Cultural Resources at PECO
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Originally designated a New Mexico state monument in 1965, it was established as Pecos National Monument by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. 25 years later the park was greatly enlarged and renamed to Pecos National Historical Park.
The site as a whole is quite complex, consisting of multiple historic and cultural features, which include:
Native American ruins
An 18th-century catholic church
The westernmost battlefield of the Civil War
A historic ranch, the Forked Lightning (which was once the home of the movie star Greer Garson)
Two sites within the park, the pueblo and the Glorieta Pass Battlefield, are National Historic Landmarks.
The Forked Lightning was added to Pecos after actress Greer Garson sold the property to the Conservation Fund, in 1991, which then donated the land to the National Park Service, increasing the area of the park by 5,500 acres.
The main unit of the park preserves the ruins of Pecos Pueblo, also known historically as Cicuye. The first Pecos pueblo was one of two dozen rock-and-mud villages built in the valley around AD 1100 in the prehistoric Pueblo II Era. Within 350 years the Pueblo IV Era Pecos village had grown to house more than 2,000 people in its five-storied complex.
The main unit also protects the remains of Mission Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciúncula de los Pecos, a Spanish mission near the pueblo built in the early 17th century. A 1.25-mile (2 km) self-guiding trail begins at the nearby visitor center and winds through the ruins of Pecos Pueblo and the mission church.
The map below shows (from south to north)
Ruins of the 18th Century Spanish church and convento
South Pueblo
North Pueblo
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