El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, was a 1,600-mile braid of trails that led from Mexico City, in the center of New Spain, to the provincial capital of New Mexico on the edge of the empire’s northern frontier. The Royal Road served as a lifeline for the colonial system from its founding in 1598 until the last days of Spanish rule in the 1810s. Throughout the Mexican and American Territorial periods, the Camino Real expanded, becoming part of a larger continental and international transportation system and, until the trail was replaced by railroads in the late nineteenth century, functioned as the main pathway for conquest, migration, settlement, commerce, and culture in today’s American Southwest. More than 400 miles of the original trail lie within the United States today, and stretch from present-day San Elizario, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This segment comprises El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail. It was added to the United States National Trail System in 2000 and is still in use today. This book guides the reader along the trail with histories and overviews of places in New Mexico, West Texas and the Ciudad Juárez area. It includes a broad overview of the trail’s history from 1598 until the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s, and describes the communities, landscape, archaeology, architecture, and public interpretation of this historic transportation corridor.

Jackson brings to life this important route which the Spanish extended north into present-day New Mexico in 1598.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, is the earliest Euro-American trade route of cultures and commerce in the United States. It spanned about 1,800 miles from Mexico City, where the road originated, to Santa Fe, in New Mexico. For three centuries, this Spanish colonial road followed a network of ancient Native American footpaths and trails that followed the wide expanse of the Rio Grande valley. There were parajes, or campgrounds, along the way for travelers, and early Spanish settlements were established too. Some of the towns and villages are now modern cities, such as Las Cruces, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. Mexico City, as the former capital of La Nueva España, New Spain, is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Center. In 2000, El Camino Real was officially designated as a national historic trail, administered by the US Department of the Interior. In 2005, the El Camino Real International Heritage Center was erected near Socorro, New Mexico. This is an interpretive learning center that presents the history and heritage of the Royal Road in the region as an integral part of Spain's global network of roads and maritime trade routes.

An exploration, in stunning photography and text, of the 400-year-old Spanish trail known as El Camino Real, blazed by Juan de Onate in 1598.

Cook takes a new look at this notorious woman of 1840s Santa Fe.

Both historical investigation and travelogue, this documented study of the end of the Camino Real and San Blas, Mexico, is woven into the authors personal account of the search for remnants of Mexicos colonial road in the lowlands and sierras of modern Nayarit, aided and accompanied in his excursions by various regional historians, local guides, and curious companions. And like the old road running through the contemporary landscape, the historical narrative merges into the story of the regions modern character and development. To explore Nayarits wild and gorgeous geography, trying to site the ancient Camino Real, is to stumble over another road running toward the states future economic development as part of the Mexican Riviera. Nearly five hundred years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the history of San Blas and the road to get there is still being written. This is a contemporary narrative portrait. This historical work completes a trilogy of books by Robert Richter centered on the fading coastal village culture of Nayarit and the Mexican Riviera. It is the first comprehensive study of San Blas region in English since 1967.