Gran Quivira Centennial

2009 is the Gran Quivira Centennial

The National Park Service Centennial is 2016. Don't be too confused! Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (a mouthful to be sure) was originally Gran Quivira National Monument, established 1909 and predating the National Park Service, which makes this Gran Quivira's centennial year, hence the calendar full of 2009 Centennial Events.

It won't just be the Salinas District. Community partnerships with Salinas are in the making to make this year Gran Quivira's.

looking up at Gran Quivira from a distance

Last Friday was the first lecture in the Gran Quivira Centennial Lecture Series. Convening at 7 pm in the Shaffer Hotel Conference Room, turnout numbered 42, outstanding for anything short of bingo, free food, festivals or the more contentious town meetings.

This Friday, February 13, will be the second, "Administrative History of Salinas: The Great Battle" (Jeanette Wolfe, Park Historian). Weekly lectures, 7 pm in the Shaffer Hotel Conference Room - same time, same place - continue through March.

Lecture Series Flyer to download and print out

pre-Interstate map, circa 1930

More about Gran Quivira

• Gran Quivira: A Blending of Cultures in a Pueblo Indian Village
• Tabira—The Gran Quivira (excerpts from book)
• Glimpses of Our National Monuments (1930) GRAN QUIVIRA (excerpt below)
  

Long recognized as one of the most important of the earliest Spanish church or mission ruins in the Southwest, the Gran Quivira was set aside as a national monument November 1, 1909, with an area of 160 acres. On November 25, 1919, the monument reservation was increased to 423.77 acres to protect the numerous Indian pueblo ruins situated near by. The Gran Quivira stands upon an eminence of about 7,000 feet altitude, and commands a wide view of the surrounding country. The old church, of which only a few ruined walls remain, was established about the time the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock.

Coming Centennial attractions

These include a Spring Equinox rock-art tour coming together for March 20 at Abo; April focus on the schools; a May 2nd flint-knapping workshop at Gran Quivira; International Migratory Bird Day at Quarai on May 9th.... with still more being planned ...