The First Indian Detours 1926 - Day 1
The first Indian Detour ran on May 15, 1926 from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Santa Fe.
A HarveyCar and HarveyCoach load passengers and prepare to leave the Castañeda Hotel in Las Vegas in 1926. The driver of the car can be identified by his large Stetson hat.
The Santa Fe Trail passed through Kearny's Gap just south of Las Vegas. The Detours Couriers explained to the dudes that Kearny's Gap was named after U.S. General Stephen Watts Kearny, who led the American army west through the gap on August 17, 1846, on to Santa Fe to conquer the city from the Mexicans. A paved highway cuts through the gap today. For more information on the Santa Fe Trail, click on the photograph.
Southwest of Kearny's Gap the Detourists saw this adobe church in the village of Tecolote. "Tecolote" is Spanish for "owl," and Tecolote Peak is seen four miles north of town. This was the first introduction of the Indian Detours dudes to the adobe construction of buildings in the Southwest.
On To San Jose and Pecos
Heading west from Tecolote, the Detourists next stop was in the village of San Jose, located on a shallow ford of the Pecos River where the Santa Fe Trail crossed. They viewed this adobe Catholic church there.
Continuing west toward Santa Fe the travelers came to the ruins of Pecos Pueblo, consisting of the ruins of a Catholic church built in 1717 and the foundations of the pueblo homes. The site became a New Mexico State Monument in 1935, and a National Park Service National Monument in 1965. For more information on Pecos, please click on the photograph.
Traveling west from Pecos, the Detourists came to Glorieta Pass at an elevation of 7,432 feet in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. There was a station for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway here, which today is a U.S. post office.
Descending westward from Glorieta Pass the Harveycars entered Apache Canyon, and the dudes saw the church at Cañoncito on their right, with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway tracks on their left.
Climbing out of Apache Canyon, the tour finally reached Santa Fe, and the Detourists relaxed in Fred Harvey's La Fonda Hotel before dinner. After dinner a lecture was presented introducing the history of New Mexico and its arts, crafts, and Pueblo ceremonials.