El Rito

The college at this gate has outlived the name the panel gives it. It opened on September 21, 1909 as the Spanish American Normal School, training teachers for Spanish-speaking villages, and the 1912 state constitution named it among ten institutions the state would support. Through the middle of the century its name changed with its purpose, from teacher training to a state school to vocational training, before it became the community college printed here. Since 2005 it has been Northern New Mexico College, its main campus in Española and El Rito the trades campus.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker El Rito Elevation 6870 ft. This village was settled in the 1830s by residents from the Abiquiú area. The Territorial Legislature of 1909 established the Spanish-American Normal School here to train teachers for northern New Mexico schools. After several changes in name and purpose, the institution is now the Northern New Mexico Community College.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ghost Ranch — 16 mi
  Red, yellow and white cliffs above the Piedra Lumbre basin, where Georgia O'Keeffe bought seven acres in 1940 and paleontologists found a hillside full of dinosaurs in 1947.
• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge — 27 mi
  A steel truss strung across a slot in the basalt west of Taos, 565 feet above the river by the careful measure and 650 by the signs, built when the road beyond it did not yet exist.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 28 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.

More markers nearby

• El Rito — 0.3 mi
• Abiquiú — 11 mi
• Agueda S. Martinez (1898-2000) — 12 mi
• Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) — 13 mi