Missions of San Buenaventura & San Isidro, New Mexico Highway 14, Mountainair vicinity, Mountainair, Torrance County, NM

Significance: During the early period of Spanish colonization in New Mexico, Franciscan missionaries undertook the conversion of the Salinas Pueblos. Four of the missions established at that time are now included in Salinas National Monument: La Purisima Concepcion at Quarmi, San Gregorio at Abo, and San Buenaventura and San Isidro at Gran Quivira, or Pueblo de las Humanas, as it was called in the seventeenth century. The other Salinas Missions were at Chilili, Taxique, and Tabira. The Church of San Isidro was constructed between 1629 and 1931. The convento of this original mission was situated in a remodelled and extended portion of the house block north of the church. From 1631, San Isidro was administered as a visita of Abo, until 1659 when the new church and convento of San Buenaventura were begun. By 1672, Pueblo de las Humanas was abandoned, and by 1678, so were the other Salinas pueblos and their missions. Gran Quivira, as the site later came to be known, was declared a National Monument in 1906. Some of the mission structures were initially cleared and stabilized in 1923, and further work was done in succeeding decades.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-29
Survey number: HABS NM-147
Building/structure dates: 1629- 1631 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1659 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1923 Subsequent Work