Embudo (also Embudo Station) 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 ...

in Rio Arriba 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. The community runs along both sides of the Rio Grande on New Mexico State Road 68, beginning at Embudo Station located south of the intersection of New Mexico State Road 75, near where the

Embudo Creek Embudo Creek, also known as Rio Embudo, is formed by the confluence of the Rio Pueblo and Santa Barbara Creek near Peñasco in Taos County, New Mexico. The Embudo (named after the Spanish word meaning “funnel”) empties into the Rio Grande n ...

(Rio Embudo) flows into the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, encompassing the communities of La Bolsa and Rinconada and ending at the Taos County Line.

Etymology

The name "Embudo", meaning "funnel" in Spanish, was given to the area by early Spanish settlers because the spot where the Rio Embudo flowed between two distinctive cone shaped hills reminded them of a funnel. Embudo was founded in 1881 when the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...

opened a station (depot) there on its

Chili Line The Chili Line, officially known as the Santa Fe Branch, was a narrow-gauge branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW). It ran from Antonito, Colorado, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) began ...

. The station was named after the village San Antonio de Embudo, located two miles up the Embudo Creek, and until 1902 the communities shared a post office and were known jointly as Embudo. In 1900, anticipating a separate post office in the village, San Antonio de Embudo changed its name to Dixon after the Presbyterian missionary Dixon, who established a mission there. When the Dixon post office opened in 1902, however, Embudo lost its post office. Embudo got a post office again in 1905, only to lose it in 1909. In 1914, Embudo once again had its own post office, zip code 87531, but the building was removed in 2016, and mailboxes were transferred to the Dixon post office.

Transport links

Today, from the state road a concrete bridge, replacing the old wooden bridge, crosses the Rio Grande to the "Embudo Historic District" which consists of the old railway station and associated buildings. The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS)

gauging station A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or vo ...

at Embudo, to measure the flow of the Rio Grande, was the first (USGS) stream gauging station and was established by

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

in 1888. Embudo was also the first USGS training center for hydrographers. Embudo was originally on U.S. Route 64 (US 64), a major national east-west highway and the main route between Santa Fe and

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico ** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...

. In 1974 US 64 was realigned to end at Tonopah,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

rather than Santa Fe bypassing Embudo.

Notable people

* Casimiro Barela, Colorado politician * Susan K. Herrera, member of the

New Mexico House of Representatives The New Mexico House of Representatives () is the lower house of the New Mexico State Legislature. There are 70 members of the House. Each member represents roughly 25,980 residents of New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the South ...

* Raul Midón, musician * Ra Paulette, cave sculptor

Gallery

File:Embudo 1885.jpg, View of the mesa in 1885. The tracks for the

, now gone, can be seen in the foreground. File:Embudo 205.jpg, NM Route 68 to Taos at right. File:RioGrandeRiverNearEmbudoNM.jpg, Rio Grande just upstream from the Embudo Bridge File:Gas-alley-boy.jpg, ''Gas-alley-boy'' at Johnnie Meier Classical Gas Museum in Embudo.

References

External links