Glorieta Pass (elevation 7500 ft.) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the

Sangre de Cristo Mountains The Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Spanish language, Spanish for "Blood of Christ") are the southernmost mountain range, subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountai ...

of northern

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. The pass is at a strategic location near the southern end of the Sangre de Cristos in east central Santa Fe County southeast of the city of Santa Fe. Historically, the pass provided the most direct route through the mountains between the upper valley of the Pecos River to the east and the upper valley of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

to the west. In the 19th century, it furnished the route of the westernmost leg of the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...

between Santa Fe and the High Plains. The Battle of Glorieta Pass, the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, was fought near the pass in March 1862. The victory by the Union Army (primarily in the form of the Colorado Militia) prevented the breakout of the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

forces onto the High Plains on the east side of

, halting the intended Confederate advance northward along the base of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. The battle is commemorated at Pecos National Historic Park on the east side of the pass. In the 20th century, the pass became used as the route of U.S. Highway 84 and later Interstate 25. The town of Glorieta is located on the eastern side of the pass. The stairwells of the Colorado State Capitol Building display cannonballs from the battle as ornaments. In 1879, the New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a railroad through the pass, which became part of the second North American

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

in March 1881. The NM&SP was absorbed into its parent company, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1899, and the Santa Fe used the route for their Chicago to Los Angeles trains, including the famed ''El Capitan'' and '' Super Chief''. Now part of the BNSF system, this remains the route of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and American Southwest ...

'', with one passenger train each direction daily, but little freight. It was one of the last places where semaphore signals were still in use on an active mainline anywhere in North America. They were retired and replaced with modern signals in November 2022.

External links

''Glorieta and Raton Passes: Gateways to the Southwest''
a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

References

Mountain passes of New Mexico Rail mountain passes of the United States Sangre de Cristo Mountains Transportation in Santa Fe County, New Mexico Santa Fe Trail Landforms of Santa Fe County, New Mexico Mountain passes of the Rockies {{NewMexico-geo-stub