days, Friday, August 7
11 a.m. - Lori Goodloe, “The Last Escape of Billy the Kid”
2 p.m. - John LeMay, “John Chisum versus Billy the Kid”

👢Old Lincoln Days, Saturday, August 8
11 a.m. - Brandon Dickson, “The Most Dangerous Street in America”
2 p.m. - Johnny Boswell, “Billy the Kid: True Age Revealed”

✍Saturday, September 5 – 1 p.m. John LeMay, “The Authentic Life of Ash Upson”

🦇Saturday, October 3 - 1 p.m. Knutt Peterson, “Exploring Fort Stanton Snowy River Cave”

All events are subject to change. We will keep you updated as events get closer to the date!

05/26/2026

Happy Tuesday from Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site! In 1893, Rafaela Barela, who lived on the site's property for fifty years filed a class action lawsuit against the United States. Why? Along with Ramón Gonzales and forty other plaintiffs, she sued the federal government for violating the rights of property owners in Santo Tomás de Yturbide, a Mexican land grant located south of Mesilla. She presented evidence to the Court of Private Land Claims that her son Mariano Barela had collected, including a certified copy of the original property deeds and oral testimony from residents living in the area when the Commissioner of Emigration Guadalupe Miranda certified their allotments in 1854. She argued that United States Deputy Surveyor Jay Turley made an error in locating the eastern boundary of that land grant. Turley’s survey failed to identify the eastern bank of the Rio Grande as it flowed in 1854. She said that this surveying error deprived the original inhabitants of 4,690 acres of land. In 1902, the court agreed with Barela and ordered Turley to prepare a revised survey that recognized the prior course of the river, thereby restoring the land to its rightful owners.

This 1893 map shows the Santo Tomás de Yturbide land grant, outlined in red and includes a tract labeled as the “Barela Ranch.” Today much of the land within the boundaries of the Santo Tomás de Yturbide land grant are owned by Stahmanns Farms (established in 1932) and used for cultivating pecan trees.

Image Credit: Brazito Grant. Map showing three different surveys, 1893. Casad-Lane family papers (Ms-0440). NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections.

05/25/2026

Greetings from Fort Stanton,
Mark your calendars, folks! Here is a list of upcoming events at Fort Stanton Historic Site. As we gear up for event season, be sure to follow our page and check out our upcoming programs.

🇺🇸 July 11th - Fort Stanton Live! This annual event is quickly approaching. Don't miss a day of reenactments, presentations, and other great activities. It's fun for the whole family!

Fort Fun Days - Held on the first Sunday of every month throughout the summer, these days include raising and lowering the flag, a tour of the post cemetery at 11 a.m., and a guest lecturer or demonstration at 1 p.m. Here's the schedule of presenters:

🐑June 7th - Joan Nussbaum, "Wonderful World of Weaving"

📜July 5th - Javier Trost, "How to Make Your Own Paper"

🌿August 2nd - Amy Hoffman, "Exploring Nature Around the Fort"

All events are subject to change. We will keep you updated as events get closer to the date.

05/24/2026

Happy Sunday from Los Luceros Historic Site!

In the chapel at Los Luceros you will find many different retablos or painted depictions of Catholic Saints. One of the most important in New Mexico is San Ysidro, the patron saint of farmers and agriculture. If you look closely, you can see that angels are guiding San Ysidro's plow, making his work in the fields easier. This particular retablo was created by local Alcalde artist Clair Villa.

05/23/2026

Good morning from Coronado Historic Site at Kuaua Pueblo!

Today, we wanted to share this photograph from the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives titled: “Dorothy Maxwell and Edgar L. Hewett, Coronado Cuarto Centennial, Albuquerque." The excavations at Kuaua and its ultimate opening 86 years ago went hand-in-hand with a large tourism campaign revolving around the 400th anniversary of the Spanish-led Coronado Expedition. Archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett (pictured on the right) was the prominent figure who secured funding for the Kuaua dig. Included among his numerous accolades were the founding of the Museum of New Mexico, as well as the Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico, later named the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology after Gilbert and Dorothy Maxwell (pictured on the left).

The events of the Coronado Cuarto Centennial were, understandably, met with mixed reviews. Among the nearby Pueblos, the controversial history wasn’t seen as something to be celebrated. Photos like this one lean more heavily into the region’s Indigenous history as a topic that garnered public interest. Historic sites and museums filled with decorative pottery, like the one here, attracted tourists from across the country. In fact, the bowl held by Hewett was found at Kuaua. The bowl is a tan color with an attractive red pattern on the exterior and a black geometric motif with bird designs inside. While this particular piece isn’t currently in our exhibit, other wonderful examples of glaze ware vessels can still be appreciated in our visitor center.

📷 Dorothy Maxwell and Edgar L. Hewett, Coronado Cuarto Centennial, Albuquerque, NM, 1940. Photographer: Harold D. Walter. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives 007385.

05/22/2026

After a year of growth of their beautiful wool, the Friends of the Bosque Redondo Memorial Navajo-Churro sheep herd has been sheared. Our flock only gets sheared once a year, so their wool will be long enough to be used in making yarn. It is very important for sheep to be sheared as they could overheat in the summer, are more prone to parasites, and the wool can weigh them down, making it hard for them to move. Our sheep are now ready for the hot weather and growing new wool for next year!

05/20/2026

Greetings from Lincoln,
Great news to all of our upcoming visitors! In the next couple of weeks, you will be seeing two groups start a mudding project to bring our beautiful Torreon back to its original glory. The two groups have lots of experience in working and teaching adobe techniques that will help give our defense tower the shine it needs. While the groups are working on the Torreon, it will be off limits to our visitors. If you do see any of the members, make sure to say hi to them.

Mudding is the process of adding a mixture of sand, soil, and binders to coat the outside of a structure. The process is very much the same as doing adobe brick work. All of the soil that will be used on the project actually comes from Lincoln itself. The project will be completed by mid-June. Make sure you come and take your pictures before and after the project and be part of history!

Photos: The black and white photo of the Torreon is from the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives ZIM CSWR Pict Colls PICT 994-014. All other photos were taken by Historic Sites Staff.

05/19/2026

Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site offers two types of tours through the home.

If you want to take a self-guided tour and experience the home at your own pace, those are offered Wednesday-Sunday, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. You'll be able to access nine of the 16 publicly accessible spaces. Those are $10/adults and free for children 16 years and younger.

If you would like to take a guided tour of the home, which will grant you access to all 16 publicly accessible spaces and give you the chance to learn more about the site from a staff member or volunteer docent, join us Wednesday-Saturday at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. Those are $15/adult and $5/16 years and younger. Please call 575-202-1638 for more information on visiting Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site.

📸 Tira Howard Photography

05/18/2026

Greetings from Lincoln and Fort Stanton,
Are you or someone you know a high school student interested in a paid internship? Well, you are in luck! Both Lincoln and Fort Stanton Historic Sites are looking for summer interns. Our interns will work with our staff on things like researching our history for social media posts. Learn about the behind-the-scenes of working at a historic site. You will also gain valuable experience that can be applied to many other jobs. Help us preserve our history!

Please visit our Careers site to review the job posting and complete your application.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Click the link below to access our Careers site.

For Lincoln search:
https://careers.share.nm.gov/psp/hprdcg/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=1&JobOpeningId=163624&PostingSeq=1

For Fort Stanton search:
https://careers.share.nm.gov/psp/hprdcg/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&SiteId=1&FOCUS=Applicant&JobOpeningId=163621&PostingSeq=1
2. Sign In to access your account. If you do not have an account, select the menu bar on the right, and click on New User to create an account.

3. Review the job description and click Apply for Job to begin your application.

05/17/2026

Happy Sunday from Los Luceros Historic Site!

Raccoons, while adorable and funny, can be quite the pests here on site. They like to mess with our compuertas (ditch headgates) at night, especially if they think a crawdad/crayfish is stuck in one! These omnivores are opportunistic and will eat anything they can get their little hands on. Most of the time we just see their footprints in the mud in the ditches or riverbanks. Sometimes, however, we get lucky and see one during the day.

New Mexico Historic Sites

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