Cañoncito at Apache Canyon

The panel says Armijo defended New Mexico weakly here; he did not defend it at all. In August 1846 the governor fortified Apache Canyon, the narrow throat of the trail, under pressure from priests and from militia officers including Manuel Chaves and Miguel Pino. On August 14, before the Americans were in sight, he gave up the position, by one account turning his cannon on militiamen who wanted to fight, and fled for Chihuahua. Kearny entered Santa Fe on August 18 without firing a shot. The story that James Magoffin bribed him has never been proven.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Cañoncito at Apache Canyon Strategically located where the Santa Fe Trail emerges from Glorieta Pass, Cañoncito is where the New Mexico governor Manuel Armijo weakly defended New Mexico against the American army in 1846. In 1862, Union forces destroyed a Confederate supply train contributing to the Confederate loss at the Battle of Glorieta, six miles to the east.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pecos National Historical Park — 8.0 mi
  The red walls of a 1717 mission church inside the foundations of a far larger one, beside the kiva Pecos people dug in front of the old church during the revolt of 1680.
• Palace of the Governors — 11 mi
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.
• Bandelier National Monument — 29 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.

More markers nearby

• Hispano New Mexicans in the US Civil War — steps away
• Route 66 — 3.0 mi
• Glorieta Pass Battlefield — 4.3 mi
• Seton Village — 6.2 mi