Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/192

 114 STAT. 1074 PUBLIC LAW 106-307 —OCT. 13, 2000 Public Law 106-307 106th Congress An Act Oct. 13, 2000 [S. 366] El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail Act. New Mexico. Texas. 16 USC 1241 note. To amend the National Trails System Act to designate El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro as a National Historic Trail. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the "El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail Act". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road of the Interior), served as the primary route between the colonial Spanish capital of Mexico City and the Spanish provincial capitals at San Juan de Los Caballeros (1598-1600), San Gabriel (1600-1609) and then Santa Fe (1610-1821). (2) The portion of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro that resided in what is now the United States extended between El Paso, Texas and present San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, a distance of 404 miles; (3) El Camino Real is a symbol of the cultural interaction between nations and ethnic groups and of the commercial exchange that made possible the development and growth of the borderland; (4) American Indian groups, especially the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande, developed trails for trade long before Europeans arrived; (5) In 1598, Juan de Oiiate led a Spanish military expedition along those trails to establish the northern portion of El Camino Real; (6) During the Mexican National Period and part of the United States Territorial Period, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro facilitated the emigration of people to New Mexico and other areas that would become the United States; (7) The exploration, conquest, colonization, settlement, religious conversion, and military occupation of a large area of the borderlands was made possible by this route, whose historical period extended from 1598 to 1882;

�