 Logo Indicates
Certified Santa Fe National Historic Trail Sites
Sites on the National Register of Historic Places are noted (NRHP)
National Historic Landmarks are noted (NHL)
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| Santa Fe Trail Site
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Description
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Las Vegas Plaza
26K
24K
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The town of Las Vegas began as a Santa Fe Trail town in 1835. The
trail passed through the plaza, and presumably many of the traders stayed here.
It is thought that from the top of the flat-roofed adobe structure, between numbers 210 -
218 on the north side of the plaza, that Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny claimed
the New Mexico Territory for the United States in 1846.
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Kearney Gap
34K
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Kearny Gap is 2 miles south of Las Vegas and west of I-25. Also
called Puertico de la Piedra Lumbre, this pass was used very little by the Santa
Fe Trail prior to the Mexican War. Wagon ruts west of Kearny Gap indicate that
it must have been used extensively by freight wagons after the Mexican War. It
was near this location, on November 13, 1821, that Captain Don Pedro Ignacio
Gallego and over 450 New Mexican Militia, regular soldiers and Pueblo Indian
Auxiliares, met William Becknell and his five companions from
Missouri.
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