El Morro National Monument is a U.S.

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

Cibola County Cibola County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,213. Its county seat is Grants. It is New Mexico's youngest county, and the third youngest county in the United States, created on June 19, ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Located on an ancient east–west trail in the western part of the state, the monument preserves the remains of a large prehistoric

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

atop a great

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

promontory with a pool of water at its base, which subsequently became a landmark where over the centuries explorers and travelers have left personal inscriptions that survive today. Between about 1275 to 1350 AD, up to 600 people of the

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

culture lived in the 355+-room mesa-top pueblo. The village was situated on the old Zuni-Acoma Trail, an important ancient trade route. Spanish explorers visiting the area in the 16th century referred to the notable promontory as ''El Morro'' ("The Headland"); the local

Zuni Indians Zuni may refer to: Peoples and languages * Zuni people, an indigenous people of the United States * Zuni language, their language Places * Zuni, Virginia, an unincorporated town in Virginia in the United States * Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, a ce ...

call it ''A'ts'ina'' ("Place of writings on the rock"), and early Anglo-Americans referred to it as Inscription Rock. With its oasis-like source of water, El Morro served as a natural resting place for numerous travelers through the otherwise arid and desolate region, many of whom left their signatures, names, dates, and stories of their treks in the walls of the sandstone cliff. While some of the inscriptions are now faded through age, there are still many that can be seen today and remain legible, with some dating back to the 17th century. The oldest legible inscription at El Morro, left by

Juan de Oñate Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Pla ...

, the first Spanish governor of the colony of

Santa Fe de Nuevo México Santa Fe de Nuevo México ( en, Holy Faith of New Mexico; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a Kingdom of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The ...

, is dated April 16, 1605. Among the Anglo-American emigrants who left their names there in 1858 were several members of the Rose-Baley Party, including

Leonard Rose Leonard Joseph Rose (July 27, 1918 – November 16, 1984) was an American cellist and pedagogue. Biography Rose was born in Washington, D.C.; his parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Bragin, Belarus, and his mother from Kyiv, ...

and

John Udell John Udell (22 June 1795 – 30 June 1874) was an American farmer and Baptist lay preacher who is primarily known for two detailed diaries he kept of his travels to California across the Great Plains of the United States. He traversed the overl ...

. Nearby

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s and carvings made by the Ancestral Puebloans were inscribed centuries before Europeans arrived. In 1906, U.S. federal law prohibited further carving on the cliffs. El Morro was designated a national monument by President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

on December 8, 1906, and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1966. Today the site is managed by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. The many inscription panels, water pool, pueblo ruins, and the top of the promontory are all accessible via park trails. El Morro is one of many prehistoric sites on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, a designated New Mexico Scenic Byway.Trail of the Ancients.
New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved August 14, 2014. The monument was featured in the film ''

Four Faces West ''Four Faces West'' is a 1948 American Western (genre), Western film starring Joel McCrea, his real-life wife Frances Dee, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel ''Pasó por aquí'' by Eugene Manlove Rhodes. Its plot concerns a down-on- ...

'' (1948), starring

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he beca ...

. In December 2019, the

International Dark Sky Association The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a United States-based non-profit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford (astronomer), David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter (astronomer), Tim Hunter, a physi ...

certified El Morro as an International Dark Sky Park, recognizing its preservation of not only the historic inscriptions but also its natural night sky.

Gallery

File:1605 "graffiti" on Inscription Rock, by Juan de Oñate.jpg, Inscription by

in 1605. This is the oldest historical inscription at El Morro. File:Detail of writing from Inscription Rock, New Mexico - NARA - 523691.tif, Inscription recording a 1629 expedition by Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto File:El Morro 1868.jpg, El Morro in 1868, photographed by Alexander Gardner Image:ElMorroPetroglygh.JPG, Native American petroglyph Image:Elmo-bluff.jpg, Sandstone bluff at El Morro File:Lone Pine Umbrella.JPG, Ponderosa pine along Mesa Top trail loop

References

*United States Government Printing Office (1995). ''El Morro National Monument''. GPO 387-038/00173

External links

Official National Park Service siteAmerican Southwest, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel ItineraryWoodpecker Arch
an unusual feature at El Morro Rock. Photos and directions at

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated content ...

. {{authority control Petroglyphs in New Mexico National Park Service National Monuments in New Mexico Museums in Cibola County, New Mexico Native American museums in New Mexico Protected areas established in 1906 Protected areas of Cibola County, New Mexico Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico 1906 establishments in New Mexico Territory

Gallery

See also

References

External links