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Shifting Landscapes: Sandia Peak Ski Area
Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service
This month, we're looking close to home. Visible from our office window in Albuquerque's North Valley, the communication towers atop Sandia Peak and the cables of the Sandia Peak Tramway mark the unmistakable silhouette that dominates our skyline.
While the Sandia Peak Ski Area and the Sandia Peak Tramway are now icons for Burqueños young and old, the story of this landscape is one of great efforts taken to make the land suitable for winter and summer recreation.
People from nearby Pueblos and their descendants have had a relationship with the Sandia Mountains from time immemorial. Excavation sites show evidence of sparse habitation in its foothills. Serving as a source of water and reliable fodder for hunting and foraging, the lower reaches of the mountains were relatively easy to access for the communities based along the Rio Grande. Following the Spanish Entrada, the Sandia Mountains and their foothills were mined and used for grazing and timber, with some small settlements like Las Huertas springing up along canyons and drainages. Advances in technology and an influx of settlers under American rule brought fortune-seekers to the Sandias and the nearby mineral-rich deposits. Golden and the Placer Mountains were a boom-town spurred by gold and minerals found nearby.
For centuries, the mountains were a vital source of food and resources. In a post-industrial America, though, a newly-established State of New Mexico was seen as a figurative gold mine in terms of recreation and conservation potential. With the establishment of the US Forest Service, and many of New Mexico's forests (including the first designated wilderness in the world, the Gila), logging and hunting continued, but the potential for recreation exploded with the adoption of the automobile. Suddenly a journey across a rough and rugged landscape was condensed to a leisurely cruise. In the height of the Great Depression, the Civilian Consevation Corps catered to this growing demand, establishing graded roads, picnic sites, campgrounds, and cabin facilities from the bottom to the top of the Sandias, culminating in the iconic Kiwanis Cabin at the peak.
With these few changes, Burqueños began flocking to the Sandias to explore their bountiful recreation opportunities year-round. After extensive clearing and pathmaking, the Albuquerque Ski Club established the area (then known as La Madera Ski Area) for public use. Visitation began to increase and upgrades to the site fed this demand steadily until the 1950s, when management of the area was transferred to the City of Albuquerque for a brief stint. Following its purchase by private owners, the area began expanding rapidly in the 60s and 70s. Lodges, amenities, and summer recreation opportunities transformed this once-rugged area to an easily accessible resort.
Following a turbulent reception by the public and the people of Sandia Pueblo, the Sandia Peak Tramway was completed in 1966 after thousands of helicopter trips to aid construction. This secured the ski area's spot in the "must-do" activities in Albuquerque and in the decades since has served as one of the main attractions in the Sandias.
While the Sandias may have lost much of their natural, untamed character, the Manzano Mountains to the south serve as the mirror image of the accessible and developed Sandias. With a handful of dirt roads and campgrounds dotting this range, the only way to access these peaks is through the trail system winding around the forest. Since 1978, the Manzano Mountain Wilderness has guaranteed that the Sandias' twin to the south remain roadless and wild.
See a quick flyover of the Manzanos below, with the designated wilderness outlined.
Further Reading:
Sandia Peak Ski Area 2016 Master Plan, via US Forest Service, Cibola National Forest.
Kiwanis Cabin and the CCC in New Mexico. US Forest Service, Cibola National Forest.
Ski Patrol History. Sandia Ski Patrol.
Franklin, Hayward H. Ancient Pueblitos of the Sandia Foothills, 2021. Maxwell Museum Technical Series no. 36. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.
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