Tres Piedras, New Mexico
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Tres Piedras (
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
: three rocks) 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 Taos County, northern
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, adjacent to
Carson National Forest Carson National Forest is a United States National Forest, national forest in northern New Mexico, United States. It encompasses 6,070 square kilometers (1.5 million acres) and is administered by the United States Forest Service. The Forest Serv ...
.


Geography

Tres Piedras is located approximately 30 miles northwest of
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 ...
, and west of 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 ...
on
U.S. Route 64 U.S. Route 64 (US 64) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,281 miles (3,672 km) from Nags Head in eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route ...
. At approximately in altitude, it is located within the southern portion of the San Juan Range of the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
. Tres Piedras is on the western edge of a sagebrush plain, with ponderosa pines growing throughout the village. The village is adjacent to the
Carson National Forest Carson National Forest is a United States National Forest, national forest in northern New Mexico, United States. It encompasses 6,070 square kilometers (1.5 million acres) and is administered by the United States Forest Service. The Forest Serv ...
. The ZIP Code for Tres Piedras is 87577.


Climate


History

The earliest maps, from the 1770s, show the name Piedras de los Carneros, or Rocks of the Sheep, possibly denoting a population of Bighorn Sheep. While the mountains and valleys east of the Rio Grande were colonized by Spanish agriculturalists & pastoralists some 200 years earlier, the Taos Plateau and Tusas Mountains were used by the nomadic peoples: Ute, Comanche, Kiowa and Jicarilla Apache, and so weren't utilized by the pobladores or Hispano colonists until well after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) and subsequent presence of the U. S. Army. The village, named for three outcroppings of granite, was settled in 1879 and became a small ranching and timber village. Homesteaders, sawmills, small scale dry farming and mining activity slowly augmented the population through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some Mormon pioneers from the San Luis valley to the north also made their way to Tres Piedras and established themselves. By the turn of the twentieth century several villages were established in the area: Hopewell, 20 miles to the west, a gold-mining town; Las Tusas, nine miles west, a largely Hispanic farming community spread along the river valley of the same name, and No Agua (no water), 9 miles north on the railway line. All three of these places are virtually uninhabited today. Between 1880 and 1941 Tres Piedras was a railroad stop on the
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
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 ...
railroad that operated between
Antonito, Colorado Antonito (in Spanish Antoñito) is a statutory town located in Conejos County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 647 at the 2020 United States census. History Antonito began life as a sheep herding camp known as San Antonio Ju ...
and
Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...
. The village still has the old railroad water tower.


Recreation

It is a granite climbing area, one of two west of the Rio Grande in New Mexico.


References


Further reading

* {{authority control Census-designated places in New Mexico Villages in Taos County, New Mexico