The Taos Plaza and the streets radiating from it form the National Historic District of Taos, in a valley that has been a major trade and travel route for at least the past 9,000 years. The ancestors of the Pueblo people, commonly known as the Anasazi, were the first permanent inhabitants of the valley, with room blocks and pit houses present since 900 AD, small above-ground structures of 50 to 100 rooms appearing around 1200 AD, and Taos Pueblo constructed around 1450 AD as a multi-story complex. At the arrival of Europeans, all of Taos Valley was in the domain of Taos Pueblo Indians. In 1540 Francisco De Coronado led an expedition into New Mexico seeking gold and silver, but after strong Pueblo resistance no further expeditions were authorized until 1598, when Don Juan de Onate established a colonial capital at the current San Juan Pueblo. During the 1600s the Spanish strengthened their control in Taos Valley and settled in large plantations bordering the Rio Grand River, but battles and revolts continued between the two cultures, and Spanish civil government was not reestablished in the valley until 1715. After that, Spanish priorities shifted to permanent settlement, and Hispano settlers traded extensively with Pueblo and other Indian neighbors, introduced fruits, vegetables, and livestock, expanded abandoned Pueblo irrigation systems as acequias, learned mud-and-timber building from the Pueblos, and shared adobe brick molds and horno ovens brought from Spain. The Spanish land grant system blended with Pueblo tradition and evolved into the central plaza and surrounding buildings and churches for which the Taos Valley is known. After periods of Mexican rule, the area was claimed as a United States territory in 1846, became an official New Mexico territory in 1850, and Taos became a county in 1852. The valley flourished as a regional trade center, and in 1898 Ernest Blumenshein and Bert Phillips stayed after breaking down north of Taos, helping draw other artists; in 1915 six artists formed the Taos Society of Artists, and figures such as Mabel Dodge Luhan and D.H. Lawrence further enriched the community’s social and intellectual life. Taos came to be known worldwide as a place of artistic inspiration, and its history is one of change, adaptation, and the integration of three cultures that continue to shape life there.