San Rafael

The village grew on the fort's leftovers. The spring was Ojo del Gallo, Bikyaya to the Navajo, and an 1850 Army map already shows a hay camp here. Rafael Chacón's troops arrived in October 1862, cut an acequia from the spring and built the fort, and settlers from Seboyeta came to sell it hay, adobes and lumber. From here soldiers sent Navajo families east toward Bosque Redondo. When the garrison left in 1868 its commander invited the settlers onto the post's land, and they named the village for their priest, José Rafael Chávez.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker San Rafael San Rafael, formerly know as El Gallo, is located at a spring near the Malpais, the great lava flow to the east. The area was visited by members of Vásquez de Coronado's expedition in 1540. In 1862, it was selected as the original site of Fort Wingate, focus of the campaign against the Navajos.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Malpais National Monument — 13 mi
  The badlands south of Grants: lava 3,900 years old from McCartys Crater, a tube system at least seventeen miles long, and an old trail across four lava flows between Zuni and Acoma.
• Acoma Sky City — 23 mi
  Haak'u, the village on a sandstone mesa west of Albuquerque, seen only on the pueblo's own tours, with a mission whose roof beams were carried on foot from Mount Taylor.

More markers nearby

• Grants — 2.6 mi
• Grants — 2.9 mi
• Bluewater Village — 11 mi
• Old Acoma "Sky City" — 18 mi