CARTA: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association

CARTA NEWS

April, 2005

Message from the President:
George D. Torok, CARTA President

There has been a great deal of CARTA activity in early 2005. On January 21 and 22, 2005, our CARTA board, along with representatives from the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Partnership for the National Trail System, and Chihuahua City held our first strategic planning session at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The purpose of the meeting was to lay out a series of short and long-term goals and projects.

After hours of brainstorming and prioritizing, we came up with a set of projects that would help both CARTA and the federal agencies take the development of our national historic trail to the next level.

One area was political action. At present, we are organizing ourselves to promote the trail to our local, state and federal representatives. I hope you all had a chance to contact your representatives with the information we recently sent you. One task we discussed is to have the states of New Mexico and Texas recognize the Camino Real as a state historic trail. We hope to have a resolution introduced in the New Mexico legislature during the current session to accomplish this goal. Another CARTA goal is to help the Camino Real International Heritage Center, located south of Socorro, New Mexico, get the resources it needs to open later his year with proper equipment and staffing. Another goal is to push for the hiring and funding of full-time administrators in both the NPS and BLM to oversee the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail.

Some goals were identified for the National Historic Trail Administration (NPS and BLM) to pursue. A database of Camino Real materials will be developed including maps, historic and archaeological sites, GIS statistics, state and local inventories, photographic materials and guides. They will also form a committee with representatives from federal, state and local governmental agencies that have a common interest in the Camino Real to share information, planning and coordination of activities. One priority that I, as president of CARTA, feel is particularly important is getting the trail marked and promoting the auto tour route. We will be looking at standardizing signs, working with Texas and New Mexico Departments of Transportation, developing wayside exhibits, and examining sources of funding.

We discussed building a partnership with the Historical Society of Chihuahua. There was discussion of a series of small projects we might undertake to start a dialog among CARTA members on both sides of the border. One possible project is to send an exhibit and a few CARTA representatives to a newly organized international festival planned for October 2005 in Chihuahua City.

There has always been the question of how Mexico fits into a United States “National” Historic Trail. Clearly, our Camino Real is an international trail, with two-thirds of its route in Mexico, but there has not been any official process established to deal with international projects. One suggestion was to approach the ruling parties of both nations, both of whom are interested in efforts to open the border, and recognize the Camino Real as the first international historic trail.

There was discussion of tapping into different sources of funding to mount an international traveling exhibition of Camino Real art. CARTA’s international liaison, Dr. Ben Brown, has several leading institutions interested in jointly sponsoring such an exhibition. We also placed the federal Cost Share program at the top of our priorities. A committee will be established to encourage, screen and finalize grant proposals that fit into our long-range CARTA goals.

Our 2005 elections will be taking place this summer, and we need to see fresh new faces among our officers and board. Our present members have done a great job, and I hope many will continue, but new ideas are always welcome. CARTA is now in its third year as an association. It has been a long grind, but I can proudly say that we are now organized, funded, publicized, goal-oriented, connected and making great progress. I hope we have several people interested in taking a leadership role in CARTA as we enter our next exciting phase.

One of the new leaders we have on board is Jay W. Sharp, editor of Chronicles of the Trail. He has taken on the challenge of representing CARTA at the Partnership for the National Trail System. Jay traveled to Washington, DC, in late February and early March to learn more about trail advocacy and help to us develop a long-term strategy for working with our federal, state and local representatives. He will be reporting on the results of his trip at a later time.

And if all of that is not enough, let me remind you that we are continuing with site certification, publicity and promotion activities, symposium planning and membership recruitment. I am very excited to announce that the 2005 CARTA Members Business Meeting will take place at the Rancho de Las Golondrinas in Santa Fe on October 1, 2005. This is the first day of their wonderful annual harvest festival. Louann Jordan, a member of our CARTA board, is making the arrangements and will have all the details for us in our summer issue of the Chronicles. Our tentative plan is to a have an early breakfast meeting and wrap up business by 10:00 A. M. so that everyone can enjoy the festivities.

Finally, I would like to welcome our newest board member, Lloyd Rivera of Taos, New Mexico. Lloyd brings a great deal of enthusiasm and expertise to our association. We welcome all of you folks along the northern ends of the trail, and we hope that you will join increasingly in CARTA activities as we grow and expand.