William Clift. Copyright 2009
Dear Residents of New Mexico: Please take a look at this. Major Land Preservation Act.
Please call the Office of Mayor David Coss in Santa Fe (505)955-6590
by WEDNESDAY A.M. June 12, and express your support for a vote of "YES" for the Resolution to designate La Bajada Mesa National Monument. One of New Mexico's Most Endangered Places.
La Bajada mesa is under threat from mining and development interests "at play" right now. If it is not preserved and protected, it will be mined and gutted. La Bajada Mesa is sacred to the Pueblos. Historic for Spanish Americans. Has water, and is a major wildlife corridor connecting vast lands north and south.
We urge you to establish one of the greatest land conservation legacies of our time in New Mexico: the protection of La Bajada Mesa, its escarpment, and the southern “gateway” of arrival to the city of Santa Fe.
The Coalition to Protect the Gateway (CPG) was founded in 2010 in order to protect and preserve La Bajada Mesa and its escarpment as a National Monument. CPG has worked extensively with national, state and local institutions and organizations in designating 128,000 acres of land as La Bajada Mesa National Monument.
The New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance has listed La Bajada Mesa and the escarpment as one of the “most endangered places” in New Mexico. Our sole intent is to protect these lands, their geologic integrity, cultural, historical and environmental benefits for public welfare into perpetuity.
The proposed boundary line for La Bajada Mesa National Monument runs from La Bajada Mesa south to the Cerrillos Hills State Park, north to the Santa Fe River Basin, and across the Caja del Rio Plateau to the Rio Grande River.
* 90% of the proposed boundary line for the monument is already public land.
* This spectacular view shed has been known to thousands of national and international travelers for centuries. La Bajada Mesa has been and remains an inspiration for film makers, painters, writers, and photographers.
* 400 years ago, the Camino Real, the Royal Road to the Interior lands, crossed this vast terrain.
* The region contains some of New Mexico’s most important cultural history for a period of inhabitance from 4000 BC to the present. It also contains a significant number of irreplaceable cultural and religious sites of Native American tribes and Pueblos, including the Kewa Pueblo (formerly Santo Domingo Pueblo) and Pueblo de Cochiti.
Thank You.
Coalition to Protect the Gateway (CPG)