S2 Forts Day

El Camino Real International Heritage Center is a New Mexico State Monument

operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Educational programs and activities are made possible by El Camino Real IHC Foundation

WHERE: El Camino Real International Heritage Center

Located on I-25 between Socorro and T or C, Exit 115 - follow the signs.

If you're still lost . . . click here for map and driving instructions

COST: Event free with paid Monument admission. Free admission for ages 16 & under.

Single adult visit, $5.

Free admission for MNM and ECRIHC Foundation members, and U.S. Military veterans

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call 575-854-3600

2:00 pm: Chautauqua presentation by Larry Marken as William Sherley, “Old Bill” Williams, courtesy of the New Mexico Humanities Council.

Discover forts along the ancient Camino Real. Event will include living history re-enactments of soldier camp activities including bullet-making, black powder demonstration, treadle sewing, open fire cooking and more. Plus, presentations portraying Rafael Chacon and a Western mountain man.

On-going presentations during the day:

Living history demonstrations of fort-life, courtesy of Fort Selden State

Monument and Old Fort Griffin Memorial, Inc.

Horno-baking demonstrations,

courtesy of Fort Selden State Monument.

Blacksmith demonstrations by Richard Rumph,

Truth or Consequences and his traveling blacksmith shop

Mule Packing demonstrations, courtesy of the

Socorro Back Country Horsemen

Information booth on Fort Craig, courtesy of B.L.M.

Special Presentations:

12:00 pm: Chautauqua presentation by Enrique Lamadrid as Rafael Chacón, courtesy of the New Mexico Humanities Council.language and imagination.

Capitán Rafael Chacón was witness to the most significant events in the formation of modern New Mexico, from the US invasion of 1846 to statehood in 1912. At the age of 13, he commanded an artillery position at Apache Pass for the aborted defense of Santa Fe. During the Civil War, his company fired the first and last shots at the Texan invaders at the battles of Valverde and Glorieta. Chacón served with honor in the campaigns for peace with the Navajos and Apaches, and was the first commander of Fort Stanton.

Enrique Lamadrid is a folklorist, critic, translator and professor at UNM. His research charts the influence of indigenous cultures on the Spanish language and imagination.

William S. “Old Bill” Williams was one of the most colorful, adventuresome, and proficiently literate of the 19th Century western mountain men. During his 62 years, he preached, trapped, traded, scouted for military expeditions, guided wagon trains, served as an interpreter of Native American languages and wrote an Osage-English dictionary.

Larry Marken is retired from a diversified set of careers. He currently volunteers as a docent at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas living history museum, seasonally serves as a National Park Service volunteer in Hawaii and presents occasional mountain man displays at El Camino Real Heritage Center.