Volcanoes Day Use Area Audio Tour Stop 11

The view from the Volcanoes Day Use Area stop 11.

NPS Photo / Ben Holt

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You have now reached stop 11 of the Volcanoes Day Use Area audio tour. You have walked 2.81 miles or 4.52 kilometers.  

To the right of the trail, you will see aged wooden posts and rusted barbed wire. While not much to look at now, the Historic Bond Corral is a standing reminder of the history of ranching throughout New Mexico and the West Mesa long before the monument was established.  

The Corral, and the Volcanic cone just north of it, are both named after Frank Bond, who was a wealthy businessman in the sheep industry. His company, Frank Bond and Son, Inc., owned this track of land on the West Mesa. The corral itself was most likely used to gather sheep, as wool was the main commodity of Frank Bond’s business ventures.  

While sheep are not native to this part of the world, their introduction swiftly changed the landscape of the southwest, both physically and culturally. Domesticated sheep were originally introduced by the Spanish in the 15th century, and, by the 17th century, wool was regularly being turned into striking Indigenous textiles like blankets and rugs.  

By the time Frank Bond joined the sheepherding scene in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, wool was an extremely lucrative business, with the demand of wool peaking just after World War I. While other parts of the monument were used for ranching and herding livestock, Bond Corral is the most visible and easily recognized link to the agricultural use that predated the establishment of Petroglyph National Monument.  

If you wish to continue exploring around here, there is a primitive trail leading north towards Bond and Butte volcanoes. If you follow this primitive trail, you can continue up to 0.80 miles or 1.29 kilometers to Butte Volcano. The large trail leading east goes out of the monument towards Open Space lands and Albuquerque. To continue the audio tour, turn back towards the way you came and take the narrow trail to the right, or west. This will lead you to Audio Tour Stops 12 and 13, then back to the Volcanoes Day Use Area parking lot. You will reach Audio Tour Stop 12 in 0.66 miles or 1.06 kilometers.