Pecos National Historical Park definition of Pecos National Historical Park in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Pecos National Historical Park, 6,671 acres (2,702 hectares), N New Mexico; est. as a national monument 1965, designated a national historical park 1990. The park contains the remains of the Pecos pueblo, a major trade center strategically located between the Great Plains and the Rio Grande Valley. The Pecos site was excavated from 1915–29 by Alfred V. Kidder Kidder, Alfred Vincent, 1885–1963, American archaeologist, b. Marquette, Mich., grad. Harvard (B.A. 1908; Ph.D. 1914). From 1915 to 1929 he conducted excavations at Pecos, N.Mex., for the Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
..... Click the link for more information. and is considered the first major archaeological dig using modern scientific techniques. In 1999 nearly 2,000 skeletons that had been excavated there were returned to the inhabitants of modern Jemez Jemez (hā`mās), pueblo (1990 pop. 1,301), Sandoval co., N N.Mex., on the East Fork of the Jemez River. In the 16th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. and reburied at Pecos. Two Spanish colonial missions are also preserved, as well as sites associated with the Santa Fe Trail and the 1862 Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass. A 2-mi (3-km) segment of the Pecos River is protected in the park.