Arabela is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in Lincoln County,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, United States. Arabela is located in a rural part of eastern Lincoln County, east of

Capitan Capitan and Kapitan are equivalents of the English Captain in other European languages. Capitan, Capitano, and Kapitan may also refer to: Places in the United States * Capitan, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Capitan, New Mexico, a villa ...

. A post office was established in 1901 and named Arabela by Andy Richardson, who became smitten with a local Apache woman, Arabela Barela. Barela, who with her sisters Damiana Barela and Carolina “Caro” Romero, owned and operated several cathouses in the area. The post office closed in 1928.

References

Unincorporated communities in Lincoln County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub