"In the heart of Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, stands an adobe church, recently restored to commemorate the town's Spanish colonial heritage. Founded in the early 18th century as a Roman Catholic mission, the church of St. Francis of Assisi retains many of its original paintings, altar screens, pieces of silverwork, and Santos—wooden statues carved by the Spanish settlers."
(Text from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book The Majestic Rocky Mountains, 1976)
