The first non-Indian building at the present-day site of Jemez Springs was the mission of San José de los Guisewa, located just north of the Village Plaza. The first mission was established in 1598 and then abandoned the next year. The Spanish returned to build a church in 1620-21 at the site of a large pueblo named Guisewa, which was one of many constructed of stone throughout the canyon and on the mesa tops. The mission consisted of a church and convento (priests’ quarters), now the ruins we see today at Jemez Historic Site, formerly known as Jemez State Monument. This mission was abandoned in 1630 and remained unoccupied for more than 200 years.
