Dulcelina Salce Curtis (1904-1995)

Dulce Salce was born in Corrales in 1904 to a mother who had come from Italy as a mail-order bride. When the 1918 influenza killed her mother, she left school to raise her younger brothers and sisters, then finished anyway, qualifying as a teacher at New Mexico Normal College in 1925. Married to Vincent Curtis in 1928, she worked an apple orchard that earned her the name the apple lady. With him she founded the Corrales watershed board, the state fruit growers' association and the village library. The flood-control channel was named for her in 1991.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Dulcelina Salce Curtis (1904-1995) Teacher, agriculturalist, farmer and conservationist, Dulcelina Curtis led efforts to control flooding of arroyos in Corrales where a flood-control channel is named in her honor. The first woman appointed to a board of the U.S. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation District, she received the National Endowment for Soil Conservation Award for New Mexico in 1988. She served on the Village Council and helped launch many of the town's civic organizations. Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroglyph National Monument — 12 mi
  Some 24,000 images pecked into the dark basalt of Albuquerque's West Mesa, protected in 1990 and then crossed by a city boulevard.

More markers nearby

• Tiguex Province — 0.9 mi
• Spanish Entrada Site — 2.6 mi
• Iglesia de San Ysidro — 2.6 mi
• Bernalillo — 3.6 mi