Abiquiu New Mexico Tourism

Between the years of 1700 and about 1750 the Ute’s and Comanche’s were allied in raiding all over Northern New Mexico for food and captives.  

By 1730 the Ute’s made annual trips to the Chama Valley and began to trade at Abiquiu where eventually an annual trade fair was established.  Around 1746 the Ute’s had permanent camps on the Rio Chama near Abiquiu and, after the alliance broke in 1750, they rallied to keep the Comanche’s out of the valley.

The first Spaniards to explore and settle in New Mexico arrived in the summer of 1598. With them came Mexican Indians and Mestizos, mixed Spanish / Indian blood.  Around 20 Spanish families settled near Abiquiu by 1735.  The Genizaro settlement of Abiquiu was established in 1754.  Prior to the Pueblo revolt in 1680 the Pueblo lands remained in the possession of the Indians because the early Spaniards were not tillers of the soil.  Under the ‘Encomienda system’ and the missionary program, the Indians provided support and economic gain for the Spanish invaders from the proceeds of their own lands.  After they regained control in 1692 the system was abolished and the Hispanic population began to farm. The Spanish settlers lived a hard and dangerous life. They had to be economically self-sufficient, growing their own corn, beans, squash, onions, wheat, and other grains and vegetables.  They planted fruit trees and tended them in irrigated orchards.  The settlers had to make their own clothes from homespun wool and buckskin.

The valley offered ample pasture for sheep and goats.  By Spanish royal decree, settler families were given an agricultural and residential allotment as well as common rights to the land along the river and the surrounding grazing lands.

The Genizaro pueblos became a frontier buffer population of Hispanic Indians and were granted lands in exchange for taking the brunt of enemy Indian attacks. The unstable Chama Valley settlements persisted from then on and Abiquiu was the northwestern edge of Spanish settlement for the remainder of the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the Abiquiu residents made successful settlements in the valley above what is now the Abiquiu Dam.