Dark Routes Ep. 3: The Carvings of El Morro

Come along for the ride on my solo motorcycle trip. Latest episode of travel documentation out now!

Special thanks to Vanson Leathers for suiting me up. The best riding gear, handmade right here in the USA:

And to Vicissitude Leather for my custom one-of-a-kind handmade equipment harness and holster:

[NotADuck]

I showed my APUSH teacher this series and he made it a required assignment, he said “the history of the US isn’t just about the Americans who showed up late it’s also about the people who came before and we’re here first” he also liked your sense of humor so do with that what you will. 😂

[VulpineDemon]

You know it'll be a good one when Milo introduces himself twice.

[janellapalm]

Don't know why, but "The only thing worse than drinking stagnant pond water is DYING OF THIRST" sent me into fits of laughter

[cavalaxis]

So I looked up the inscription from 1692: "Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas who conquered for our Holy Faith, and for the Royal Crown, all of New Mexico at his own expense, year of 1692" Jerk was salty he had to pay for his own conquest.

I'm loving this series, Milo. I bet you had an amazing time out there. Keep it coming!

[tomasquintero]

Hi Milo! I'm a forester out of Northern Arizona and took enough American Indian Studies classes I could have minored in it, but anyways just a small ecological correction; at ~7600 ft elevation it totally makes sense for alot of the site to have been forested historically. At those elevations on the Colorado plateau, it likely could've been refered to as "Ponderosa Savannah" where Ponderosas and fire adapted grasses would've been the dominant plants with fire selecting out non fire adapted plants. Those steep rock outcroppings with little to understory would've made a great refugia for non-fire adapted plants as well. During the last ice age this site likely hosted even higher elevation mixed conifer forests with old bristle cones being a co-dominant component of the ecosystem.

[AmyStrikesBack]

I kinda love how milo doesn't sugar coat the american history, thing that allways messes with me, as someone who lives in a country that also was colonized but the history class don't sugar coat it

[rachicolate]

As a New Mexico resident, can I just say I’ve been SO happy to see our history, culture, and landscape highlighted by your recent videos. NM often gets reduced to just Roswell, Los Alamos, and Breaking Bad, but we have so much more to offer than that. We have the oldest continuously used settlement in America! We have some of the most well-preserved petroglyphs in the country, if not the continent. We have THE oldest state capital in the US! We’re so much more than grey aliens and atom bombs, and it’s so nice to see that being appreciated here

[eddiehumetewa]

I went there in 5th grade!! Im full blodded Pueblo from several different villages and my dad and I were allowed to go in and pray at the Kiva towards the top! It was truly humbling to see what and where my people came from and it still being recognizable as part of our culture.

[kristienp]

The graphic designer who did the wagon bit deserves a raise and maybe a medal. You gave me a good giggle.
Thank you 🙏 😂 🏹🎯🫏💨 🏃‍♀️💨

[robertnett]

20:30 - about the 'they once used graphite to keep those carvinvs readable - but then stopped because it was a bad idea' thing - we are at a point where archeologists not only search for remnants of old civilisations - but also analyze early attempts and methodes of archeology itself. "How did our ancestors do archeology"... that's kinda meta :D

[PalmelaHanderson]

Huh. I was doing a bit of familial history, and I've actually been curious about why, around the end of the 17th century, it seems like almost all of my ancestors from New Mexico seemingly went back to Mexico for a little while. I had no idea. That puts a lot into perspective that the white settlers were kicked out for a time.

[capitalistraven]

This series is so ambitious. It rivals projects with multiple times the budget with full cast and crew. Takes me longer to watch because I don't just want it to play in the background, I want to absorb it.

[yuliaclematis]

I'm amazed how those carvings survived to this day. Sure, some might have been lost to time, but so many remain. Also, how the ancient markings weren't destroyed by more recent passersby. They could've easily chiseled away the ancient carvings, but the desire to leave their own name instead won

[brianroberts]

So, one thing worth mentioning is that there actually used to be far more inscriptions on El Morro. However, in the 1950s, park rangers ground off many of the inscriptions. Ostensibly, this was to remove any carvings from after its designation as a National Monument in 1906, but the rangers weren't particularly careful, removing many of the older carvings simply because they didn't recognize the names. Supposedly, this included the inscription by famed frontiersman Kit Carson. I've actually heard 2 versions of why Carson's name was removed. The first is that the ranger who removed his name did so because he didn't recognize the full name Christopher H. Carson, but other sources claim that the ranger in question was Diné and removed Carson's name intentionally as a sort of revenge for Carson's involvement in the relocation of Native Americans.

[NiLA_ll]

The biggest "I was here" site, I love it, this is just so human 😂

[MrWordcat]

Milo & team, this series is seriously blowing my mind. Thank you all for all the hard work and effort yall put in to teach us about a part of the country rarely taught about OR talked about!

[derekcraig]

It's important to note that Ponderosa Pines have survived constant fire regimes in their native habits for millions of years. In fact the bark of a Ponderosa is extremely fire resistant (almost fire proof). While Pinion and Juniper get killed by fire, sufficiently tall Ponderosas will thrive in fire-swept landscapes

[alekazam]

If you ever come back to visit NM/ABQ, come say hi! Keep making great content!😁

[zenfrodo]

23:32 for such a serious topic, I laughed my ass off at the animation. Kudos to whoever on your team did that!

[martinbassi]

The videos like this you post are more informative and are of a higher quality than what I have seen on PBS and even BBC documentaries.