Alben Homestead (Settlement): Cultural Landscapes Inventory, El Malpais National Monument
Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2011. Alben Homestead (Settlement): Cultural Landscapes Inventory, El Malpais National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975598. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Intermountain Regional Office, Santa Fe, New Mexico / CRIS-CL Database
The Alben Homestead is a component landscape of El Malpais National Monument in Cibola County, New Mexico. It is located between the Sandstone Bluffs cliffs and El Malpais lava flow, one of the most distinctive natural landscapes of New Mexico. The 638 acres of the Alben Homestead became part of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad land grant in 1893. Around 1910, the land was settled by someone who established a pattern on the land similar to that of homesteads in the region. This unidentified person was either squatting, renting, or attempting to purchase the land from the railroad. As a result, improvements were made to the land, including the construction of a residence, irrigation ditches, water harvesting areas, and access roads. Although, very little is known about the history of the homestead, it appears that the Alben Homestead was a Euro-American (Anglo or Spanish) vernacular home site that focused on raising livestock. Based upon the research conducted for this CLI, the Alben Homestead now appears to have never actually been a legal homesteading enterprise, meaning that an official homestead claim and patent were never filed. For this reason, this CLI refers to the Alben Homestead as the Alben Settlement. Today, remnants of habitation characterize the site, including a stone residence, a possible lambing pen, repaired/modified puebloan dam, historic road segments, fence posts, and wire-scarred juniper trees. The number of features present at the site testifies to the landscape being significant for its associations with vernacular settlement patterns in the El Malpais region in the early and mid twentieth century. The landscape also has associations with the western expansion of the United States in the late nineteenth century in the form of Railroad Land Grants and their administration. As a result, the Alben Settlement is significant under Criterion A and Criterion D for the 1893 to 1910 period of significance.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2011-11-09
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- ELMA , IMR
- Keywords
- agriculture, archeology, dam, exploration - settlement, fencing, historic vernacular landscape, homestead, irrigation system, lava flow, livestock, masonry, New Mexico, railroad land grant, residence, Sandstone bluffs