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Show RESEARCH REPORT J THE C. GREGORY CRAMPTON REPORT 13-16 December Because of various events we stayed in this mission unti I the 13th of December, when we left for La Vi I la de And after having traveled thirty leagues, we Santa Fe. arrived at the mission of San Esteban de Acoma on the 16th day of the same Then there hurrying RESEARCH AND ahead December. fel I as we a snow heavy enough to keep us from had wished. C. INTERPRETATION Gregory Crampton three weeks at the Zuni Pueblo, Dominguez and Since the road they trav Escalante on the thirteenth headed for Santa Fe. 200 over years, the diarist provided eled had been used by Spaniars for In route. traveling the 30 leagues from Zuni few precise details about the We do know that from Coronado's not listed. are to Acoma Pueblo Having spent nearly campsites eastward from Zuni was along the Rio Pescadeo, the south branch of the Zuni River, to EI Morro, or Inscription Rock, 33 miles The old trail is very close to New Mexico Highway 53 which from the pueblo. modern travelers follow to reach EI Morro, a national monument and one of (1540) time travel ern the brighter jewels in the national park system. striking and massive EI Morro rock, rising some 200 feet above the val ley floor, with its large natural basin of rainwater, and ample pasturage From the time of Juan de Onate (1605) nearby, was a natural camping place. to the mid-nineteenth century literally hundreds of travelers I ingered long rock. enough to carve their names in the 50ft sandstone surface of the great in stone. record no left EI Morro at Escalante and If Dominguez they camped Ernest W. Ortega, park ranger (historian) at EI Morro, told us that a check of the padres' names, and of al I of those on the expedition, was made against the official inventory of names kept in the monument files, but the results were negative. The Morro, the old trai I, very close to New Mexico Highway 53, divide (about 7,800 feet) and then skirted around continental crossed the the Zuni Mountains, at the same time avoiding a base of southeastern the lava flow--the "Malpais"--that deflected the trail north toward the From EI great present town of Grants on Interstate north, terminates at Grants. It Acoma is was 40. New Mexico Highway 53, swinging quite likely that one of the padres' camps during made at Ojo de Gallo, or EI Gallo Spring, 37 mi les -202- the trek to from EI Morro, |
