The Abó Pass Road-The Shell Road New Orleans

The road up from the Rio Abajo area of the Rio Grande valley that leads to Manzano, was built by the folks from Manzano, it made its way up through Abó Pass. Giving access to the main trade route through New Mexico, The Camino Real. The folks produced sufficient goods to sell that necessitated a robust trading community; freighters traveled widely, following the Camino Real down to Chihuahua or the other way as far as St. Louis Missouri by way of the Santa Fe Trail.

I have collected a couple of articles that speak to one subject you might be interested in:

Los Puertos de Abó

By 1853, at least, the road through Abó pass was one of the best in New Mexico. Carleton says "these passes are known, in the language of the country, as Los Puertos de Abó. The summit of the right hand pass is 19 miles and 63 yards from Casa Colorada, and lies east twenty degrees south from that town. The road for this whole distance is by far the finest we had seen in New Mexico, and is not surpassed, in any point of excellence, by the celebrated shell road at New Orleans;" Major James H. Carleton, "Diary of an excursion to the ruins of Abo, Quarra, and Gran Quivira, in New Mexico, under the Command of Major James Henry Carleton, U.S.A. "Ninth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution." (Washington, D.C.: Beverley Tucker, Senate Printer, 1855), p. 299.

Pasted from: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/sapu/hsr/hsrn.htm

The Shell Road

The famous "Shell Road" is one of the specialties of New Orleans. It extends for about six miles back to Lake Pontchartrain. The road is built upon piles, by which it is raised a few feet above the swamp. Its surface is composed of the shells of a species of clam, of which vast embankments are found on the lake. These are ground down and packed together by the pressure of innumerable wheels and hoofs, into a compact body as white, and almost as firm, as solid marble. It furnishes one of the most delightful drives in the world.

[From the Harpers Weekly, March 30, 1861]

Pasted from: https://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/march/new-orleans.htm>