Socorro

The panel puts Oñate at Pilabó, but the town that gave his column corn on June 4, 1598, and got the name Socorro was Teypana, about three leagues north; the name moved to Pilabó with the mission of 1626. When the Pueblo Revolt came in 1680, most of Pilabó's six hundred people followed Governor Otermín south. Near El Paso they founded Socorro del Sur in 1682, moved it closer to Ysleta in 1684, and built a Piro church there in 1691. That Socorro, now in Texas, keeps its mission and a cemetery of founding families.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Socorro In 1598, Juan de Oñate's Spanish colonization expedition arrived here at the Piro Indian Pueblo of Pilabo. They renamed it Socorro owing to the food and shelter provided by Pilabo's inhabitants. The pueblo and its Spanish mission were destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt, and the area was not resettled until 1815. A west bank road connected Socorro to the Camino Real on the east side of the Rio Grande.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — 17 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 — steps away
• The Garcia Opera House — steps away
• New Mexico Tech — 0.8 mi
• New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Museum — 1.0 mi