El Rancho de las Golondrinas (LG) is the southwest’s premiere living history museum. Set on over 500 acres of pristine land in the La Cienega Valley south of Santa Fe, LG was a paraje – stopping place – along El Camino Real. People heading north from Mexico City or south from Santa Fe would make this their first or last stop on their route. Recently named to the National Register of Historic Places, the museum features 34 historic buildings, agricultural fields, an historic acequia (waterway), hundred year-old cottonwoods and a landscape unlike any other in New Mexico.
The mission of El Rancho de Las Golondrinas is to preserve the legacy of the land and the cultural traditions of New Mexico.
More About El Rancho de Las Golondrinas
Each year, from June through October, over 54,000 visitors – including 20,000 children under 18 – explore the landscape and learn from costumed interpreters stationed throughout the property. Guests are encouraged to get hands-on with history, trying their hand at hide tanning, wool carding, tortilla making and other lifeways from the area’s past. Our Festival Weekends give guests a more in-depth look into the growing season, starting with our Spring Festival in June. The weekend starts with a mass to bless the fields where heirloom crops including corn, squash, chile and more will grow throughout the season. Artisans and artists sell their wares and live dancers and musicians perform throughout the weekend, which also features live demonstrations of sheep shearing. Throughout the season, different activities will be highlighted, including grape growing/winemaking, foods native to New Mexico, hops growing/beer making, traditional dances and games, harvesting of the agricultural fields storytelling about New Mexico’s past.
How You Can Help
The best way to participate is to become a member of El Rancho de Las Golondrinas. Our members get free admission every day that we are open, and get to come to many or all of the festival weekends for free, depending on the level of membership. Go to https://golondrinas.org/membership/ to learn more. If you’re not quite ready for membership, we open for daily visits in early June and all of our festival weekend tickets go on sale on or around April. We hope to see you next year!
Donations to Las Golondrinas help to support our educational and outreach programs that reach over 20,000 schoolchildren each year; care and feeding of our churro sheep, goats and burros; upkeep and preservation of our beautiful, pristine 500-acre campus and more.
To donate, visit https://golondrinas.org/support/.
Story and Photography by El Rancho de Las Golondinas
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