CERRILLOS HILLS HISTORIC PARK

The Cerrillos Hills, a group of a half dozen or so conical hills rising nearly a thousand feet above the plains 25 miles [40 km.] south of Santa Fe, are time-honored landmarks for travelers between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Driving Interstate Highway 25 you see them to the east as you traverse the La Bajada escarpment, the great divide of the Rio Grande; the passage from Rio Abajo to Rio Ariba, from the Low River to the High River. La Bajada and the Cerrillos Hills are the products of a complex geologic process,and it was this process that endowed the hills with their distinctive and attractive mix of minerals. And when the land was made it was filled with the plants and animals of the High Desert-Uplands transition zone; the Pygmy Forest.

For the many people who have lived here in the past and who live here today, these hills are special. They are scenic, they are sacred, they are a natural playground and the playground of greed, and they are our back yard. The footprints of history on these hills, sometimes worn and faint, go back a thousand years and many more.

There were many factors that led to the creation of the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park, but probably the most important one was the Santa Fe County Open Space bond proposal of November 1998. That bond initiative, which passed with nearly 70% approval of the voters, mandated funds to be used to purchase private land within Santa Fe county for public use. Serendipitously, two major parcels of the Cerrillos Hills were on the market at this time.

The participants of the 1997 Los Cerrillos community planning project -- including Dale Ball, Alina Bokde, Richard Crombie, Bev Fung, Joe Lehm, Ross Lockridge, Patrick Mohn, Ann Murray, Kathy Weber, and others -- recognizing the special natural and historical character of the hills and the advantages of a sustainable park-based economy, suggested doing something to preserve the hills. With the bond issue of 1998 things began to come together.

In early 1999, with a Santa Fe County Open Space park becomming a realizable goal, the Cerrillos Hills Park Coalition was organized. Upon the news of the prospective park the owners of a third parcel elected to participate, bringing the total to 1,116 acres [452 hectares].

With the advice of the County Open Land and Trails Planning and Advisory Committee (COLTPAC), the Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners approved purchase on September 28, 1999 and the county completed acquisition of the 1,116 acres on January 28, 2000.

The Cerrillos Hills Historic Park comprised about half of the total acreage acquired in Santa Fe County with the 1998 Open Space bond monies, and it was accomplished with the expenditure of about 8% of that fund.
Integral with the plan for the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park is a joint- management agreement with the Bureau of Land Management for the adjacent 2,200+ acres north of the county parklands. As the park develops we expect it to comprise over 3,000 acres of some of the most intriguing land in New Mexico.

The original Americans knew these hills well. Certainly by 900 A.D. and probably much earlier turquoise was being extracted, and by the early 1300s the lead for Rio Grande glazeware pottery. The Cerrillos Hills may be the location of the oldest known mine in the United States. First among cultures, Native Americans honor the gifts of the earth, and these generous hills are honored today as more than just a place.

The first Europeans to see the hills were with Coronado in 1540, and references in the Spanish, Mexican, and early U.S. Territorial periods of New Mexico occur again and again. The coming of the railroad in 1880 engendered a spate of speculation and a frenetic mining boom that is very much in evidence even now.

Today, those few people fortunate enough to know the way hike and bike and ride their horses in the arroyos and across the ridges of the Cerrillos Hills. Soon, as trails are marked, hazards are abated, and facilities are established, this attraction will be available to everyone.

Unlike most built-up areas, the history of the Cerrillos Hills has been little disturbed by subsequent activity. You can still see fossil worm tracks in 70 million-year-old shale, a thousand-year-old turquoise pit, the stump of a juniper cut by prospectors 120 years ago, a hawk or coyote just a couple of years old searching for a meal, or this year's bloom on the chamisa or the cholla.

Welcome to the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park!

For those of you who are inveterate orthographers, yes, 'historic park' and 'historical park' convey slightly different meanings. Some would suggest, and have done so, that what we really have here is the 'Cerrillos Hills Historical Park'. But if you live in the area (and have had to wrap your tongue around such Federally designated chaws as the 'Pecos National Historical Park') you will come to appreciate the value of trading in a bit of the King's English for some euphony. In New Mexico where we haven't had a King since 1821 (except for a recent, rather popular governor) usage trumps formality.

And our thanks to the Historic Preservation Division of the State of New Mexico's Office of Cultural Affairs for their efforts to preserve our heritage.