Remembering the Old West
Read MoreSanta Rosa De Lima. Abiquiu, New Mexico
Santa Rosa de Lima was an early 18th-century Spanish settlement in the Rio Charma valley, near the present-day town of Abiquiu. New Mexico By the 1730s Spanish settlers were moving into the Chama River valley, and by 1744 at least 20 families were living in the present-day Abiquiú area, where they founded the Plaza de Santa Rosa de Lima. The church was built around 1744, and was in use until the 1930s. Repeated raids by Utes and Comanches caused the settlement to be abandoned in 1747. In 1750, the Spanish founded a new settlement at the present site of Abiquiú, about a mile from Santa Rosa de Lima.
Today the site of Santa Rosa de Lima is a ghost Town, with substantial adobe ruins of the church, and mounds where the settlers' adobe houses stood.Old Church Taiban, New Mexico
In 1880 Pat Garret captured Bill the Kid in this Town!
This photo was featured by my good friends at Topaz Labs on their Facebook and Blog Pages.
Check out the story here on NM Ghost Towns:
http://blog.topazlabs.com/going-going-gone-new-mexicos-vanishing-ghost-towns/There are over 400 ghost towns in New Mexico, some of which not only died, but vanished. You can still find a few hardy soles that live in some of them, as well as some old buildings still standing. Starting the late1800s, each had a moment of glory that blazed and died like a sudden flame. Many were mining towns, where men lusted after the earth’s riches – gold, silver, turquoise, copper, lead and coal. A few were farming communities that flourished for a time and mysteriously fell silent. Some were water stops for the steam locomotives, their usefulness gone with the advent of the modern diesel engines that ride the rails today. Some were stops on the fabled Route 66.
This photo was also featured in my Topaz Blog!