Fort St. Jean Baptiste was one of the most important trading centers in the Lower Mississippi Valley.

Los Adaes allows visitors to experience life at the edge of Spanish, French, and American Indian empires.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, Fort Jesup provides a glimpse of life on the US-Spain (and later, Us-Mexico) border.

Mission Dolores tells a crucial story of American Indian interaction with Spanish settlers in eastern Texas.

Caddo Mounds State Historic Site attests to the crucial role of the powerful Caddo nation in shaping the Spanish experience along El Camino Real de los Tejas.

These sites commemorate two distinct, but equally important, eras of Texas history: the struggle for independence from Mexico, and the wave of German immigration that changed the state's demographics forever.

Casa Navarro celebrates the life of a tireless advocate of Texas independence.

Fort Selden was established in 1865 in an effort to bring peace to south central New Mexico Territory. Built on the banks of the Rio Grande, this adobe fort housed units of the US Army's infantry and cavalry. Their intent was to protect settlers and travelers in the Mesilla Valley and along El Camino Real from desperados and Apache Indians. The fort remained active until 1891.

In 1854 the US Army established Fort Craig (on a bluff west of the Rio Grande) to protect El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (located east of the Rio Grande). In 1862 troops stationed there fought an invading Confederate force in the Battle of Valverde. Troops remained here until 1885, three years after a railroad was built through the area.

The Rio Grande bosque and the Sandia Mountains lie just beyond Kuaua Ruins, a prehistoric Tiwa village that was one of the largest Pueblo Indian settlements in the region at the time of the 1540 expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. For visitors who wander through the ruins along an interpretive trail, explore the museum and visitor center, or take in the pristine views from a shady portal or picnic tables, the Kuaua experience illuminates Pueblo Indian culture.