Las Trampas or just Trampas (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: "traps"), is an unincorporated hamlet in

Taos County, New Mexico Taos County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,489. Its county seat is Taos. The county was formed in 1852 as one of the original nine counties in New Mexico Territory. Taos County com ...

. Founded in 1751 to settle the

Las Trampas Land Grant The Las Trampas Land Grant was awarded in 1751 by the Spanish Empire, colonial government of Spain to twelve Hispano families. The community of Las Trampas, New Mexico was founded the same year. The grant consisted of of land on the western slop ...

, its center retains the original early Spanish colonial defensive layout as well as the 18th-century San José de Gracia Church, one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish colonial church architecture in the United States. The village center was designated a

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

(the Las Trampas Historic District) in 1967. The population in 2023 was 43.

Geography

Las Trampas is located on the scenic High Road to Taos (New Mexico State Road 76) in the

Sangre de Cristo Mountains The Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Spanish language, Spanish for "Blood of Christ") are the southernmost mountain range, subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountai ...

. it is approximately halfway between Santa Fe to the south and

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico ** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...

to the north. The town has an elevation of . Las Trampas has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code 87576; the

US Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

prefers the name "Trampas". No

ZIP Code Tabulation Area ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community ...

information for 87576 is available from Census 2000. Trampas is located on a relatively flat, narrow, cultivated plain along the Rio de las Trampas, a tributary of the Embudo River. The plain measures about in length along the river and about in width. The plain is surrounded by forest-clad hills and mountains which belong to the

Carson National Forest Carson National Forest is a United States National Forest, national forest in northern New Mexico, United States. It encompasses 6,070 square kilometers (1.5 million acres) and is administered by the United States Forest Service. The Forest Serv ...

. Two irrigation ditches, called

acequia An acequia () or (, also known as síquia , all from ) is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Acequias are found in parts of Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and what i ...

s, run parallel to the river from the head to the foot of the valley and deliver water to farmers for crops. A distinctive feature of the acequias is the survival of a "canoa," a hand-hewn hollow log that serves as a

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

to transport water across ditches and depressions.

History

In the mid-18th century the population of the Spanish colony of New Mexico, consisting of seven to eight thousand

Hispanos The Hispanos of New Mexico, also known as New Mexican Hispanics or Nuevomexicanos, are Hispanic residents originating in the historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, today the US state of New Mexico (''Nuevo México''), southern Color ...

and fewer than 10,000

Puebloans The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos Pueblo, Taos, San Il ...

(Indians) scattered along the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

valley, was besieged by Native Americans (Indians) on all sides. New Mexico was in "a state of miserable panic." To protect the colony, the governor of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

authorized the establishment of settlements on its frontiers. The first settlement at Trampas was a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

mission to the Jicarilla Apache. Founded in 1733, the mission attracted 132 Jicarilla at its peak, but was closed in the 1740s. In 1751, the governor awarded a

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

, later measured to consist of , to prospective settlers. Santo Tomas Apostol del Rio de Las Trampas was founded that same year on grant lands by 12 families from Santa Fe. It was the second

genízaro (or Genizaros) was the name for detribalized Indigenous people from the 17th to 19th century in the Spanish colony of New Mexico and neighboring regions of the American Southwest. Genízaros were usually women and children who had been captured ...

settlement (after Belen). The primary purpose of its establishment was to protect the town of Santa Cruz, southwest, from raids by the

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

, and, especially, the

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

. The

s were also Indians, but

detribalized Detribalization is the process by which persons who belong to a particular indigenous ethnic identity or community are detached from that identity or community through the deliberate efforts of colonizers and/or the larger effects of colonial ...

and with a history of serving as slaves and servants of the Spanish colonists. They were important in the frontier defense of New Mexico. For the genízaros, relocation to Trampas and other frontier settlements was a means of acquiring land. Also among the early settlers were Tlaxcalans, Mexican Indians who had a long history of assisting the Spanish, and

mestizos ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to ...

. The settlers of Trampas were armed with spears and bows and arrows; the Comanche were better armed. By the governor's order, the settlement was fortified with an interior plaza accessible by a single entrance for carts. In times of trouble, the livestock of the settlers was driven into the plaza. The houses of the inhabitants were connected to each other and surrounded the central plaza. The settlement was ringed by a low adobe wall. The village grew despite the danger of attacks by Comanche, and, by 1776, 63 families and 278 inhabitants were residents. The people in that year were described as "a ragged lot...as festive as they

ere Ere or ERE may refer to: * ''Environmental and Resource Economics'', a peer-reviewed academic journal * ERE Informatique, one of the first French video game companies * Ere language, an Austronesian language * Ebi Ere (born 1981), American-Nigeria ...

poor, and very merry." They spoke "local Spanish" mingled with the

Tanoan Tanoan ( ), also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Most of the languages – Tiwa (Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa, and Towa � ...

language of the

Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos language, Taos-speaking (Tiwa languages, Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan peoples, Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. T ...

and most spoke some words of the Comanche, Ute, and Apache languages.Brooks, James F. (2002),''Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands,'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp 156-157 The village remained isolated, except for travelers on the mountain road, until the 1920s. Trampas is known for the San José de Gracia Church, built between 1760 and 1776 and considered a model of the

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

colonial

Spanish missions in New Mexico The Spanish Missions in New Mexico were a series of religious outposts in the Province of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México'' — present day New Mexico. They were established by Franciscan friars under charter from the monarchs of the Spanish Empire ...

Historic district

The Las Trampas Historic Historic District, designated in 1967, encompasses the central village, whose buildings largely follow the plan originally laid out in 1751. Most of the buildings date to the 19th century, often with late 19th-century alterations. The church, a National Historic Landmark for its architecture, is the only surviving 18th-century building. The original defensive wall that surrounded the village has been removed and no significant traces of it remain.

Gallery

Image:Trampas, Taos County, New Mexico1a34496v.jpg, View of Trampas and the

, Spring 1943. The structure crossing a ravine appears to be a canoa, a hand-made flume to transport irrigation water. Image:Las Trampas Historic District 014.JPG, San José de Gracia Church. Image:Trampas43.jpg, Congregation leaving after services at San José de Gracia Church (1943). File:Santa Fe Baldy 2005.jpg, View of Santa Fe Baldy, in the

, from near Las Trampas. File:Catholic Church at Las Trampas (north view).JPG, Catholic Church at Las Trampas (north view) File:Irrigation-water-crossing-ditch-in-hollowed-out-log-trampas-new-mexico-aab3.jpg, Irrigation water crosses a ditch in a hollowed out log called a canoa. 1930s photo.

References

External links

NPS National Historical Districts: Las Trampas Historic District webpage

Las Trampas photos
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...