Meet the three Brujas of Kit Carson Cemetery!

3 min read

2 years ago Leo S

Taos, New Mexico, is known for its natural beauty with its limpid skies, pure air and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that encircle it like a magic protection ring.
But there is also the magical element, with unexplainable happenings that are now part and parcel of the town history.
And no matter where we go in the area, as we can find spooky, creepy, and haunted places to visit, such as the Kit Carson Cemetery.

Even if the Kit Carson Memorial Historic Cemetery is believed to be haunted, this entire area is actually quite pretty, and a lovely space to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Considered one of the most beautiful cemeteries in New Mexico, it dates back to 1847 when the land was donated for burial of American soldiers and civilians who died during the 1847 Taos Rebellion.
Strolling through, keep an eye out for the many well-known individuals buried in this cemetery, including soldiers from the Indian Campaigns of the 1850s, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II.
And also Christopher “Kit” Houston Carson (Dec. 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868), buried next to his third wife, Josefa.
He was originally from Kentucky and was a mountain man and scout, known for helping to open up the West to settlement.

But, among the stately granite tombstones are also three unmarked concrete graves, set apart from all of the others.
According to a local legend, these graves hold the remains of three “brujas”, witches, who inflicted some kind of horrible evil on the community, although it seems that no one living can remember exactly what that was.
Whatever they did must have been bad though, because supposedly the graves are covered in concrete in order to seal off the spirits from the physical realm, thereby protecting the town from whatever, or whomever, is buried below.
Not by chance, their remains occupy a final resting place beneath adjoining asphalt/concrete-mix blocks of equal size, viewed as a symbolic sealing-off between the women and the physical realm, as no one wants their spirits to escape.
Whether you believe or not, the legend has led curious Taoseños to research the origins of the story.
While other inhabitants of Kit Carson Cemetery, are noted by name and plot, the only reference to the mysterious concrete graves lists their occupants vaguely as “Three Taos Women.”
Historically, even though the infamous 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, are better-known, also New Mexico had its own trials between 1756 and 1766.
Historians agree that witchcraft in the region generally referred to pagan or mystical beliefs outside the Catholic Church.
Colonial Spain, in fact, had brought Catholicism here in the centuries prior and, wanting to quell native religious practices, the Church labeled any native religious practices witchcraft and punished practitioners, often brutally.

In any case, any concrete evidence linking these three graves in Taos to such a history has been lost to time, if it ever existed at all.
But, whether we believe the three witches are buried in this cemetery or not, we recommend staying alert…