Nutrioso is an unincorporated community and
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
(CDP) in
Apache County
Apache County is in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Shaped in a long rectangle running north to south, as of the 2020 census, its population was 66,021. The county seat is St. Johns.
Most of the county is occupied by part ...
,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, United States. Nutrioso is located on
U.S. Route 180
U.S. Route 180 is an east–west United States highway. Like many three-digit routes, US 180 no longer meets its "parent", US 80. US 80 was decommissioned west of Mesquite, Texas, and was replaced in Texas by Interstate 20 and Interstate 1 ...
and
U.S. Route 191
U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for from the north ...
, south-southeast of
Eagar
Eagar is a town in Apache County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 4,885.
Eagar was first settled in 1871.
History
Brothers William Walter John Thomas and Joel Sixtus settled the area under the dir ...
. Nutrioso has a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
with
ZIP code 85932. As of the
2010 census, the population was 26.
History
Nutrioso's name is derived from the
Spanish word ''
Nutria
The nutria (''Myocastor coypus''), also known as the coypu, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent.
Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, ''Myocastor'' is now included within Echimyidae, the family of t ...
'' ("
Otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
"). The early Spanish colonists referred to
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
as "nutria", perhaps because the
Eurasian beaver
The Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber'') or European beaver is a beaver species that was once widespread in Eurasia, but was hunted to near-extinction for both its fur and castoreum. At the turn of the 20th century, only about 1,200 beavers survi ...
had been extinct in Spain since the 17th century.
On August 2, 1776
Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante wrote in his diary, "...we halted in a small plain on the bank of another arroyo which is called Rio de las Nutrias, because, although it is of permanent and running water, apparently during all or most of the year it stands in pools where they say beavers breed."
The first settlers in the area either killed an otter and a bear (''Oso'' in Spanish) and took the name from that incident,
killed a beaver and a bear and misused the term "Nutria"
or killed just a beaver and used the term "Nutrioso" to mean "Of Beavers".
Nutrioso rose in importance as
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
refugees relocated here after other nearby settlements were attacked by Native American groups. By 1880, a fort had been constructed, and by 1883 a post office was established.
Demographics
See also
*
List of census-designated places in Arizona
The 2010 Census defines 360 census-designated places or CDPs within the state of Arizona, with a combined population of 894,461 accounting for 14% of the state population. CDPs are defined as populated areas that are not organized into incorporate ...
References
External links
{{authority control
Census-designated places in Apache County, Arizona
Census-designated places in Arizona