Women of the Camino Real

The panel's numbers come from the expedition's musters: Ulloa's inspection of 1597 and Juan de Frías Salazar's, run from November 1597 into February 1598, from which researchers have so far named 560 people. Women kept traveling the road after that first column, south in the retreat of 1680 and north again with Vargas's resettlement of 1693, which recruited whole families. The panel leaves its slaves unexplained; the women's marker program's own history adds that captive Native American women were carried south along the same road. The text was approved in October 2008.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Women of the Camino Real In 1598 the first Spanish settlers in New Mexico traveled up the Camino Real from north-central Mexico. Of the 560 people so far identified on that expedition, at least 20 percent were women. They came on foot, on wagons or horseback, and were the first of thousands of women who suffered the arduous journey traveling back and forth, sometimes more than once, on the trail. Official Scenic Historic Marker Women of the Camino Real The legacy of these women is evident from place names, communities like Socorro, which bear their names. Some women came as heads-of-households while others followed their husbands and families. Some even came as slaves. They all played an important role in expanding and colonizing New Mexico. Women defined the culture, history and traditions of New Mexico throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — 19 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

• Paraje De Fra Cristobal — steps away
• Fort Craig — steps away
• Vásquez de Coronado's Route — steps away
• Paraje de Fra Cristobal — steps away