Tomé Hill crosses, family preserves Valencia County pilgrimage tradition

The three crosses on Tomé Hill rise from the ridge like a public promise that has to be kept. Since Edwin Berry dedicated them in 1948, his family has carried the work of preserving the site, the ritual, and the memory tied to one of Valencia County’s most visible landmarks.

A landmark above the valley floor

Tomé Hill stands about 400 feet above the Rio Grande floodplain, roughly 10 miles south of Isleta Pueblo and about one-half mile east of the junction of NM 47 and Tomé Hill Road. The National Park Service places it within El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and on the National Register of Historic Places, which makes the hill more than a local landmark on a skyline of sand, mesa, and distant mountain edges.

The site’s meaning also reaches beyond a single faith tradition. The National Park Service describes Tomé Hill as a place of multicultural spirituality that stretches from precontact times to the present, and the hillside still carries petroglyphs that span from 3000 BC through the 17th century. At the summit, visitors find a shrine where rosaries, religious quotes, and other offerings collect over time, turning the top of the hill into a living record of devotion rather than a static monument.

Why the pilgrimage still draws people

Each pilgrimage season, Tomé Hill becomes a place where religion and community meet in plain view. A 2024 Albuquerque Journal report described walkers arriving before sunrise, climbing with crosses, and leaving rosaries at the summit. Some pilgrims also brought photographs of deceased relatives, while others came to pray for healing, a reminder that the hill functions as a site for grief, hope, and family memory at once.

That mix of personal need and communal ritual is part of what keeps the hill relevant to Valencia County. The prayers are private, but the climb is public, and the site still pulls people from across the region who treat the ascent as both a spiritual act and a community gathering. The Chavez brothers have handed out rosaries at Tomé Hill for 30 years, a detail that shows how the tradition is sustained by more than one family and more than one generation of volunteers.

The Berry family’s ongoing stewardship

The Berry family’s role is not a ceremonial one. It is the labor of maintaining a tradition that depends on constant attention, from protecting the crosses’ place on the hill to preserving the stories attached to them. The National Park Service notes that Edwin Berry spearheaded the permanent placement of the crosses and shrine, and the family’s continued involvement has kept that decision from fading into a historical footnote.

The Tomé Hill Project Archive at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus Library shows how deeply that stewardship runs. The archive includes a 29-disc set of Edwin Berry recordings and about 50 hours of original interviews with six founding families, recorded from 1979 to 1981 and digitized in 2001. Those recordings preserve Berry singing and telling stories, which helps explain why the hill is not only remembered but actively maintained in local culture.

The archive work itself also reflects how much effort was required to document the place before memory slipped away. The historical survey behind the project was compiled in 1995 by Pauline Jaramillo with University of New Mexico and Valencia County partners, and it was funded in part by a $34,000 State Highway and Transportation Department grant. In other words, keeping Tomé Hill alive has taken money, documentation, and family participation, not just faith.

Older histories still visible on the hill

The crosses on top of Tomé Hill sit on ground with a much older timeline. The National Park Service says Isleta Pueblo residents used the hill as a landmark and held ceremonies there until the early 20th century, which ties the site to Native observance long before the modern pilgrimage took shape. The hill’s petroglyphs, spanning from 3000 BC through the 17th century, show how long people have marked and used this landscape.

Spanish colonization added another layer. In 1659, Tomé Domínguez de Mendoza received a royal land grant and built a home near Tomé Hill, and the nearby village of Tomé, about two miles southwest, helped shape the hill’s later Hispano identity. That layered history is why the hill carries such strong meaning across communities: Native, Hispano, Catholic, and family traditions all overlap on the same rise above the valley floor.

What to know if you go

Tomé Hill is open year-round for recreation and meditation, and Tomé Hill Park offers limited wheelchair access. That makes the site relevant outside Holy Week, whether you are going for a quiet visit, a family walk, or a steep climb with a purpose.

During Holy Week 2026, which ran from Sunday, March 29, to Sunday, April 5, pilgrims were asked not to bring animals, not to leave additional crosses, and to avoid vendors on the hill. Land grant personnel may remove crosses left behind, and visitors are told to use caution on the climb.

A few practical points matter for anyone planning a visit:

• The hill is a working pilgrimage site, not just a lookout.

• The summit shrine already carries many offerings, so leave the area as you found it.

• Expect a steep climb from the valley floor and limited accessibility at the park.

• Respect the rules on animals, extra crosses, and vending, especially during Holy Week.

Those rules underline the larger reality at Tomé Hill: keeping the crosses visible means managing a place that still belongs to a living tradition. The hill matters because people keep climbing it, families keep tending it, and Valencia County keeps recognizing it as one of the places where memory, faith, and landscape meet.