ABQjournal: ATVs Damaging Historic Area By Beth Hahn, Mountain View Telegraph

One of the most historic places in the Estancia Valley area has been damaged by all-terrain vehicles.

Damage to the Quarai ruins at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, near the land grant community of Manzano, could destroy delicate cultural and historic artifacts, monument Superintendent Glenn Fulfer told Torrance County commissioners recently.

As a result of the damage, Fulfer said the monument could get a new security gate and lock boxes.

Artifacts ranging from Spanish spear heads to pottery shards have been found among the ruins.

Most of the pueblo remains unexcavated, and Fulfer said that makes the park vulnerable to visitors who wander off the gray gravel trail.

Quarai was once home to 300 to 400 Tiwa pueblo-dwellers.

Today, the red sandstone ruins of Quarai— a massive church and a few pueblo structures— is open to the public almost year-round.

During a tour of Quarai earlier this month, Fulfer said that of the three sets of ruins included in the Salinas Pueblos area, Quarai is the best-preserved.

“Quarai is important because there is little physical evidence left of history where Spanish settlers came in contact with Native Americans,” he said. “These are capsules in time. These churches have gone through very little physical change.”

At Quarai, the church once known as Nuestra Señora de La Purisima Concepcion de Cuarac, stands about 40 feet tall, with walls three to six feet deep.

Quarai, along with Abó and Gran Quivira, contain some of the oldest church structures in New Mexico.

The church at Quarai was built during the late 1620s or early 1630s. It was abandoned in 1677 after a combination of drought, disease and Apache raids drove the residents from the area.