2003 Most Endangered

Most Endangered Places in New Mexico 2003

• The Waters of New Mexico, Statewide
  
• St. Vrain Mill, Mora County
  
• The Gutierrez-Hubbell House, Bernalillo
  
• Chaco Culture National Historical Park, San Juan County
  
• La Bajada Mesa and Escarpment, Santa Fe
  
• New Mexico's Historic Earthen Architectural Tradition, Statewide
  
• Melvin W. Mills House, Colfax
  
• Tucumcari Metropolitan Park — 5 Mile Park, Quay
  
• New Mexico's Greater Otero Mesa Area, Otero
  
• Historic Roadside Markers of New Mexic, Statewide
  

New Mexico's Historic Earthen Architectural Tradition, Statewide

Significance: New Mexico's earthen architecture characterizes and in large part defines the cultural heritage of the state. Beginning with troglodytic habitations, evolving through the use of fieldstone in the high architectural style of Chaco Canyon, to the introduction and evolution of adobe at the time of European contact, earthen buildings more than any other man-made constituent characterize New Mexico's unique adaptation to place. The loss of use of the traditions and materials surrounding the construction of earthen buildings reflects the breaking of continuity with cultural underpinnings. Conversely, the preservation of the same traditions reinforces the association of a resident with both the tangible and intangible aspects of place and cultural context.

Threat: There are forces working inadvertently in concert that threaten New Mexico's assemblage of earthen buildings. They are loss over time of local knowledge that tells how to manipulate available materials into structural components, and the corresponding loss of appreciation of the economic and environmental and aesthetic values of earthen buildings.