Some 21 miles south across the Rio Grande from San Marcial is Valverde Battlefield, scene of the first Civil War engagement in New Mexico. Confederate forces led by Gen. H.H. Sibley beat back Union troops from nearby Fort Craig in a daylong battle in February 1862, and went on to occupy Albuquerque. Eroded remnants of the fort survive and are accessible by way of a 5-mile gravel road; the battlefield, however, is not.
San Antonio is the birthplace of famed hotelier Conrad Hilton. The ruins of the Hilton family's mercantile boardinghouse and home are at Sixth and Main streets, west of SR 1 and 1 mile south of US 380.