Rinconada Canyon Stop 7

The view from Stop 7 on the Rinconada Canyon Trail.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Amenities

3 listed

Audio Description, Cellular Signal, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Audio Tour Stop #7: Historic graffiti and Hispanic & Indigenous petroglyphs 

(0.92 miles / 1.48 km – Spanish settlers wayside) 

You have reached stop 7 on the Rinconada Canyon trail and have walked 9/10 of a mile or 1.5 kilometers. This stop includes information about historic petroglyphs and inscriptions. Feel free to continue hiking along the trail as you listen to this in-depth history. 

In contrast to the modern graffiti you saw at the previous stop, these inscriptions are examples of what the National Park Service refers to as “historic graffiti.” Historic graffiti must be at least 50 years old and must contribute to the history of the national park unit. These inscriptions meet both requirements. We are charged with interpreting the stories from the past, which includes this one of the railroad workers that visited Rinconada Canyon. 

In 1994, a park ranger interviewed Bud Buday, Victor’s brother. Bud revealed the story of his older brother’s and Mr. Thorpe’s inscriptions… It was a Friday afternoon when two friends, Millard Thorpe and Victor Buday who worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad company, decided to trudge across the Rio Grande to hunt for rabbits and snakes. After exploring the area and looking at several petroglyphs, time escaped them as the sun began to set. They decided it was too dark and too dangerous to head back to town, so they spent the night in the canyon. On Saturday morning, the railroad workers decided that they too would leave their marks on the boulders. This task proved painstakingly daunting as carving their names and dates in the volcanic rock with stone tools took all day long. Again, they ran out of daylight to make it back to town safely. They concluded that they had to spend a second night in the canyon. At daylight on Sunday morning, they began making the trek back to town, trudging across the waist-deep Rio Grande and arrived home safely.  

This interview validated the fact that petroglyphs take hours to make by someone with an extensive amount of patience and devotion. This is contrary to those who opposed the creation of this monument and claimed that all the petroglyphs were made by boys in the 1950s, implying that the petroglyphs lacked authentic cultural integrity thus the monument should not exist.  

Millard Thorpe’s and Victor Buday’s inscriptions of Feb. 22, 1919 coincides with the railroad history in Albuquerque, NM. Their story is further validated by the numbers in the date ‘1919’ which reveal a writing technique that is indicative of a turn-of-the-century writing style. Due to the historical context of these findings, these inscriptions meet the National Park Service criteria for historic graffiti and are protected as historic resources.  

Rinconada Canyon also features petroglyphs from the Spaniards. The Spaniards arrived in 1598 and drastically disrupted the Pueblo people’s traditional way of life. Their conquest of what is now New Mexico sought to claim territory for the Spanish crown and to spread Christianity. This newly introduced religion was imposed upon the Pueblo people living along the Rio Grande valley and sparked centuries of conflict between the two cultures. The presence of Spanish crosses next to traditional Puebloan petroglyphs convey the differences between these two cultures. 

Elements of Spanish colonial settlement throughout the 1700s are evident in petroglyphs. Sheep and livestock brand images reflect how the Spanish used and settled in this land. Rinconada Canyon borders the northern boundary of the historic Atrisco Land Grant. The Spanish land grant system introduced a new concept of land ownership versus land stewardship to the region. Spanish landowners used the grasslands of these canyons and mesa tops for grazing their sheep and other livestock. They left behind evidence of low stone walls that served as corrals to protect their livestock from wildlife predators. Livestock introduced by the Spanish became a staple in Indigenous cultures. Sheep provided wool for woven textiles and meat as a food source. The blending of Hispanic and Indigenous cultural practices persists in New Mexico and contributes to the cultural diversity of our State.  

As you walk to the next stop, imagine how difficult it was for early people to traverse this landscape and how these symbols capture the culture of these early residents.