Cerro Tome

Cerro Tome, Tomé Hill

When Otermín led his party and many Indian refugees south from Isleta toward El Paso on the east side of the Río Grande early in 1682, he noted passing “Serillo de Tome” (Hackett 1915:391). On September 6, 1692 Vargas noted that the road in the neighborhood of the hacienda that had belonged to Tomé Domínguez was so sandy that cargo had to be transferred from wagons to pack animals (Kessell and Hendricks 1992:375). Such a description fits the area around Tomé Hill more than it does the floor of the valley as it is at present.

According to Scurlock, Gerow, and Kammer, from the time of Oñate through that of Vargas the course of the Río Grande was further east, close to the western base of Tomé Hill. The “Rio Grande Pueblo Indian Trail,” which became the Camino Real, ran along the along the eastern bank of the river. It went on the east side of the hill, “following the edge of the rincon sandhills just to the east of present La Entrada Road.” Later, that track would be the “upper branch of the Camino Real.”

The river shifted west before 1739, when the Tomé grant was settled. An “inner valley branch” of the Camino Real then ran through the plaza of Tomé, connecting it to other settlements in the Río Grande valley (Scurlock, Gerow, and Kammer 1995:73,98-106). The river reportedly shifted eastward a short distance in 1769, flooding some of the houses and lands of Tomé (Adams and Chávez 1956:8). Juan Candelaria dated the village of Tomé to October 1740 and added that the settlers immediately began construction of a church (Armijo 1929:278-279). In 1744, Fray Juan Miguel Menchero identified the petitioners as genízaros (Hackett 1937:401-402). Other sources say that 172 some genízaros joined Spanish families from the Alburquerque area in a request for lands in 1739 that included Tomé hill and the site of the former estancia of Tomé Domínguez de Mendoza, then on the east side of the river. Soon a plaza and church were begun just over a mile southeast of the hill, probably on the site of a former pueblo (see Scurlock, Gerow, and Kammer 1995:75).

On 19 May 1760 Bishop Tamarón was received by the alcalde of Tomé with the citizens of this town, of Belén and of Isleta. Tomé was a new settlement of Spanish citizens that, according to Tamarón, had the potential of becoming the best in the kingdom because of its extensive lands and the ease of running an irrigation ditch from the river. He wrote that they were already building a church, which was 33 varas long by 8 wide with a transept and three altars, that was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Bishop Tamarón confirmed 402 persons that afternoon. He did not record the population of this settlement until later because it was included in the census of the town of Alburquerque, to which it was subordinate (Adams 1953:201). Lafora passed by Tomé on 14 August 1766 and wrote that it was also called “pueblo de la Limpia Concepción” and “Fuenclara.” He located it six leagues north of Las Nutrias on good, flat road and across the Río Grande from Belén. It contained a population of 70 Spanish vecinos and their families. The entire region was wellcultivated and small livestock grazed on ample pasture (Alessio Robles 1939:96).

Pike stayed near what he called “St. Thomas” on 9 March 1807. He reported that the population was 500 and that the camp was constructed to be able to withstand an attack (Coues 1895:II.628). Wislizenus noted the fine irrigated fields of Tomé, which, he wrote, was stretched along the road. He passed by on 21 July 1846 and camped nearby (Wislizenus 1848:35). Tomé was one of the main genízaro settlements of New Mexico in the middle of the eighteenth century (Chávez 1979:199).

Because of the shift in the bed of the Río Grande, there were two separate roads through the Tomé area. The earlier road ran directly east of Tomé Hill while the later went through the present plaza. Dan Scurlock, et al., Spiritual Land, Historical Land: Tome Hill, New Mexico. Brochure prepared by the Valley Improvement Association.

Tomé Hill, a natural landmark, served all travelers from prehistoric times into the historic period. A seventeenth-century road ran to the east of the hill. After the river changed its course in the early eighteenth century and the town was founded, the main road shifted to go along the valley and by the plaza.