The Colfax County Courthouse in

Springer, New Mexico Springer is a town in Colfax County, New Mexico, Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 1,047 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History In 1877, William T Thornton, representing the Maxwell Land Grand and Rai ...

, is a building on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

that was used as a seat of

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

government for Colfax County,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

from 1881 until 1897. The building is located at 614 Maxwell Avenue, Springer, NM 87747, and today it houses a museum devoted to the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...

. The building was placed on the National Register in 1987.

Building

The arrival of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad caused the county seat of Colfax County to be moved from Cimarron to what would become Springer in 1881. The construction of a new

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

began in 1879. The building was constructed in Second Empire Style, and is a typical New Mexico Territorial courthouse. The symmetrical, two-story building has a pitched roof, arched windows, and projecting three-story tower. The courtroom was on the second floor, with the judge's chambers in the rear. A single brick jail cell was later added at the back of the building.

History

In 1885, the courthouse lawn was the site of one of the last gun battles of the

Colfax County War The Colfax County War was a range war that occurred from 1873 to 1888 between settlers and the new owners of the Maxwell Land Grant in Colfax County, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The war started when the new landowners tried to remove the lo ...

. In 1897, as the result of a referendum and legislative action, the county seat was moved from Springer to Raton, forty miles to the north. The county clerk in Springer refused to release the county records until officials removed them by force. From 1910 to 1917, the courthouse was the first home of the New Mexico Reform School, which was later renamed the New Mexico Industrial School for Boys. After that, the courthouse was the site of the municipal offices and the Springer Public Library. In 1965, Springer residents voted to make the building into a museum devoted to the history of the

Building

History

See also

References

Further reading