CAOS International 2002

Conference | Surgical Academy | Included Social Events | Wild Wild West BBQ

Welcome Reception - Inn at Loretto
(included in registration fee)
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

211 Old Santa Fe Trail
The Inn at Loretto was built on the site of a former Catholic academy established by the Sisters of Loretto in 1853. The hotel's architecturally stunning adobe design rises like a mesa in sensitive unison with the small, but still active Loretto Chapel. The Chapel is home to the "miraculous" staircase. Legend states that upon completion of the church a century and a half ago, the Sisters of Loretto realized that there was no way to gain access to the twenty-foot choir loft in the rear of the structure. The Sisters made a Novena (a prayer repeated for nine days) to Saint Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, with hopes of a solution. Legend has it that on the ninth day of the Novena, a white-bearded man, carrying his tool case and walking a donkey, arrived at the convent door looking for work. Over eight months, he created an ingenious spiral staircase composed of two 360-degree turns, absent of a center post for support, and lacking nails or wooden pegs to secure the structure. The identity of the miraculous carpenter was never known and he departed without seeking payment.

Conference Banquet - Palace of the Governors
(included in registration fee)
Friday, June 21, 2002
8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

105 West Palace Avenue
It is the first structure built in Santa Fe after its founding, the Palace is the oldest public building in continuous use in the United States. It served as the capitol until after the 1860's. Beleaguered Spanish defended themselves in the Palace during a 10-day siege in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The first American to see Santa Fe, Zebulon M. Pike, was interrogated as a spy there in 1807. Confederate forces used the Palace as their headquarters for a few weeks in 1862 and Territorial Governor Lew Wallace wrote most of Ben Hur there during his term from 1878 to 1881. The Palace, or El Palacio as it's often called, was transformed into the main structure of the Museum of New Mexico in 1913 and is now a history museum. Like the Santa Fe Plaza, the Palace was made a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

See also Wild, Wild, West BBQ
(This is a ticketed event and is not included in registration fee)
Saturday, June 22, 2002
5:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.