Santa Barbara is a former settlement in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, now the site of

Hatch, New Mexico Hatch is a village in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,648 at the 2010 census. The town is experiencing moderate growth, along with its outliers of Salem, Arrey, Derry, and Rincon. Hatch is widely known as the ...

. It lay at an elevation of .Hatch Variant Name: Santa Barbara
/ref>

History

Santa Barbara was first established by native New Mexican farmers in 1851, along the road between the

Jornada del Muerto The name Jornada del Muerto translates from Spanish as "Single Day's Journey of the Dead Man" or even "Route of the Dead Man, though the modern literal translation is closer to "The Working Day of the Dead". It was the name given by the Spanish ...

and

Cooke's Wagon Road Cooke's Wagon Road or Cooke's Road was the first wagon road between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River to San Diego, through the Mexican provinces of Nuevo México, Chihuahua, Sonora and Alta California, established by Philip St. George ...

northwest of the

San Diego Crossing San Diego Crossing, was a major ford on the Rio Grande, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico during the 19th Century. It was named for San Diego Mountain, on the east side of the Rio Grande, located directly west of the crossing. It was 11 miles nort ...

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

raids soon drove them away until 1853 when

Fort Thorn Fort Thorn or Fort Thorne, originally Cantonment Garland, was a settlement and military outpost located on the west bank of the Rio Grande, northwest of present-day Hatch, and west of Salem in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. It was ...

, was constructed nearby to the west northwest that protected it from the raids of the Apache.Sanitary Report - Fort Thorn by Asst. Surgeon P. A. Quinan; Sept. 1858, Statistical Report on the Sickness and Mortality in the Army of the United States, United States, Surgeon-General's Office, George W. Bowman, Printer, Washington, D. C., 1860, p.224, "The Mexican village of Santa Barbara is in the neighborhood of the garrison."
/ref> Following the abandonment of Fort Thorn in 1859, the fort continued to be the location of the Apache Agency of Dr. Michael Steck. However the Agency and Santa Barbara were abandoned in 1860 in the face resumed Navajo raiding.Julyan, Robert Hixson (1998) "Hatch " ''The place names of New Mexico'' (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 162, Hatch was later founded in 1875, on the site of Santa Barbara.Archuletta, Phil T. and Holden, Sharyl S. (2003) "Hatch" ''Traveling New Mexico: A Guide to the Historical and State Park Markers,'' Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM, page 111

References

{{Doña Ana County, New Mexico Ghost towns in New Mexico History of Doña Ana County, New Mexico Geography of Doña Ana County, New Mexico