Salinas Pueblo Missions

 South of Mountaineer, NM there are 3 sites of ruins. The original inhabitants of the land had a great community in place when the Spaniards arrived. They used the existing structures to colonize this area of civilization to Roman Catholicism and civil government. They built over the existing circular kivas and made a community under the Franciscan missionaries. The missions were abandoned in the late 1600s, then reoccupied in the mid-1800s. They were declared a National Monument in 1909 and later excavated in 1938.

The architecture at the sites are quite amazing. Every detail of the construction is used for lighting and interior building when electricity did not exist. This is mind-blowing since we rely on technology for nearly every aspect of life. It reveals how aware of lighting that these people were.

Below are a few images from the Gran Quivira followed by the Abo site. The Quarai site is the last of the missions part of the monument, which I was unable to visit.

Here is a link to a more detailed history of the missions:
http://www.nps.gov/sapu/historyculture/upload/SAPU_hsr.pdf