Fruitland 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 ...

and

Census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

in San Juan 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 is on the north side of the San Juan River. It is immediately west of central Kirtland and north across the river from the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...

and Upper Fruitland. Fruitland is east of Waterflow. Fruitland shares its name with a geological formation, the

Fruitland Formation The Fruitland Formation is a geologic formation found in the San Juan Basin in the states of New Mexico and Colorado, in the United States of America. It contains fossils dating it to the Campanian age of the late Cretaceous.

History

The area now known as Fruitland was traditional

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

territory. This place is called Bááh Díílid in Navajo. Euro-American settlers were allowed in 1877, and members of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

first settled in the area in 1878 and an organized group of settlers was sent there by the church in 1881 with Luther C. Burnham being prominent among them. Burnham was made

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the LDS ward there in 1883, which was named the Burnham Ward. From this time until the 1930s most of the residents called the area Burnham instead of Fruitland. For a time Brigham Young, Jr. maintained one of his residences at Fruitland. In 1930 the Burnham Ward had 718 members, including unbaptized children under age eight. The Young

Stake A stake is a large wooden or metal implement designed to be driven into the ground and may refer to: Tools * Archer's stake, a defensive stake carried by medieval longbowmen * Survey stakes, markers used by surveyors * Sudis (stake) (Latin for ...

was organized with headquarters at Burnham in 1912. By the 1970s the stake headquarters was Farmington. In 1982 a Kirtland Stake was formed, which today covers from Kirtland west to

Shiprock, New Mexico Shiprock () is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community on the Navajo Nation, Navajo reservation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 7,718 people in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, and beyond.

Population history

Fruitland had about 400 people in 1950 according to the Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer. Other sources place the population at this point at 200.

Education

It is within

Central Consolidated Schools Central Consolidated Schools (also known as the Central Consolidated School District) is a public school district based in Shiprock, New Mexico, United States. The district covers a area in western San Juan County. Service area In addition t ...

. Nenahnezad Community School of the

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs that directs and manages education functions. Formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs ...

(BIE) is in Nenahnezad and has a Fruitland postal address.

Notable person from Fruitland

Mamie Deschillie Mamie Deschillie (1920–2010) was a Navajo folk artist. Born in either Chaco or Burnham, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation Reservation, Deschillie lived near Farmington. Described at her death as "a traditional Navajo", she spoke limited Engl ...

, artist

Notes

{{authority control Populated places established in 1878 Unincorporated communities in San Juan County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico 1878 establishments in New Mexico Territory