Carnuel Land Grant Traditional Cache
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Size: 
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Silver bison tube off Route 66 in south Carnuel.
Area History from the Bernalillo County web site:
In 1763, Spanish colonial governor of New Mexico Tomás Vellez Gachupín ordered that a permanent
settlement be established in the Sandia Mountains east of the Villa de Alburquerque for the purpose of
developing a defensive buffer between the Spanish settlement and nomadic tribes. In the early 1700s,
the Pueblo and Hispanic settlements of the valley had experienced frequent attacks by nomadic bands of
Native Americans. A plan was developed to move landless genizaros (Hispanicized Indians) and
mestizos (Spanish and Native parentage) to the canyon in the mountains for land distribution and
defense. Due to continued attacks, the settlement was difficult to sustain and experienced periods of
abandonment and resettlement. The communities in the Carnue Land Grant are the oldest continually
inhabited communities in the Sandia Mountain range. In 1817, the children and grandchildren of the
area’s original settlers, and other landless mestizos and mixed-castes (social order) were allowed to
return to the Cañon de Carnue to build permanent settlements and reorganize farm plots and communal
land holdings. In 1819, the Cañon de Carnue was re-issued as a community land grant known as San
Miguel de Laredo de Carnue. The village included a defensible plaza and various acequias throughout
the study area (U.S. Forest Ranger District, Heritage Report No.2002-03-008).
After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed between the United States and Mexico, ending the
U.S. - Mexican War, the United States was obligated to establish courts in which to adjudicate the lands
held by Mexican citizens. After a 40-year court proceeding, the U.S. court issued an order reducing the
90,000 acre claim of the Carnue Land Grant to 2,000 acres which excluded the historical communal
lands and reduced the community’s size to only the private tracts allotted to individual families.
For much of the early 1900s, the built environment was primarily typified by rock and adobe single
family housing structures with high-density family compounds surrounded by corrals and small gardens.
The dominant land use within the land grant’s common lands was goat herding. This land use pattern
continued until the 1940s when the increase in commercial use along Historic Route 66 led to the
development of a number of roadside hotels and gas stations. In this same decade, new residential
developments were built, known as Echo Canyon Estates and the Monticello neighborhood, further
transforming the historic community. The construction of I-40 in the 1970s significantly fragmented the
community. The interstate’s presence increased traffic through Tijeras Canyon and split the north side
of Carnuel, Monticello, and Echo Canyon from the south side of Carnuel and from Coyote Springs.
*** Congrats to Team Tuxawuxa for FTF!!! ***
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
thneq envy, arne raq, zntargvp