Hyde Memorial State Park

The devoted educator of the panel had an earlier career it leaves out. Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde and his brother Frederick paid for the Hyde Exploring Expedition, which dug Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon from 1896 to 1899 and shipped its finds to the American Museum of Natural History; in 1900 the Santa Fe historical society denounced its spoliation of ruins. Settled in Santa Fe, Hyde turned to the Boy Scouts and outdoor lectures. His widow gave the land after his death, and the park joined the National Register in 2021.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historical Marker Hyde Memorial State Park This park is named after Benjamin Talbot Hyde, devoted educator of America's youth. His family donated the 350 acres which constitute the park to the State of New Mexico in 1934. Situated at an elevation of 8,500 feet in the scenic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it is one of the oldest state parks in New Mexico. Facilities include a picnic area, campground, skating pond and sledding area.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palace of the Governors — 6.4 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.
• Pecos National Historical Park — 15 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.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 19 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.
• Bandelier National Monument — 25 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

• Santa Fe Opera — 5.5 mi
• Mother Magdalen and the Sisters of Loretto (1852-1968) — 6.5 mi
• Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin — 6.5 mi
• Myra Ellen Jenkins — 6.5 mi