Pigeon Ranch Stage Coach Stop

Hwy. 50, one mile east of Glorieta
Phone:

East < GO > West

The old stagecoach stop building at Pigeon Ranch also served as a post office and trading post. Alexander Valle (Pigeon), built his home and business complex here in the 1850s. As well as his home there was an inn with something like 22 guest rooms and a tavern. The buildings were arranged around a courtyard. This is the last remaining building from the Pigeon Ranch complex, and it is one of two buildings that faced the road. A portion of what I think was the stone corral ruins can be seen on the right in this photo.

GPS: 35.571548, -105.754820

Pigeon Ranch, but maybe not this particular building, served as a field hospital for soldiers in the Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass in the spring of 1862. The battle is sometimes called Gettysburg of the West, it was the biggest battle of the Civil War in the American southwest and the Union Army was victorious. The Pigeon Ranch buildings were heavily damaged in the Civil War but apparently repaired by 1865 only to later fall into such disrepair the all but the one shown here were torn down.

After years of efforts to preserve the site the property became part of the National Park System in 1992. Even so, as recently as 2008 this building appeared to be in need of some serious preservation with boarded up windows etc., but by 2013 at least some renovations including a new roof and some attention to the windows had taken place. The guard rail was installed years ago to protect the building which sits only a few feet from the road. The property was sold several times before the National Park Service acquired it in the 1990s.

The old well across the road from the building was a welcome source of water for travelers along Route 66 and the earlier the Santa Fe Trail. During the tourist trap years of the late-20s and later the well was promoted as offering "Pure Gold Mountain Water", whatever that was supposed to be. There is plenty of room to pull over and park on this side of the road.

Thomas L. Greer acquired the property in the mid-1920s and apparently did his best to turn the property into a profit making business. He offered tours of the Battle Field, for a fee of course. The Greer family continued to live at Pigeon Ranch even after Route 66 had been realigned in 1937 and after I-25 was opened in the 1950s.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

In addition to the image the front of this vintage postcard included some brief text:

"Old Pigeon Ranch "Glorieta Pass" on Santa Fe Trail, NM"
"Owned and Operated by Thos. L. Greer, Glorieta Pass New Mexico"

Note: Looking at this old postcard it looks like Greer adorned the building with several gaudy signs in an effort to get travelers to stop. The back of the card has no desriptive text.
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Photo(s): 2015