New Mexico Space Trail Oral History Now!

For more than two decades, The New Mexico Museum of Space History, a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, has been developing the “New Mexico Space Trail.” Beginning as a listing of sites within the state that have contributed to man’s exploration of space, from archeoastronomy sites to NASA facilities.

Forty seven sites have been identified to date, and include sand paintings of the Navajo, the petroglyphs of the Zuni, the rock alignments at Wizard’s Roost in the Sacramento Mountains (similar to the much larger site of Stonehenge), astronaut training sites like Zuni Salt Lake, the Jemez Mountains and the Rio Grande Gorge area. Where else but New Mexico can the footprints of Spaniards who trekked the El Camino Real cross the path of future astronauts at Spaceport America?

The first live New Mexico Space Trail call in radio program took place on Tuesday March 2, 2010, on KRSY AM 1230. Hosted by Michael Shinabery and Jean Vallance, program guests included Cathy Harper, a Space Frontier Foundation Advocate and New Mexico Museum of Space History program director, Humanities Scholar Dr. David Townsend, archeologist and author Pete Eidenbach, Museum of Space History Curator George House, and Patti Brady, daughter of a pioneering ranch family. The program introduced the “New Mexico Space Trail” program, discussed the history of space in New Mexico and its cultural impact.