Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Albuquerque's Environmental Story  |
The East Mountain communities--Tijeras, Carnuel, San Antonio, Cedar Crest, Zamora, Chillili, Cañoncito--are among the fastest growing in Bernalillo County. While the historic settlements in the area have a long and diverse history, the new growth has been primarily one of suburban expansion as people come in search of a more rural, mountain setting. The historic villages in the East Mountain area established a foundation of rich culture and unique character. While current settlements are quite different from the early ones, it is important to understand the past in order to better plan for the future.
The East Mountain area has been growing by approximately 1,000 people per year over the past 5 years and has accounted for between 25 and 33 percent of all of the building permits in Bernalillo County, resulting in estimates of more 17,000 people living in the East Mountain area today. This growth (in 1980 there were fewer than 7,500) has had a major impact on the region. The growth appears to be fairly evenly distributed north and south of Interstate 40 (I-40).
The East Mountain area has also received an enormous amount of attention from the county with regards to planning and developing innovative approaches to development review that will respond to the unique physical, environmental, and cultural elements. The East Mountain Area Plan was adopted by Bernalillo County in 1992. In 1994 the county adopted special performance criteria for subdivisions, criteria that require consideration of site-specific issues such as slope, vegetation, drainage, and cultural resources.
As with the rest of Bernalillo County, water quantity and quality concern the present residents seeing such rapid new growth. Community water systems have reduced the number of new individual wells in the area. Another trend is towards constructed wetlands, both individual and community systems. These developments focus on the issues of water quality and quantity. Both the county and the East Mountain communities must examine the water resources needed to accommodate growth. Tijeras, meaning "scissors" in Spanish, was so named because the major roads, north-south and east-west, came together like a scissors. The name also evokes an image of this long, narrow passage between the urban world of Albuquerque and the more relaxed mountain communities to the east.
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In 1880, with 15 families, the Tijeras area was the second-most densely populated of Cañon de Carnue (now Tijeras Canyon) communities, settled shortly after the village of San Antonio. Rugged people lived in these mountain villages, people who bore the hardships of winter storms, summer heat, and Apache raids to forge their homesteads on the rocky land.
To protect themselves, the villagers built their churches, and with a sense of artistry and beauty that evaded their day-to-day existence, they decorated those churches with the native santos (hand-carved saints) and paintings for which the area has become famous. The churches also served as social centers of villages isolated from each other by the winter snows and spring melts that sometimes blocked roads and trails.
Slowly, as Albuquerque grew in numbers, so did the number of people who saw the potential for industry in the rough mountain areas. Mills were built, mines were opened and then abandoned as their gold, turquoise, silver, and other valuables gave out.
The population of the mountain towns changed, too, as more and more people left the Albuquerque area to enjoy the coolness of mountain evenings and the privacy that steep hills and curving roads provide.
As Albuquerque grew, and the presence of a stronger, more urban-oriented county government became unavoidable, the people of the mountains, having tried for years to achieve active input into decisions governing their own area, decided to fight for their way of life by using the law of incorporation. An election was held, and the town of Tijeras was born.
The idea of self-government and total responsibility was a sobering one for many of the people who undertook the task. Unschooled in state law, lacking knowledge of ordinances, resolutions, or manuals for internal controls, they set about to build a town, well aware that many eyes were upon them, and that success for their small community would mean pride for all the villages of the area.
In 1973, when Tijeras was first created, it was difficult to find people in the community willing to run for mayor or city council. But soon a full, active town government grew up, a government that has graveled every street, named all the roads, funded a fire department, and set up and maintained a wide array of city services. And while the water system needs updating and there is no animal control department yet, the citizens are enjoying their library, bank, and department of motor vehicles.
Long-time residents declare that both business and residential growth, particularly on North 14, is nothing short of astounding.
The present-day populations, including an influx of emigrés from the east coast and Midwest, have come to love the rural beauty of the canyons, with their now convenient access to Albuquerque. But with all its changes, Tijeras and the other mountain towns remain much the same. A slower pace prevails here, and a more hospitable attitude. People still wave when they pass each other on the road, and cows compete with traffic on Highway 14. Many of the youth still move away, lured by the higher wages and faster pace of cities, but more seem to stay now. Many are interested in helping to develop--and preserve--their part of the canyon, concerned about clean air and water, and determined to bring in jobs and opportunities that will enhance life in the colorful East Mountain towns.
Through the ages, Tijeras Canyon has been an important travel corridor. Until recent times, it was known as Cañon de Carnue. About 900 years ago, it was home to a number of Indian villages, some of which were still occupied when the Spanish arrived. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Apache Indians used the canyon as a passage and campground when they rode west to raid communities along the Rio Grande. Hispanic settlers frequently traveled the same route in the 18th century to find timber and hunting and trading areas.
Although 24 families had settled at San Miguel in 1819, by 1880 there were only 10. Most of the population had gravitated to San Antonio, where a water system had been developed. However, two places of worship were erected in Carnuel in the 1890s--a private chapel built by Domingo Garcia to house the statue of San Miguel de Laredo, the village's patron saint, and in 1898 Carnuel's community church, Santo Niño, at the west end of Carnuel. In 1932, Father Libertine erected the large white cross on the hill across the freeway from the church to encourage travelers through the canyon to stop and meditate. Both Domingo Garcia's little chapel and Santo Niño were torn down in the 1960s and a larger church built.
In 1793, a group of Hispanic settlers moved to a land grant along Tijeras Canyon. The Cañon de Carnue Grant extended north of Tijeras Canyon to include what is now Cañoncito. The village they formed, near present-day Carneul, was called San Miguel de Laredo. Following an Apache attack in 1770, the survivors fled back to Albuquerque. But in 1819, two village clusters, built around enclosed plazas, were established--San Miguel de Laredo, near the old San Miguel, and San Antonio de Padua, about a mile north of the present intersection of North Hwy 14 and I-40.
Cañoncito was known as "El Cañoncito de Nuanes" in 1826, although it was uninhabited at the time. In 1860, a Salvador Nuanes and his sons lived in Cañoncito, which then had a population of 29 families. By 1880, that number had dropped to 12. Cañoncito's San Lorenzo Church was built in the 1870s. Gypsum was mined nearby, and flagstone gathered for the floors of the old Albuquerque airport building and several UNM buildings.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, San Antonio was the population and religious center of the Cañon de Carnue Grant. Early development of a water system encouraged settlement.
From the mid-1830s until 1880, the only church serving the Cañon de Carnue area stood at San Antonio. It was built at the site of a third San Antonio plaza and over the ruins of an Indian pueblo. The church burned down in the 1950s and was replaced by a larger one.
Chilili was once an Indian pueblo. A small Franciscan mission was built there around 1614 and abandoned between 1669 and 1676 because of Apache attacks. Ruins of the Indian pueblo lie on the west side of Arroyo de Chilili. A small Spanish settlement was established north of the original pueblo in the early 19th century, but later abandoned because of drought. About 20 families moved to the ruins of the old pueblo, and in 1841 obtained a land grant.
The Chilili church, Copilla de San Juan Nepomoseno, was probably built in 1842. Gravestones beside the church show dates from 1873 to 1883. An old store, built early in the century, still operates today in Chilili.
(Up to Section II, Back to A Community Called Kirtland, On to Rio Rancho - City of Vision)