Belén

The town's Franciscan church went up on the Old Town plaza in 1793 and stood in ruins by the twentieth century; in 1910 the last of it was blown up with dynamite and the crushed adobe used to pave Becker Avenue in the railroad's New Town. The railroad had come in the 1880s, and the Belen Cutoff of 1908, joining the Santa Fe's north-south and east-west lines here, made it the Hub City. The Harvey House beside the depot fed passengers and is now a museum. More than a hundred trains a day still pass through the yard.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Belén On the Camino Real Population 5,617 - Elevation 4,800 By the mid-18th century, Spanish colonization had begun along the Río Grande south of Albuquerque. The Belén land grant was made to encourage this expansion, and colonists from Albuquerque settled here around 1740. The early com- munity also included a group of genízaros, or Hispanicized Indians. Belén is Spanish for Bethlehem.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Belén — 0.3 mi
• Camino del Llano — 3.2 mi
• Tomé — 4.0 mi
• Nina Otero-Warren (1881-1965) — 7.4 mi