Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Frank "Boss" Pinkley

Each National Park Service (NPS) employee has a unique story. We can't tell them all, but sometimes there's a personal account—like that of Sallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris—that speaks to common experiences. Although her NPS connections ran from 1933 to 1971, many of her joys, challenges, and frustrations can still be recognized in the NPS today. Sallie's story resonates regardless of era, gender, or position. How will it speak to you?

When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.

Coinciding with repair and restoration efforts at the Quarai ruins, archeological investigations throughout the 1900s convey the meticulous design of the mission and the grandeur that still surpasses its neglect. Archeology does not resolve the ambiguities of Quarai’s timeline, but through architectural and human and material remains, it pictures Quarai as it was, not as how one-sided records imagine it to be.

Archeologists found skeletal remains of a gato (cat) at San Buenaventura, part of Gran Quivira, a vast big Native American pueblo. It had 226 rooms and kivas (a circular ceremonial structure found in the American Southwest). It was abandoned during the 1400s. The Spanish set up the Salinas Pueblo Missions right above on top of the Pueblo. The Spanish wanted the Native American peoples to adopt Christianity and a Spanish way of life.

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is proud to celebrate Women’s History Month by recognizing the important roles that women have contributed to the History and Legacy of the monument. Here are some of the important women that are part of our history, beginning with the most recent.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

The combination of high. elevation and a semi-arid climate makes the Colorado Plateau particularly vulnerable to climate change. Climate models predict that over the next 100 years, the Southwest will become warmer and even more arid, with more extreme droughts than the region has experienced in the recent past.

Route 66 and the National Park Service have always had an important historical connection. Route 66 was known as the great road west and after World War II families on vacation took to the road in great numbers to visit the many National Park Service sites in the Southwest and beyond. That connection remains very alive and present today. Take a trip down Route 66 and Find Your Park today!