Las Trampas

Juan de Argüello was seventy-four when he led the twelve families north in 1751, and is said to have been Diego de Vargas's drummer boy. The grant ran to about 46,000 acres. Bishop Tamarón allowed a church in 1760, and the villagers built San José de Gracia themselves over the next sixteen years. In 1966 the State Highway Department proposed widening NM-76 through the west half of the plaza, within six feet of the church; the architect Nathaniel Owings helped stop it, and the historic district was listed in 1967. The Spanish face keeps the old spelling recivieron.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Las Trampas The village of Las Trampas was established in 1751 by 12 families from Santa Fe, led by Juan de Argüello, who received a land grant from Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín. The Church of San José de Gracia is one of the finest sur- viving 18th-century churches in New Mexico. Official Scenic Historic Marker Las Trampas La población de Las Trampas fue establecida en el año de 1751 con doce familias de la Villa de Santa Fe, conducidas por Juan de Argüello. Los pobladores recivieron una mer- ced para este lugar del Gobernador Tomás Vélez Cachupín. La iglesia de San José de Gracia, que fue con- struida en el siglo diez y ocho, es una de las mas finas que se hallan en Nuevo México.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Santuario de Chimayó — 13 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.
• San Francisco de Asís Church, Ranchos de Taos — 18 mi
  The adobe church at Ranchos de Taos that artists always paint from behind, kept standing by the mud its parish spreads over it every June.
• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge — 24 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.
• Taos Pueblo — 24 mi
  Two terraced adobe houses facing each other across Red Willow Creek, lived in for something like a thousand years, with no electricity or running water inside the old walls.

More markers nearby

• Pueblo of Picuris — 4.9 mi
• Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez, Cora Durand and Virginia Duran — 5.0 mi
• Pilar — 9.6 mi
• Captive Women and Children of Taos County — 12 mi