Piñon is an unincorporated

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

ing community in Otero County in southern

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 ...

, in the southwestern United States. It is in the pinon-juniper shrublands habitat with an altitude of 6,060 feet and is located at the intersection of NM Route 24 and NM Route 506.Burdett, William H. (1998) ''The Roads of New Mexico'' Shearer Publishing, Fredericksburg, Texas, page 107, The area is arid and subject to forest fires. In June 2011, the lightning-caused Gage Fire burned 1385 acres just to the west of town.

History

The area was originally settled by the agricultural and hunter gatherer Jornada Mogollon people, ''circa'' 200 CE, whose suzerainty ended with the influx of the Apache and other plains raiders in approximately 1450. The community was named in 1907 by the local school teacher John W. Nations after the piñon pine trees in the area. The postoffice in Piñon opened in 1907. In 2014, Piñon was ranked as the most politically conservative town in New Mexico.

Economy

The last gas station in Piñon closed in 2004.

Demographics

Education

It is within Cloudcroft Municipal Schools. In 1958 the Piñon area joined the Alamogordo Public Schools school district instead of the Cloudcroft district. The Cloudcroft school board disliked the decision and in 1958 passed a motion stating that the district should not accept Pinon or

Weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...

students even if their respective areas offered to pay tuition to Cloudcroft schools.
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Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

. At the time area students went to elementary school in Piñon and high school in Weed. In 1959 the Alamogordo board decided to have a school in Piñon closed. In August 1959, Piñon residents filed an injunction against board members to stop the closure. The board upheld the closure in December 1959.
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. In November 1992 the Cloudcroft district's board passed a resolution to annex portions of the Alamogordo district, including Piñon. In a separate motion the district drew new electoral boundaries with the annexed area effective the approval of said annexation. By then the Alamogordo district had closed both schools in Weed and sent students to Cloudcroft schools.
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Notes

External links

"Welcome to Piñon, New Mexico"
Panoramio {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinon, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Ghost towns in New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Otero County, New Mexico Census-designated places in Otero County, New Mexico Census-designated places in New Mexico