Truchas

The square the governor ordered served land the settlers were already farming. Nicolás Romero and ten other Chimayó residents petitioned Vélez Cachupín on March 3, 1754 for the tract on the Río de las Truchas they had settled and improved, and the grant followed that month. The Court of Private Land Claims, set up to settle Spanish and Mexican titles, later confirmed it at 14,786 acres. The ridge-top village had no paved road until the early 1970s, and in 1986 Robert Redford filmed The Milagro Beanfield War in its streets.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Truchas In 1754, Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín granted land on the Río Truchas to families from Santa Cruz and Chimayó. Because Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Truchas was on the northern frontier, and subject to attack by Plains Indians, the governor stipulated that the houses should form a square with only one entrance.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Santuario de Chimayó — 6.7 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.
• Palace of the Governors — 25 mi
  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.
• San Francisco de Asís Church, Ranchos de Taos — 25 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.
• Bandelier National Monument — 31 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.

More markers nearby

• Truchas Peaks — 1.3 mi
• Cordova — 4.4 mi
• Chimayo — 6.2 mi
• Santuario de Chimayó — 6.7 mi