Las Ruedas, New Mexico

Most of the early day settlers of Rowe, New Mexico moved to the area where Rowe is today in the 1870's and 1880's from the Pecos River village of Las Ruedas.

Some good news in the 10th Anniversary Report for 2012 of the publication "New Mexico Land Conservancy, Honoring New Mexico's Land Heritage."

There is an article there titled "Jewel of the Pecos: Forked Lightning Ranch" which states in part " In 2000, actress Jane Fonda purchased the 2,400 acres that remained of the original ranch and in 2010, she decided to work with the NMLC to protect most of the ranch with conservation easements. These easements  not only conserve the prime riparian habitat along three miles of the upper Pecos River and surrounding watershed, but they also buffer the adjacent Pecos National Historic Park and the Santa Fe National Forest. The ranch also contains several old homesteads, including ruins of an old church and cemetery - remnants of a time when the Pecos River was a sustaining force for families that settled the area.

The "old homesteads, church and cemetery" mentioned in the article is the old village of Las Ruedas, the village of my maternal ancestors.

See additional information on Las Ruedas here;

http://nuevomejicano.blogspot.com/2009/08/1860-las-ruedas-new-mexico.html

and here;

http://nuevomejicano.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-on-las-ruedad-new-mexico.html

There is a certain comfort in knowing that the village will not be plowed under for some horse barns or some other buildings. My maternal great grandmother, Mariana Duran, the wife of Juan de Jesus Archuleta was the last person buried in that cemetery. Her body was transported back there from Rowe where she died in the 1920's.

This weblog contains several posts on Las Ruedas. Utilize the search option to find the posts in question.