General management plan / development concept plan / Salinas National Monument / New Mexico

National Park Service. Southwest Regional office

After many years of discussion and planning, Congress established Salinas National Monument in December 1980. The new national monument comprises the former Gran Quivira National Monument and two former state monuments—Abo and Quarai. The monument headquarters is centrally located in the town of Mountainair, New Mexico. In order to meet the congressional mandate stated in the establishing legislation—"to set apart and preserve for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people the ruins of prehistoric Indian pueblos and associated seventeenth century, Franciscan Spanish mission ruins"—and to coordinate management of the three noncontiguous pueblo/mission sites, a number of issues require resolution: — Many of the archeological resources are outside of federally-owned property on private lands over which the National Park Service has no administrative control. Existing and potential development at Abo and Quarai—quarrying, new roads, various twentieth century structures—threatens the historic and archeological resources and intrudes on the historic scene. To resolve this issue, the National Park Service plans to acquire fee simple interest in 361.95 acres of land at Abo and Quarai and scenic and archeological easements on 60.22 acres. — Effective preservation and interpretation of archeological and historic resources necessitates up-to-date information on the history, archeology, and structural condition of cultural resources and on the nature and condition of the natural resources. To resolve this issue, the necessary research will be conducted. A resource management program for cultural resources including a ruins maintenance program will be implemented with preservation of existing resources as the goal. Preservation and where possible maintaining an appropriate historic scene will be the natural resource management goals. — There is a need to coordinate visitor use, administration, and maintenance among the three resource sites and the Mountainair headquarters. — Visitation at Salinas is expected to increase; facilities at Abo are not sufficient for present use by visitors, and Qiiarai can handle only minimal increases in visitation. To resolve these two issues, the plan recommends the following: Maintenance and monument administration will be centralized at Mountainair. Visitors will receive orientation to the monument as a whole and interpretation of themes common to all of the sites. The monument's artifact collection will be stored and curated at Mountainair. A small visitor contact station at each site will serve to (1) provide site-specific interpretation, (2) orient visitors who arrive at one of the resource sites before reaching the Mountainair facility, and (3) protect the three sites. The emphasis will be on visitors experiencing the archeological and historical resources directly with most of the interpretion provided along the self-guiding trail. At Abo, a new access road to the east of the ruins will replace the existing road, which is narrow, runs through archeological and historic resources, and is prone to flooding. A visitor contact station and parking area will be constructed on the ridge to the east of the ruins. Visitors will be able to choose whether to walk or drive to the ruins. At Quarai, the present unpaved parking area, which is too small, has no turnaround space for large vehicles, and frequently floods, will be replaced by a larger paved parking area to northwest. When the existing visitor contact station is no longer sufficent for visitor needs, it will be replaced by a new structure adjacent to the new parking area. The existing ruins self-guiding trail will be rerouted for more substantial interpretation of the site. At Gran Quivira, the existing storage building (former administration building) will be removed, and the existing visitor contact station will be rehabilitated.

General management plan / development concept plan / Salinas National Monument / New Mexico

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