Socorro

This panel gets the two pueblos straight: Teypana gave Oñate corn, and Pilabó took the mission. Settlers returning in the early 1800s built San Miguel church between about 1819 and 1821, and a wall found in the 1970s under its southeast corner is read as the base of the 1620s church of Nuestra Señora, so the new church stands on the old footprint. Digs since 2012 have traced buried remains of Pilabó south and southeast of it. Between 1867 and 1890 Socorro sat at the center of one of the nation's richest mining districts.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Socorro The Piro Indian pueblo Teypana was visited by Juan de Oñate in 1598. The people of the village reportedly supplied corn to Oñate who bestowed the name Socorro ("aid" in Spanish) on the pueblo. In 1626, the mission of Nuestra Señora de Socorro was built at the nearby pueblo of Pilabó. Abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the present town was founded in 1815.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — 16 mi
  A Rio Grande refuge south of Socorro where cranes and geese winter by the tens of thousands on wetlands and fields kept by people, because the river no longer floods to make them.

More markers nearby

• Jumbo — 1.3 mi
• Socorro — 1.3 mi
• The Garcia Opera House — 1.4 mi
• New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Museum — 1.6 mi