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11 Most Endangered
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail
Year Listed: 2007
Location: , New Mexico
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Development
Archeology study along the trail.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
Significance
The earliest Euro-American trade route in the United States, the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, known for its austere physical beauty, rural solitude and remote isolation, is threatened by a $225 million commercial Spaceport, a venture planned adjacent to one of the most pristine segments of the Trail. Camino Real is considered by many to be one of the largest and most important artifacts of the Spanish Colonial era in the United States and one of the most valuable single markers of the Hispanic experience in the Southwest. On its U.S. side, the trail crosses a small section of West Texas in the El Paso area and then passes through the New Mexico counties of Doña Ana, Sierra, Socorro, Valencia, Bernalillo and Santa Fe. The Trail is owned by many different entities as it traverses federal, tribal, state, county, municipal and private lands. Heritage tourists continue to be inspired by the pure beauty of this resource, especially the segment known as the Jornada del Muerto, which remains - for now - largely untouched by modern-day development.
Updates
January 2009: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave final approval to the construction of Spaceport America. A Programmatic Agreement (PA), developed by the FAA in consultation with the National Trust, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, New Mexico SHPO, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other interested parties, will help minimize and mitigate the spaceport's adverse effects on Camino Real and other historic properties in the Jornada del Muerto. Among other stipulations, the PA requires the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) to develop and implement a series of mitigation plans prior to beginning construction. The NMSA must consult with each of the parties that participated in the development of the PA prior to finalizing each of the mitigation plans. The PA also requires the NMSA to design spaceport buildings and facilities in accordance with strict criteria that will minimize the adverse visual impacts of Spaceport America on the context and setting of the historic trail. Finally, the PA commits the NMSA to providing bus transportation to and from the spaceport in order to reduce the impacts of traffic on the trail's setting. Although the PA represents an important milestone, much work remains to be done, and the National Trust intends to remain actively involved in the protection of Camino Real as the NMSA begins to develop the mitigation plans required by the PA.
The proposed Spaceport site is within a 90-mile stretch of waterless desert located 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces-the Jornada del Muerto-and immediately adjacent to El Camino Real. Spaceport operations, which will involve the construction of multiple structures, access roads, parking lots, runways, launch pads, chemical tanks, fencing and viewing areas, will pose a serious threat to the area's historic and cultural resources, The near-pristine quality of the air, animal habitats and the public's ability to visit, experience and enjoy the Trail and its environs will be compromised. The immediate goal is to avoid adverse affects to the Trail, while the long-term goal is to set a precedent for citing and designing modern-day developments so that they contribute to, rather than diminish, an important historical and cultural resource. Collaboratively developing a Comprehensive Management Plan and Memorandum of Understanding (with BLM, the NPS and New Mexico) will help ensure that the area is deservedly protected. At the same time, New Mexico's famous Night Sky should remain protected and a 20-mile no-development zone needs to be established and rigorously enforced around the Spaceport in Sierra County.
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Submitted by idiot at: June 7, 2009
Wow, the are going to build a road across an already existing road? shocking, stop all progress for the future private space industry. And the road to space. It is fitting that the spaceport be placed in the Jornada del Muerto. I am sure many will perish in the exploration of space like so many travelers through this area of southern new mexico. The camino real is just an old indian trail that the spanish developed. Just like the railroad and the county road just to the west of it. Just developments of the already existing trail, the natural archaeological development or evolution of human development. It would be nice however, if it just stayed the same way it is but it can't.