Tiwa-speaking Pueblo people have lived in the Taos Valley since approximately 900 AD. The multistory adobe structures at Taos Pueblo are estimated to have been built between 1000 and 1450 AD, making them among the oldest continuously occupied buildings in North America. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark.

The people who built and inhabit Taos Pueblo call themselves the Red Willow People. The village was organized around agriculture, trade, and a ceremonial calendar that still governs community life today. Blue Lake, high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is the sacred source of the Rio Pueblo de Taos that runs through the village, and remains central to Pueblo religious life.

Spanish soldiers under Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition first entered the Taos Valley in 1540. The Pueblo stood much as it does now. Spanish colonization of New Mexico deepened after 1598 under Juan de Onate, bringing missionaries, land grants, forced labor, and conflict into the valley.

The mission church at Taos Pueblo, the ruins of which are still visible on the site, was built in the early 1600s and destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The Pueblo Revolt was a coordinated uprising of Pueblo peoples across New Mexico that drove the Spanish out of the territory for twelve years. It was one of the most successful Indigenous rebellions in North American history. The Spanish returned in 1692 under Diego de Vargas and re-established colonial rule.

Spanish and later Mexican settlers established the farming villages of the Taos Valley, including Ranchos de Taos, during the colonial period. The acequia irrigation system they brought from Moorish Spain integrated with existing Pueblo water management and continues to govern water use in the valley today. San Francisco de Asis Church in Ranchos de Taos was completed in 1816 and remains an active parish.

The Taos trade fair was one of the most important commercial events in the Southwest from the 18th century onward, drawing Pueblo peoples, Plains tribes, Spanish settlers, and later Anglo traders to exchange goods. Taos became a hub for the fur trade and mountain man culture in the early 19th century. Kit Carson, the scout and frontiersman, settled in Taos in 1826 and lived there until his death in 1868. His home is now a museum on Kit Carson Road.

When Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, New Mexico became Mexican territory and trade with the United States opened. The Santa Fe Trail, running from Missouri to Santa Fe, brought American merchants and settlers into the region. Taos was a northern terminus of this trade network.

The United States took New Mexico from Mexico during the Mexican-American War. General Stephen Kearny claimed the territory in 1846. Charles Bent was appointed the first American governor of New Mexico and took up residence in Taos. In January 1847, Taos Pueblo members and Hispano allies killed Bent and several other American officials in what became known as the Taos Revolt. The uprising was suppressed by U.S. forces who shelled the Pueblo church where the rebels had taken refuge. The ruins of that church remain on the site.

New Mexico remained a territory for sixty-four years before achieving statehood in 1912, the last of the contiguous states to do so.

In 1898, painters Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips were traveling from Denver toward Mexico when a wagon wheel broke on the road north of Taos. Blumenschein rode into town to find a blacksmith. Phillips stayed permanently. They spread word of the valley's light, landscapes, and Pueblo life among East Coast artistic circles.

By 1915, enough painters had settled in Taos to form the Taos Society of Artists, which ran until 1927 and brought national and international attention to the area. Mabel Dodge Luhan, a wealthy New York socialite, arrived in 1917, married Tony Lujan of Taos Pueblo, and began inviting writers, artists, and intellectuals to the valley. Her guests included D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, and Carl Jung.

The art colony never really ended. Galleries, museums, and working studios remain central to Taos life and its economy. The Harwood Museum, founded in 1923, is the second-oldest art museum in New Mexico.

Taos Ski Valley opened in 1955 under Swiss skier Ernie Blake, transforming the town's economy and drawing a winter visitor base that still defines the ski season. In 1970, after a sixty-four-year legal fight, President Nixon signed legislation returning Blue Lake and 48,000 acres of sacred land to Taos Pueblo. It was a landmark Native land return and remains a point of pride in the valley.

Dennis Hopper arrived in 1970, fresh from Easy Rider, and bought Mabel Dodge Luhan's house. Counterculture communes appeared in the hills. Architect Michael Reynolds began building Earthships on the mesa west of town in the early 1970s. The off-grid community he started now spans 630 acres and more than 100 structures.

Taos today has a population of roughly 6,500, a major ski resort, a concentration of galleries and museums, and the living Pueblo community that predates all of it.

• ~900 AD Tiwa-speaking people settle the Taos Valley.
• 1000-1450 Current Taos Pueblo structures built.
• 1540 Spanish soldiers enter the valley under Coronado's expedition.
• 1598 Spanish colonization of New Mexico under Juan de Onate.
• 1680 Pueblo Revolt drives Spanish from New Mexico for 12 years.
• 1692 Spanish return under Diego de Vargas.
• 1816 San Francisco de Asis Church completed in Ranchos de Taos.
• 1821 Mexican independence; New Mexico becomes Mexican territory.
• 1826 Kit Carson settles in Taos.
• 1846 U.S. takes New Mexico during Mexican-American War.
• 1847 Taos Revolt; Governor Bent killed; U.S. forces suppress uprising.
• 1898 Blumenschein and Phillips discover Taos; art colony begins.
• 1912 New Mexico achieves statehood.
• 1915 Taos Society of Artists founded.
• 1917 Mabel Dodge Luhan arrives; begins bringing writers and artists.
• 1923 Harwood Museum founded.
• 1955 Taos Ski Valley opens under Ernie Blake.
• 1960 Taos Pueblo designated National Historic Landmark.
• 1970 Blue Lake and 48,000 acres returned to Taos Pueblo. Dennis Hopper arrives.
• 1992 Taos Pueblo designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Taos Culture Guide
• Taos Pueblo Guide
• Taos Art Colony
• Taos Museums
• Taos Travel Guide
• Things To Do