As promised earlier, we are bringing our membership a diversity of informative and interesting articles in Chronicles of the Trail. In the April – June 2005 edition, we have two articles by Dr. Edward Staski, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the University Museum, New Mexico State University. In the first, Dr. Staski gives us a summary report on his nearly two decades of archaeological work along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro in southern New Mexico. In the second, he shares with us some of what he is learning, and he offers some thought-provoking insights into what archaeology can contribute to research into trail history. You will find an article, “Profile of a Conquistador,” which gives some dimension to those armor-clad men who spent two winters with General Francisco Vásquez de Coronado on the trail, along the upper Rio Grande, in the early 1540’s. We have drawn on soldiers’ chronicles and diaries to paint a picture of the decisive struggle for the Union Captain Alexander McRae’s six-gun artillery battery during the bloody Civil War battle at Valverde, a historic site located on the trail along the eastern bank of the Rio Grande in central New Mexico. We have run Larry Castillo-Wilson’s poetic musings on that prickly botanical maverick, the ocotillo. We report on our participation in the Hike the Hill: Trails Advocacy Week in Washington at the end of February and first of March. During this event, attended this year by more than 50 representatives of the 25 national hiking, scenic and historic trails across the country, we met with staff members of the administration, the congress and the land management agencies to solicit and encourage support at the federal level. As always, we publish a message from the CARTA President, George D. Torok, who, in the current edition, focuses on CARTA’s strategic direction, international partnering, the upcoming board elections and ongoing CARTA activities.