Visit Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico

There are many national parks across the USA that are worthy of a visit

And lesser-known Pecos National Historical Park, just south of Pecos and east of Santa Fe, is one of these

Park Superintendent Carl Cordova is showing me around. There's so much history that happened here over the years

Probably more American histories happen here in this one small space than anywhere else in the continental United States

The Santa Fe Trail, Route 66, Civil War Battle was fought here

And this is one of the historic churches. Right. This is the Pecos Mission Church, and it's part of this larger Spanish convento that we're standing in

The church was just a small part of the buildings that were here, and it was really to cater and serve the Pecos people who had been living here for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived

Because of their prime location, the Pecos people became middlemen and traded with the neighboring Plains tribes who brought Flint, buffalo hides, and shells in exchange for pottery, crops, textiles, and turquoise

The Pecos people formed a large economic footprint and reviewed as formidable by neighboring Pueblos

The Pecos people are really known for their bravery and living out here on the frontier of the Pueblo world, where their culture was in close proximity with the people's people

The Plains tribes where there was trading that could be done. And times weren't always friendly

They mostly were, but it was a place of harmony because they could come together, of commerce

and often of that exchange of ideas amongst different tribes