San Miguel del Vado
New Mexico
The name means Saint Michael of the Ford, and the ford is the point. In seventeen ninety-four the Spanish governor granted land here along the Pecos River to more than fifty families, and they founded San Miguel del Vado at an easy crossing that traders could use. Once Mexico gained independence in eighteen twenty-one, this village became a busy stop on the Santa Fe Trail where officials collected tariffs.
Merchants coming off the plains would repack their goods here to dodge tariffs in Santa Fe. In eighteen forty-one, a Texan expedition lost in the desert was captured nearby and held here before being marched south. General Stephen Kearny took the village in August of eighteen forty-six on his way to seize Santa Fe without a shot.
The county seat it once held passed to Las Vegas, New Mexico in eighteen sixty, and the old ford went quiet.
