Chama is a village in
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 917 at the
2020 census. The village is located in the
Rocky Mountains about south of the
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
-
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 ...
border.
Geography
Chama is located on the
Rio Chama, south of the
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
border. According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the village has a total area of , all of it land.
History
Chama was originally part of the
Tierra Amarilla Land Grant. In 1880 the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad began construction of its
San Juan Extension from
Antonito, Colorado westward toward a mining district in the northern
San Juan Basin of Colorado. The railroad needed an engine terminal for
helper locomotives, near to the western foot of the steep
gradient toward
Cumbres Pass. It chose a site on the western bank of the
Rio Chama where the railroad crossed it, for the terminal and its supporting
townsite, naming the village for the river crossing. Train service began on February 1, 1881
[Myrick, David, ‘’New Mexico’s Railroads, A Historic Survey’’, University of New Mexico Press 1990. ] and a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
was established that year.
The northern valley of the Rio Chama had extensive
coniferous forest, with dense stands of
Ponderosa pine. Timber harvesting and
sawmilling rapidly developed from the early 1880's, and was a major industry into the 1930's.
Chama is now the western terminus of the
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a steam-driven,
narrow gauge heritage railway
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...
which carries visitors to and from
Osier, Colorado, and
Antonito, Colorado, during the summer months. This is the remaining 64 mile portion of the Denver & Rio Grande's San Juan Extension between
Alamosa, and
Durango, Colorado. The tracks from Chama westward to Durango were abandoned in September 1967 and torn up soon afterwards.
Demographics
At the 2000 census,
there were 1,199 people, 467 households and 312 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 601 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 67.56%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 1.58%
African American, 2.67%
Native American, 0.08%
Asian, 25.10% from
other races, and 3.00% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race were 71.23% of the population.
There were 467 households, of which 30.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were
married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.13.
26.6% of the population were under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.1 males.
The
median household income was $30,513, and the median family income was $31,983. Males had a median income of $27,167 compared with $20,054 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the village was $16,670. About 11.9% of families and 17.9% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 28.6% of those under age 18 and 13.7% of those age 65 or over.
Education
It is within the
Chama Valley Independent Schools school district. Chama has a
K-8 school, Chama Middle/Elementary School, while Chama's 9-12 students would by default attend the district's only high school, a part of Escalante Middle/High School.
Climate
This
climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with short, cool-to-warm summers and long, cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the
Köppen Climate Classification system, Chama has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.
Popular culture
Chama has been featured in several films, including ''
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys'' (1969) ''
The Cowboys'' (1972), ''
Bite the Bullett'' (1975), ''
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez'' (1982), ''
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days'' (1989), ''
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989),
''Wyatt Earp'' (1994), ''
Wild Wild West'' (1999),
''All the Pretty Horses'', (2000),
''Appaloosa'' (2008), ''
A Million Ways to Die in the West'' (2014),
''Godless'' (2016), and
''Hostiles'' (2017).
An episode of ''
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations'' was filmed around the
Rio Chama. A 2014 episode of the
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience.
It init ...
miniseries
''Klondike'' was also filmed around Chama.
References
External links
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{{authority control
Railway stations in New Mexico
Villages in New Mexico
Villages in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico