Abo Canyon

Abo Canyon (elevation 5771 ft.), also known as Abo Pass, is a mountain pass at the southern end of the Manzano Mountains of central New Mexico.

History

From pre-Columbian times, the pass provided the most direct trading route through the mountains between the plains Indians of the Estancia Valley to the east and the pueblo cultures of the middle valley of the Rio Grande to the west. The route these traders took led past Abo Pueblo, dating from the 14th century, strategically located near a cluster of springs on the eastern slope of the pass. The old footpath is now the Abo Pass Trail Scenic Byway (see External Links below).

The Spanish arrived in the 16th century, and used the pass as a route between the Rio Grande valley and the three “salt missions” they constructed northeast of the pass, now ruins preserved as part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.

Railroad

In the early 20th century, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad wished to find an alternative route to its existing mainline over Raton and Glorieta Passes, to avoid the gradients of up to 3.5% on these passes. The company surveyed a route through the Abo Canyon, which could be achieved with a gradient of no more than 1.25%. Known as the Belen Cutoff, the route was completed in 1908, connecting to the AT&SF system at Belen, New Mexico and at Amarillo, Texas. The Cutoff rapidly took on the bulk of the AT&SF’s transcontinental freight traffic (Most of the Santa Fe’s through passenger service remained on the old Raton Pass route, due to its connections in Colorado, as well as tourist traffic serving the railroad’s namesake city). Passenger service through Abo Canyon ceased in 1971 with the cancellation of the San Francisco Chief, when Amtrak took over all of the Santa Fe’s passenger operations.

Canyon

A gorge or canyon (cañon, old spelling occasionally still used) is a deep ravine between pairs of escarpments or cliffs and is the most often carved landscape by the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces so will eventually wear away rock layers to lessen their own pitch slowing their waters; given enough time, their bottoms will gradually reach a baseline elevation—which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This action, when the river source and mouth are at much different base elevations will form a canyon, particularly through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more resistant to weathering.

A canyon may also refer to a rift between two mountain peaks, such as those in ranges including the Rocky Mountains, the Alps, the Himalayas or the Andes. Usually a river or stream and erosion carve out such splits between mountains. Examples of mountain-type canyons are Provo Canyon in Utah or Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada. Canyons within mountains, or gorges that have an opening on only one side are called box canyons. Slot canyons are very narrow canyons, often with smooth walls.

Canyon (Paul Winter album)

Canyon is an album released in 1985 by Paul Winter, featuring his Paul Winter Consort. It was recorded in a small side canyon located in the Grand Canyon, which the members of the Consort nicknamed Bach's canyon, due to its 7 second reverberation, which made a perfect place to record music. The original idea of playing music in the canyon began when Winter played his saxophone while standing on the edge of the canyon, and felt that the long echoes coming back from the canyon almost seemed like the Earth was responding back to him.

Paul Winter and the members of his band rafted down the river searching for an ideal location to record, settling on Bach's canyon. Paul Winter has since gone back and recorded in the canyon for other albums.

Canyon was nominated for a Grammy in 1986.

Track listing

Personnel

Canyons (novel)

Canyons is a novel written by Gary Paulsen. It involves two boys - one lives in modern times (Brennan) while the other is an Indian boy (Coyote Runs) living nearly two hundred years ago.

Plot introduction

Canyons is a book about two boys. One boy is named Coyote Runs (age 14) and the other boy is Brennan Cole (age 15).

The story starts with Brennan making a short narrative about his life and switches back and forth from Brennan and Coyote Runs. Later in the story, the switching ends when Coyote Runs gets shot in the head during his first raid that would, if successful, will make him a man among his Apache tribe. However, he is shot by American soldiers and dies instantly. Nearly two hundred years later, Brennan finds his skull with a bullet hole in its forehead, and becomes obsessed with it. From that point on in the novel, a mystical link connects Brennan's mind with Coyote Runs' spirit. After talking to his old biology teacher, he runs sixty miles in a day and a night to return the skull to the top of a canyon - a place Coyote Runs calls his “medicine place." After a grueling run and a chase by Brennan's search party, he gets Coyote Runs' skull back to the medicine place, ending the bond and the novel.

Abo

Abo may refer to:

People

Places

Languages

Abbreviations

Abo (historic place)

Abo is a pueblo ruin in New Mexico that is preserved in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.

The Abó Ruins are located about 9 miles west of Mountainair, at about 6100 feet (1859 m) above sea level. They are said to date back to the 14th century. It was a major trading station during its time. There is a visitor contact station, a 0.25 mile (0.4 km) trail through the mission ruins, and a 0.5 mile (0.8 km) trail around the unexcavated pueblo ruins.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Abo is also the geological type locality for the Abo Formation, which is made up of sandstone red beds and is exposed to the northwest of the Abo ruins.

References

External links

Coordinates: 34°26′56″N 106°22′17″W / 34.44889°N 106.37139°W / 34.44889; -106.37139

Bankon language

e18/Bankon (Abo, Abaw, Bo, Bon) is a Bantu language spoken in the Moungo department of the Littoral Province of southwestern Cameroon. It has a lexical similarity of 86% with Rombi which is spoken in the nearby Meme department of Southwest Province.

Bankon is the endonym. Abo is an administrative name.

References