Roadside New Mexico: A Guide to Historic Markers

by David Pike

The people, geological features, and historic events that have made New Mexico what it is today are commemorated in over 350 historic markers along the state's roads. This guide, arranged geographically, beginning with the Four Corners region, is designed to fill in the gaps and answer the questions those markers provoke, offering the additional information that the interested traveler is sure to want. Geological and scenic markers for the Rio Grande, the Colorado Plateau, and such uniquely New Mexican features as the Jornada del Muerto and the Valles Caldera explicate the state's physical landscape. The presence of early human inhabitants is marked at Blackwater Draw, the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and Aztec and Salmon ruins, among other spots. Most pueblos and tribes have markers, and the early incursions of the Spanish are commemorated as well as Spanish and Mexican settlement patterns. The American occupation is marked at forts, battlefields, and survey points. Missions, trails, ghost towns, battle sites, settlements, and outlaws are all represented with markers, as are such symbols of New Mexico as the Santa Fe Opera and Smokey the Bear.

Genres: History

440 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2004

Reviews

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up (on sale) one day because I thought it would be fun. My friends mock me because I pull over every time I see a Historic Marker on the side of the road. No, no, you don’t understand . . . every time. And New Mexico has a shit load of them. Well, lo and behold, it is fun. I keep it under the seat and when I need a little more information on a particularly obtuse Marker—voila! I have more info. Much to my friends’ overwhelming joy!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the Historical markers were not listed alphabetical but by highway. Other wise it is a great book that tells more than the marker did.