Villanueva and the Old Pecos Valley

Below these red sandstone bluffs, the Pecos River winds past Villanueva State Park and the old Spanish colonial village that shares its name. The village was founded in eighteen oh eight and first called La Cuesta, meaning the slope, for its perch above the river. It sat within the San Miguel del Vado land grant, laid out under Spanish rule in seventeen ninety-four, and like its neighboring towns it was built around a defensible plaza meant to guard against raids from the plains.

By the eighteen forties, La Cuesta was a sizable settlement in the valley, home to buffalo hunters called Ciboleros and to Comancheros who traded with the Plains tribes. In eighteen ninety the town took the name Villanueva to honor a well known local family. Trails in the park still wind along the river valley below the old settlement.