Tijeras is a village in

Bernalillo County, New Mexico Bernalillo County (; ) is the most populous List of counties in New Mexico, county in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

, United States. The population was 465 at the 2020 census. It is part of the

Albuquerque metropolitan area The Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area, sometimes referred to as Tiguex (named after the Southern Tiwa), is a metropolitan area in central New Mexico centered on the city of Albuquerque. The metro comprises four counties: Bernalillo, Sa ...

Pre-Columbian

The Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site is located in Tijeras at 35° 04′ 30″ N, 106° 23′ 01.″ The site was occupied by

Ancestral Puebloans The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southe ...

from about 1313 CE to 1425 CE. In the first phase of its occupation the Tijeras Pueblo had about 200 rooms in terraced buildings arranged in a "U" shape with a large ceremonial Kiva at the center. The pueblo was partially abandoned after about 1360 but rebuilding began about 1390, although the pueblo never regained its previous size. It was abandoned about 1425. The reasons for the abandonment of the pueblo are unknown, although it may have been because of drought and water shortages. The Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site is open to visitors. A museum on the site is open weekends and a self-guiding trail winds through the ruins.

History

Tijeras was part of the Carnuel

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

, created in 1763 to defend Albuquerque from the raids of

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

, and

Plains Apache The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan tribe who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are headquartered in Southwestern Oklahoma and are federally ...

American Indians. The village is located in Tijeras Canyon, a strategic and natural corridor between the nomadic Indians of the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

and the Spanish settlements in 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 ...

valley. Nineteen men some with families, comprised the first settlers at Carnuel. They were mostly from the lower castas of Spanish society, "coyotes" and genizaros (Indians who lived among the Spanish and had adopted some elements of Hispanic culture). For the coyotes and genizaros the attraction to settle in the Tijeras area was the opportunity to own land through the land grant from the New Mexican government. Apache raiders killed several people in the area and the survivors abandoned the land grant area in 1771. The

Mescalero Apache Mescalero or Mescalero Apache () is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the M ...

name for Tijeras canyon is Nakai'e Naagishuł or "Mexican they dragged". The Tijeras area was resettled in 1819 by descendants of the original settlers plus additional landless

mestizos ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to ...

. By that time New Mexico had made peace with the Comanche and the threat to the eastern frontiers of the colony had decreased, making the settlement feasible. The genizaro heritage continued to influence land and water usage rights in the Carnuel land grant into the 21st century.

Geography

Tijeras is located at (35.087550, -106.377354), in central

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 ...

, approximately east of

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, on

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

(Exit 175) and U.S. Highway 66 ( Route 66)/New Mexico state highway 333. New Mexico State Road 14 leads north from the village, toward Cedar Crest, Sandia Crest,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and Santa Fe. New Mexico State Road 337 leads south from Tijeras (se
Google map
.Tijeras, NM
on

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

Physical geography

Tijeras is at the junction of Tijeras Canyon, leading to the west, toward

, and Cedro Canyon, leading to the south, toward the Manzano Mountains.

Land area

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 , of which , or 0.56%, is water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 474 people, 191 households, and 131 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 210 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 65.82% White, 1.05% Native American, 0.21% Asian, 28.06% from other races, and 4.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 56.33% of the population. There were 191 households, out of which 33.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.4% were non-families. 24.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.02. In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.8% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.6 males. The median income for a household in the village was $34,167, and the median income for a family was $46,250. Males had a median income of $31,750 versus $25,179 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 $18,836. About 9.6% of families and 9.5% 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 5.4% of those under age 18 and 20.0% of those age 65 or over. As of the

of 2011, there were 548 people living in Tijeras. By 2009, the estimated mean household income had risen to $49,441, slightly above that of the state as a whole ($43,028). The mean price of a housing unit in 2009 was $229,479, which was significantly higher than the mean home price in the state as a whole ($160,900).

Education

It is zoned to Albuquerque Public Schools.

Features

Musical highway

In October 2014, Tijeras gained national attention for a nearby " musical road", a two-lane stretch of former U.S. Highway 66 ( Route 66) with grooves in the roadway ( rumble strips) arranged to cause the sounds of a famous song ("

America the Beautiful "America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. Its lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Church (Newark), Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New ...

") to be heard when vehicles drive on it at 45 mph."New Mexico hopes 'singing road' curbs speeding"
Associated Press via Yahoo News (online), October 1, 2014."Route 66 Adds Singing Road as Speeding Deterrent"
ABC News (TV), October 2, 2014."Route 66 ‘singing road’ debuts in New Mexico"
KRQE News 13 (TV), October 1, 2014.

References

External links

* *The Singing Road of New Mexic
The Singing Road
{{authority control Villages in Bernalillo County, New Mexico Villages in New Mexico Albuquerque metropolitan area