Geography has conspired to make Gallup, New Mexico, a special place with
unique people and a colorful history. It has been a place of struggle
and extremes where cultures have clashed, mixed, and melded. Gallup is a
community that is simultaneously challenging and uplifting,
heartrending, and redemptive. To local Native Americans, the Navajo and
Pueblo people, Gallup is located on their ancestral homeland and
bordered by their sacred sites. To early settlers, Gallup was a place
that permitted transportation across the continent, first by foot and
horseback, then by stagecoach and railroad, and ultimately, by America's
Mother Road, Route 66. With its founding, Gallup became a place where
European, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants--with hands that built
America--came to construct a transcontinental rail line, harvest timber,
mine coal, and establish businesses, while seeking a new life among the
region's original native people.