Rio Salado Sand Dunes

Socorro County · I-25 -- Rio Salado rest area north and south bound

Winds blowing across the usually dry, sandy riverbed of Rio Salado formed dunes along this part of the Rio Grande Valley. The Rio Grande, just southeast of here, follows a massive geological trench shaped millions of years ago when huge blocks of land sank as the earth in central New Mexico slowly began pulling apart. The resulting Rio Grande Rift uplifted Los Piños Mountains to the east. Northwest are the Sierra Ladrones. Rocks on their 9,000-foot crests are similar to those buried four miles beneath these dunes. Elevation 4,850 feet.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

Rio Salado Sand Dunes

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