Exploring, learning in Tijeras
Two museums in Tijeras let visitors peek into military life in the near past and pueblo life even farther back in time
Within the eastern gateway to Albuquerque, sleepy little Tijeras Canyon guards the pass between the Sandia and Manzano mountain ranges.
The town of Tijeras has a few under-the-radar sites that are worth exploring.
The Museum of the American Military Family and Learning Center (museumoftheamericanmilitaryfamily.org), for instance, may be a one-of-a-kind resource, founder and director Circe Woessner said.
“It’s very unique,” she said. “We’re telling the military story through the perspective of the family.”
Set up in a house, there are four permanent displays; the museum is open weekends.
“Sacrifice & Service: The American Military Family” was the first major exhibit for the museum, she said, and it displays the concepts of pride, sacrifice and service, which are a part of every American military family. Among the exhibits are letters dating back to World War I.
“Schooling With Uncle Sam” uses quotes, photos, documents and artifacts gathered from around the world from former students, teachers, administrators, and military personnel to describe how children learned in Department of Defense schools, Woessner said.
“Perspectives” is a traveling exhibit of 25 photos and quotes about military life and “GI Jokes” is a rather lighthearted peek into military life through humor and cartoons, she said.
Because the museum is in a house, the facility is set as a home with military furniture, toys and clothing.
“So you can open a cupboard door and pull out a coffee cup that has Stuttgart, Germany, on it,” Woessner said.
A military wife and mom, Woessner came up with the idea a number of years ago and opened the museum in 2011.
“While my son was serving a combat tour of Iraq, I was thinking about him and was worried whether he was going to be safe, just like every mom out there,” she said. “This is what links us military families together. We have been sitting around worrying about loved ones, and this is what brings us genera-
tionally together.”
She was inspired to try to put something together.
“I’m an educator, and it started out as a project, got some friends and some military brats and some vets,” Woessner said. “We pretty much have cobbled it together. Because a lot of us have an education background, it worked.”
The Tijeras area was also once home to Native Americans; the Tijeras Pueblo (friendsoftijeraspueblo.org), was occupied from 1313 to 1425, said Judy Vredenburg, education coordinator of the Tijeras Pueblo Museum.
Although the pueblo was covered up after its last excavation to preserve the adobe construction, the museum behind the Sandia Ranger Station in Tijeras does a good job of detailing it, she said.
“The exhibits largely try to portray the life of the people in a 14th century mountain village,” Vredenburg said. “It’s considered an ancestral pueblo, so we consulted with the Pueblo of Isleta cultural committee to be sure that we are giving proper information and not being culturally insensitive in any way.”
The museum has some reproductions of artifacts and artifacts whose provenance is unknown, as well as an exhibit on archaeology and a life-size reproduction of a pueblo room showing the types of construction used.
Behind the museum is a one-third-mile trail leading to the village site with interpretive signs developed by the archaeologist who did the last excavation.
“The signs are pointing out certain features of the village, including one that says there was a pit house on the site. It was the first dwelling on the site,” Vredenburg said. “It also points out a malachite mine that you can see from the trail. And it points out various aspects of the earlier pueblo.”
Tijeras also is home to an iconic night spot. Molly’s Bar has been a town landmark since 1952 and features live entertainment virtually every night of the week except for Sundays. Artist jams, bluegrass, country and western and rock ’n’ roll all spill from its outdoor patio.