Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Tierra Amarilla is a
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 ...
in and the county seat of
Rio Arriba County Rio Arriba County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,246. Its county seat is Tierra Amarilla. Its northern border is the Colorado state line. Rio Arriba County comprises the Española, N ...
,
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 ...
, United States. ''Tierra Amarilla'' is Spanish for "Yellow Earth". The name refers to
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
deposits found in the Chama River Valley and used by Native American peoples.
Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...
and
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
toponyms for the area also refer to the yellow clay.


History

There is evidence of 5000 years of habitation in the Chama River Valley including pueblo sites south of Abiquiu. The area served as a trade route for peoples in the present-day
Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...
region and the
Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...
. Navajos later used the valley as a staging area for raids on Spanish settlements along the Rio Grande. Written accounts of the Tierra Amarilla locality by pathfinding Spanish friars in 1776 described it as suitable for pastoral and agricultural use. The route taken by the friars from Santa Fe to
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
became the Spanish Trail. During the
Californian Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
the area became a staging point for westward fortune seekers.


Tierra Amarilla Grant

The ''Tierra Amarilla Grant'' was created in 1832 by the
Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
government for Manuel Martinez and settlers from Abiquiu. The
land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
encompassed a more general area than the contemporary community known as ''Tierra Amarilla''. The grant holders were unable to maintain a permanent settlement due to "raids by
Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute (band), an Australian jazz group * Ute (given name) * ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus * Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles * Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...
s,
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
s and
Jicarilla Apache Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athab ...
s" until early in the 1860s. In 1860 the United States Congress confirmed the land grant as a private grant, rather than a community grant, due to mistranslated and concealed documents. Although a
land patent A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...
for the grant required the completion of a geographical survey before issuance, some of Manuel Martinez' heirs began to sell the land to Anglo speculators. In 1880 Thomas Catron sold some of the grant to the Denver and Rio Grande Railway for the construction of their San Juan line and a service center at Chama. By 1883 Catron had consolidated the deeds he held for the whole of the grant sans the original villages and their associated fields. In 1950, the descendants of the original grant holders' court petitions to reclaim communal land were rebuked.


Rio Arriba's county seat

In 1866 the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
established Camp Plummer just south of Los Ojos (established in 1860) to rein in already decreased Native American activity on the grant. The military encampment was deserted in 1869. Las Nutrias, the site of the contemporary community, was founded nearby c.1862. The first
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 ...
in Las Nutrias was established in 1866 and bore the name ''Tierra Amarilla'', as did the present one which was established in 1870 after an approximately two-year absence. In 1877 a U.S. Army lieutenant described the village as "the center of the Mexican population of northwestern New Mexico". The territorial legislature located
Rio Arriba Rio Arriba County is a List of counties in New Mexico, county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 40,246. Its county seat is Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, Tierra Amarilla. Its nort ...
's county seat in Las Nutrias and renamed the village in 1880. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway's 1881 arrival at Chama, about ten miles to the north, had profound effects on the development of the region by bringing the area out of economic and cultural isolation. When Tierra Amarilla was designated as the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
the villagers set about building a courthouse. This structure was demolished to make way for the present one, which was built in 1917 and gained notoriety fifty years later when it was the location of a gunfight between land rights activists and authorities. The neoclassical design by
Isaac Rapp Isaac Hamilton Rapp, (1854 – March 27, 1933) was an American architect who has been called the "Creator of the Santa Fe style." He was born in Orange, New Jersey. Rapp learned his trade working for his father, a sometime architect and building ...
is now 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 ...
.


Courthouse raid

The
Alianza Federal de Mercedes Alianza Federal de Mercedes,Also referred to as: Alianza de Pueblos y Pobladores (The Alliance of Towns and Settlers) and Alianza de Pueblos Libres (The Alliance of Free Pueblos) which in English translates to Federal Land Grant Alliance, was a gro ...
, led by Reies Tijerina, raided the Rio Arriba County Courthouse in 1967. Attempting to make a
citizen's arrest A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a private citizen – that is, a person who is not acting as a sworn law-enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval England and the English common law, in which ...
of the district attorney "to bring attention to the unscrupulous means by which government and Anglo settlers had usurped Hispanic land grant properties," an armed struggle in the courthouse ensued resulting in Tijerina and his group fleeing to the south with two prisoners as hostages. Eulogio Salazar, a prison guard, was shot and Daniel Rivera, a sheriff's deputy, was badly injured. The
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...
, FBI and
New Mexico State Police New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
successfully pursued Tijerina, who was sentenced to less than three years.


Geography

The Brazos Cliffs are a prominent nearby landmark and attraction. Also nearby are the artificial Heron Lake and
El Vado Lake El Vado Lake is a reservoir located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Water is impounded by the earthen dam, earth-filled El Vado Dam, on the Rio Chama (New Mexico), Rio ...
. Tierra Amarilla's elevation is 7,524 feet above sea level.


Layout

The settlement is situated in a cluster of villages along
U.S. Route 84 U.S. Route 84 (US 84) is an east–west U.S. Highway that started as a short Georgia–Alabama route in the original 1926 scheme. Later, in 1941, it had been extended all the way to Colorado. The highway's eastern terminus is a short dista ...
and the Chama River. The layout of the villages, including the one that became Tierra Amarilla, do not follow the urban planning principles of the
Laws of the Indies The Laws of the Indies ( es, Leyes de las Indias) are the entire body of laws issued by the Spanish Crown for the American and the Asian possessions of its empire. They regulated social, political, religious, and economic life in these areas. Th ...
.


Climate

Tierra Amarilla has a
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Dfb'') with very cold, snowy, though generally sunny winters, and summers featuring very warm to hot afternoons and cold to cool mornings. During the winter, mornings are frigid, with as many as 26.7 falling to or below , although maxima top freezing on all but nineteen afternoons during an average winter. The coldest temperature has been on January 6, 1971. Snowfall is much heavier than in more populated parts of New Mexico as Tierra Amarilla is located on a western slope rather than in a valley: the annual average is with a maximum of in January 1997 and a maximum annual total of between July 1996 and June 1997. The maximum snow depth has been on 30 November 1983. The spring season sees the sunniest weather of all and steadily warming temperatures, although over the year as a whole 224.9 mornings fall to or below freezing, with four freezes to be expected as late as June. The summer, although seeing diurnal temperature ranges of over , is the wettest period due to frequent monsoonal thunderstorms. The wettest months have been September 1927 and August 1967 which each saw of precipitation, the wettest calendar year 1986 with , and the driest 1956 with .


Demographics

Tierra Amarilla has the ZIP code of 87575. The
ZIP Code Tabulation Area ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community S ...
for ZIP Code 87575 had a population of 750 at the 2000 census.


Education

It is within the
Chama Valley Independent Schools Chama Valley Independent School District 19 (CVISD), also known as Chama Valley Independent Schools, is a school district headquartered on the property of Escalante Middle/High School in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. Its boundary includes Tierra Am ...
school district. The two schools in the community are: Tierra Amarilla Elementary School (PreK-6) and Escalante Middle/High School (7-12).


Notable people

* Walter K. Martinez, New Mexico lawyer and state legislator, was born in Tierra Amarilla. * Sabine Ulibarrí, American poet, born in Tierra Amarilla. Sabine Ulibarrí


See also

*
List of census-designated places in New Mexico New Mexico is a state located in the Western United States. New Mexico has several census-designated places (CDPs) which are unincorporated communities lacking elected municipal officers and boundaries with legal status. List of census-designa ...
*
Spanish land grants in New Mexico The Spanish, and later the Mexican, government encouraged settlement of the '' Territorio de Nuevo Mexico'' by the establishment of large land grants, many of which were turned into ranchos, devoted to the raising of cattle and sheep. The owner ...


References


External links


Tierra Amarilla


{{authority control Census-designated places in New Mexico Census-designated places in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico County seats in New Mexico