Myra Ellen Jenkins

The panel is careful to say she became the state historian in 1967, and with reason: the program's draft called her the first, and the error was corrected. What was new in 1967 was a law making the state archivist also the state historian and a member of the commission that became the Cultural Properties Review Committee. She was chief archivist from the State Records Center's start in 1960, testified often on land grants and water rights, and after leaving the state in 1980 turned her research to Indian land claims, among them Zuni's.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Myra Ellen Jenkins 1916-1993 Historian and archivist Dr. Myra Ellen Jenkins played a pivotal role in developing New Mexico's modern historic preservation movement. An original member of the Cultural Properties Review Committee–the body that approves historic markers–she became the state historian in 1967 by virtue of her position as senior archivist at the State Records Center and Archives. Dr. Jenkins served as the agency's deputy director in charge of Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial archives for many years. She also helped develop many of the policies New Mexico uses to preserve its past. Official Scenic Historic Marker (Continued) Dr. Jenkins was a leading expert on Spanish and Mexican land grants and water rights. In the 1970's, she intervened to keep land grant records in the state, thus retaining a vital component of New Mexico history. A professor and writer, she co-authored A Brief History of New Mexico, which became a widely used guide to New Mexico history often found in classrooms. Dr. Jenkins resigned her position with the state in 1980 having left a lasting impact on New Mexico scholarship and archives.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palace of the Governors — steps away
  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 — 17 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.
• Bandelier National Monument — 20 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.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 22 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

• Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin — steps away
• Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche — steps away
• Mother Magdalen and the Sisters of Loretto (1852-1968) — steps away
• Inez Bushner Gill (1918-1982) and Maralyn Budke (1936-2010) — steps away