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El Morro National Monument, New Mexico

Rising 200 feet above the valley floor, this massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or Inscription Rock) a popular campsite. Beginning in the late 1500s Spanish, and later, Americans passed by El Morro. While they rested in its shade and drank from the pool, many carved their signatures, dates, and messages. Before the Spanish, petroglyphs were inscribed by Ancestral Puebloans living on top of the bluff over 700 years ago. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins. Proclaimed Dec. 8, 1906.

Bluff close up

National Park Service

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El Morro National Monument, Code: ELMO

El Morro National Monument, Cibola County, New Mexico
Latitude: 35.0390014648438, Longitude: -108.346000671387

Legacy NPS Focus Record ID : 231526

NPS Office of Communications and Public Affairs Photo Library

Title: NPS Office of Communications and Public Affairs Photo Library
URL: http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/imagebase.html

01/13/2003

01/01/1980 - 12/30/1999

Digital image (TIF ; 18.0 MB; 3072 x 2048 ; 300 dpi; 24 bit color). Encoded as MrSID format

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NPS staff

El Morro National Monument

Administrator

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 6:26:10 PM

Thursday, August 10, 2017 10:16:14 AM

elmo_bluff_1455.jpg

Monday, January 1, 0001 12:00:00 AM

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