Taos Valley, also called Lower Taos Canyon, is a valley located in

Taos County, New Mexico Taos County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,937. Its county seat is Taos. The county was formed in 1852 as one of the original nine counties in New Mexico Territory. Taos County comp ...

. It is bounded by the

Rio Grande Gorge The Rio Grande Gorge is a geological feature in northern New Mexico where the watercourse of the Rio Grande follows a tectonic chasm. Beginning near the Colorado border, the approximately gorge runs from northwest to southwest of Taos, New Mexico ...

; the deep ravine, or Arroyo Hondo, of the Rio Hondo; and the

Taos Mountain ) , country= United States , subdivision1_type= States , subdivision1= , parent= Rocky Mountains , geology= , orogeny= , area_mi2= 17193 , range_coordinates= , length_mi= 242 , length_orientation= north-south , width_mi= 120 , w ...

range. Included in the valley are Ranchos de Taos, the Taos Pueblo, and

Taos Plaza Taos Plaza is a center of shops and monuments within the Taos Downtown Historic District in Taos, New Mexico. Overview The Taos Plaza is the historic center of the town of Taos. Once a Spanish fortified walled plaza with houses and businesses, i ...

Overlook

The Taos Valley Overlook of the Río Grande del Norte National Monument, about , provides a view of the Taos Valley and the

. Four rivers cross the Taos Valley: Rio de Taos, Rio Lucero, Rio de las Trampas, and Rio de San Fernando.

History

The valley was used for more than 9,000 years as a major route for travel and trade according to archaeological evidence. Pit houses and room blocks provided the first permanent housing for inhabitants beginning about 900 A.D.

Ancestral Puebloans The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, ...

are believed to have moved into the area of the Taos Valley and tributaries of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio ...

at that time. It was the home of the puebloan people of

Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking ( Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. The pueblos are considered to be one of the olde ...

beginning about 1100 or 1200 A.D. At that time, construction began on multiple dwellings. It was first visited by people of European descent in the 1500s, when Capitan Hernando Alvarado arrived on August 29, 1540. He was part of

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (; 1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from what is now Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between ...

's expedition. Alvarado met the Tiwa people of

. Fray Francisco de Zamora spread the Catholic religion throughout the Taos Valley, will based at the Taos Pueblo from 1610 to 1617. The Spanish were driven out of the area by the Puebloans in 1680. Sixteen years later, Diego de Vargas resettled the area around Ranchos de Taos, the Taos Pueblo, and

. Taos Valley had a population of 306 people of Spanish descent in 67 families in 1776. The most populated area in the valley at that time was Ranchos de Taos. The Spanish brought modern methods for irrigation called acequias and introduced fruit and vegetables to the region. They also introduced livestock. The Puebloans taught the Spanish how to build adobe structures.

References

External links

Taos Overlook map
{{Taos County, New Mexico Geography of Taos County, New Mexico Valleys of New Mexico