The Trujillo Homesteads, an early Latino settlement in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
In December, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a preliminary report by the National Park Service that identifies a number of important historic and cultural sites in the San Luis Valley and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico worthy of consideration for inclusion in the National Park System.
The report highlights a remarkable concentration of historic resources associated with Latino settlement, including Colorado’s oldest documented town, only communal pasture, first water right and oldest church.
The designation of the Trujillo Homesteads as a National Historic Landmark is part of the National Park Service’s new American Latino Heritage Initiative to document, preserve and interpret historic places associated with American Latino history and the role of American Latinos in the development of the United States. It also supports the goals of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to reconnect people, especially young people, to our nation’s historic, cultural and natural heritage.
The Trujillo Homesteads provide a representation of the expansion of Hispanic-American settlement into the American Southwest following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo as well as an illustration of the conflict between cattle ranchers, who were primarily Anglo-Americans, and sheepherders, who were primarily Hispanic Americans. Through archeology, the site has a high potential to yield information addressing nationally significant research questions about ethnicity and race on the western frontier.
For more information, visit www.nps.gov/nhl.
… The National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC) has announced recipients of all around “A” grades in its fourth annual consumer satisfaction survey of campgrounds, RV parks and resorts. The top parks were named in December during the ARVC’s annual Outdoor Hospitality Conference & Expo. More than 30,000 camping and RV enthusiasts participated in the online survey, which evaluated guest experiences at campgrounds, RV parks and resorts that are affiliated with ARVC.
Paul Bambei, ARVC’s president and CEO, encouraged RVers to check out the ratings at www.gocampingamerica.com, “because it is the quickest way to tell which parks are best meeting – and exceeding – guest expectations.”
