Following a few days spent at Santa Fe, N.M., from Oct. 9 to 12, 1846, the Mormon Battalion resumed its march toward the Pacific Ocean. Now, however, there was no Santa Fe Trail to follow.
Under the command of its new leader, Philip St. George Cook, it now had to blaze its own trail through basically uncharted wilderness.
Near present-day Albuquerque, N.M., the Battalion began following the Rio Grande, which runs south out of Colorado. The 20-foot monument seen here is situated near that site. It once stood southwest of Albuquerque, but it was taken down and stored several decades ago when U.S. 85 became Interstate 25. It was subsequently reassembled on its present site, which is located just off Interstate 25 between the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.