San Jose de los Jemez Mission Church, New Mexico Poster

The afternoon sun casts long shadows in the ruins of the 17th century San José de los Jemez Mission Church in the Jemez Historic Site (formerly Jemez State Monument) in Sandoval County, near Jemez Springs in New Mexico. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and in 2012 it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. Jemez State Monument protects the stone ruins of Giusewa, one of numerous villages built 600 years ago in the canyon and mesa tops by the Jemez people, who numbered around 30,000 at the time of contact with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1541. The Franciscan order established a Catholic mission at Giusewa, and the massive walls of sandstone with some adobe bricks of the Church were built about the same time Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The church ruins sit beside those of Giusewa, meaning “Place of the Boiling Waters” in Towa.