10,000 visitors took Indian Detours in 1926; a new tour revives the route

The Fred Harvey Company recorded 10,000 travelers on Indian Detours excursions in 1926 alone. That figure represents half the population of Santa Fe County at the time. A century later, Elmer Torres and his wife Deborah are reimagining those tours under their company, Passport to Pueblo Country.

The original Indian Detours launched in 1926 out of La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe. The Harvey Company operated the hotel after purchasing the Exchange Hotel in 1924. Before the detours, the company had already bought Koshare Tours in 1921 from journalist Erna Fergusson. Fergusson hired eight women, including Amelia McFie and Elizabeth DeHuff, to serve as couriers. These women guided one to three-day automobile trips to sites like Puye Cliff Dwellings and San Ildefonso Pueblo.

The early tours were designed to keep visitors in Harvey Company hotels longer as train travel declined. Itineraries linked stops at other Harvey Houses, such as La Castañeda in Las Vegas and the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. Marketing materials from the era described the interactions as limited. One brochure noted that white men were admitted to see strange dances at Santa Domingo Pueblo. Exhibits at Northern Arizona University described the experience as taking in natives like an exhibit with accompanying brochure text.

Elmer Torres spent nearly four decades at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He served as the tribal liaison director in the government relations office. He also served as governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo and as a tribal council member. After retiring, he and Deborah, a real estate agent, opened Than Povi Fine Art Gallery at the pueblo. Tour groups began visiting the gallery, which led Deborah to research tour costs. The couple launched their own tours 15 years ago.

In August of this year, the Torreses received a small American Express grant. They used the funds to purchase a tour van. This vehicle solved a previous barrier where out-of-town guests had to drive themselves to destinations. The company now offers one-day and multi-day tours to locations including Taos and Acoma Pueblos. They partnered with La Fonda on the Plaza to mark the centennial of the Indian Detours this year.

During a recent tour, the group traveled north from Santa Fe to Tsankawi. This site is a detached area of Bandelier National Park. Torres led the group up a narrow stone path to a mesa-top village. He pointed out petroglyphs of four-fingered beings and water serpents. He also showed the group pottery sherds made of micaceous clay. Torres said the location feels more like the ancestral era because visitors walk on natural lands rather than paved trails.

The group then returned to the Torres home in San Ildefonso Pueblo. Deborah served beans, posole, calabacitas, and red and green chile enchiladas. Elmer retold the story of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Later, Madeline E. Naranjo gave a pottery demonstration in the living room. She showed how she mixes chocolate-colored clay and volcanic ash. Naranjo learned from her grandmother, who stopped potting at age 98. Naranjo has a 34-year career and has appeared at Indian Market.

Naranjo’s aunt recalled that busloads of Indian Detours guests used to arrive at the pueblo. Artists would form a semicircle around the bus and call out that pottery was for sale. Tourists often paid only pennies or a dollar for the family’s creations. Naranjo said her grandmother noted that she was lucky to be potting in the current era.

The group finished at Black Mesa, a historical landmark in the tribe’s history. During the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico in 1693, people of San Ildefonso Pueblo lived on the mesa top for more than a year to hold off Spanish soldiers. Elmer Torres pointed to the ravines used to sneak supplies to the mesa top. He noted that the original tour passengers often disembarked at the pueblo, took photos with locals, and departed within minutes.

Kathleen Dull, a librarian at the New Mexico History Museum, organizes the annual Fred Harvey History Weekend. She noted that the original price point allowed ordinary neighbors to travel alongside royalty and celebrities. The next step for Passport to Pueblo Country is continuing these reimagined excursions for the remainder of the centennial year.