This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/0RB.2ACI/80.1 Message Board Post: I was reading your excelent description of possible locations of El Paraje de las Huertas and want to put my dos centavos into the mix. As I understand it El Paraje del las Huertas would have been "Old Town" Alburquerque with the fruit tree orchard, gardens and alfalfa fields surrounding modern Tiquex Park. The Trujillo Hacienda would have been the present site of La Placita restaurant possibly destroyed or damaged by the Pueblo revolt and subsequent Navajo and Apache occupation in the absence of the exiled Spaniards in the 1680's. I am not sure if the league mesurement would have been precise at the time but a rough estimate would account for this. Prior to the European occupation of the Rio Grande Valley the river would have flowed very differently than it does now. flowing downhill south from Cochiti/Santo Domingo area it would have broadened quite a bit to the 3 mile wide valley below Bernalillo, not having a straight path but a meandering , sometimes spliting into seve! ral size flowing streams instead of the one channel we see today. Sandbars built up over the millemium and farmers would "escopa" them flat for irrigating and planting. The main course of the Rio Grande followed a path north of Alameda down what is now approx. 2nd street, splitting into curving multiple channels around built up sandbars. One of the largest sandbars was at the site of Old Alburquerque which made it ideal for a "flood free" Rancho/Hacienda to exist. The river split into two major channels, the largest flow straight down 2nd st. through what would become New Albuquerque, and another channel around the sandbar of the Trujillo hacienda approx. Rio Grande Blvd. Bernardina de Salas y Trujillo would have been the direct surviving inheritor of the pre-revolt Trujillo estate and offered it up to Governor Cuervo y Valdez as a site for more families to occupy the newly "conquered" ( by de Vargas) region in the beginning of the 1700's. And I must put this into the contr! oversy, so permit me to offer it up for discussion. El Camino Real was Edith Blvd ( curving around the "ladera" flanks on the east side of the valley approx. following or about 25 feet to the west of Edith Blvd.; 4th st., 2nd St., Rio Grande Blvd. have been erroneously been called the Camino Real. The main river flow in the 1600's through the 1700's would have been through approx. modern 2nd st. Traveling southward from Sandia the traveler would have arrived at Alameda de las Lomas (modern Edith and old Alameda rd.) then could have taken the road directly west across the river to the Old Alameda Pueblo (modern 4th st. and new Alameda Rd.) to San Carlos de Alameda (modern Rio Grande Blvd and Alameda rd.). The Camino Real would have headed south from Alameda de las Lomas to the Rancho de Francisco Candelaria (also named in various reports as: Los Candelaritas, La Ladera del Carmen, or in U.S. Censuses El Rancho Plaza: modern Ranchitos rd. and Edith Blvd.) From a split in the! road at approx modern El Pueblo rd. and Edith Blvd. a road could be taken directly to the SW to the Plaza de San Jose de los Ranchos (modern Chavez rd. and Rio Grande Blvd). El Camino Real would have followed the "flood free" high ground south approx. S. Broadway then to all points south to Mexico City. The western trail (that traversed the then west bank of the river would have followed a path around cienegas de salinas, about Guadalupe trail and Rio Grande Blvd. arriving at various plazas of the Valley, some of which exist (Los Griegos, Los Candelarias, Los Duranes, etc.), and some of which are melted into now existing comunities and have no topigraphical designation (Los Garcias, Los Terrones, Los Pereas, Los Gonzales, Las Lunas) all merely a collection of semi-fortified extened family Ranchitos then actual towns or villages. You must remember that prior to the construction of Cochiti Dam and the cement arroyos of the NE heights of Albq., the Rio Grande was dry more than! the times it had water flowing. This made crossing the valley lateraly possible without getting wet. But there were some years when the "100 year floods would devastate the homes in the valley as in 1800, 1801, or 1802 (year not exact) and the 1904 flood that ran as high as 7 feet and destroyed San Jose de Los Ranchos. Just a prediction: we seem to be overdue one right about now, so let's hope after this current drought ends that Cochiti holds back impending disaster. People alive today think of floods as a disaster, and I am sure it would be, but the elders of the Valley took it in stride, camping up to the foothills till the water level dropped and enjoyed incredibly healthy crops for years afterward. Alfalfa and corn was said to grow in the valley with nothing but air and water. Thanx for letting me add this bit of information and I hope that this will open up the floor to discussion. I will not assume to be the final word on anything but will hope that there is someone ! out there to contradict or concur to these historical points of view.