Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

Tierra Amarilla is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States.^[1][4]

Tierra Amarilla is Spanish for "Yellow Earth". The name refers to

In 1866 the United States Army established Camp Plummer just south of Los Ojos (established in 1860) to rein in already decreased Native American activity on the grant. The military encampment was deserted in 1869.^{[5]: 57, 210, 352–353} Las Nutrias, the site of the contemporary community, was founded nearby c.1862. The first post office in Las Nutrias was established in 1866 and bore the name Tierra Amarilla, as did the present one which was established in 1870 after an approximately two-year absence.^{[5]: 352–353} In 1877 a U.S. Army lieutenant described the village as "the center of the Mexican population of northwestern New Mexico".^[6] The territorial legislature located Rio Arriba's county seat in Las Nutrias and renamed the village in 1880.^{[5]: 352–353} The Denver and Rio Grande Railway's 1881 arrival at Chama,^[9] about ten miles to the north, had profound effects on the development of the region by bringing the area out of economic and cultural isolation.^[8]

When Tierra Amarilla was designated as the county seat the villagers set about building a courthouse.^[6] This structure was demolished to make way for the present one, which was built in 1917 and gained notoriety fifty years later when it was the location of a gunfight between land rights activists and authorities.^[10] The neoclassical design by Isaac Rapp is now on the National Register of Historic Places.^[11]

Courthouse raid

The

The settlement is situated in a cluster of villages along U.S. Route 84 and the Chama River.^[6] The layout of the villages, including the one that became Tierra Amarilla, do not follow the urban planning principles of the Laws of the Indies.^[7]

Climate

Tierra Amarilla has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with very cold, snowy, though generally sunny winters, and summers featuring very warm to hot afternoons and cold to cool mornings. During the winter, mornings are frigid, with as many as 26.7 falling to or below 0 °F or −17.8 °C, although maxima top freezing on all but nineteen afternoons during an average winter. The coldest temperature has been −39 °F (−39.4 °C) on January 6, 1971. Snowfall is much heavier than in more populated parts of New Mexico as Tierra Amarilla is located on a western slope rather than in a valley: the annual average is 62.2 inches or 1.58 metres with a maximum of 55.9 inches (1.42 m) in January 1997 and a maximum annual total of 125.5 inches (3.19 m) between July 1996 and June 1997. The maximum snow depth has been 44 inches or 1.12 metres on 30 November 1983.

The spring season sees the sunniest weather of all and steadily warming temperatures, although over the year as a whole 224.9 mornings fall to or below freezing, with four freezes to be expected as late as June. The summer, although seeing diurnal temperature ranges of over 34 °F or 18.9 °C, is the wettest period due to frequent monsoonal thunderstorms. The wettest months have been September 1927 and August 1967 which each saw 5.96 inches (151.4 mm) of precipitation, the wettest calendar year 1986 with 24.85 inches (631.2 mm), and the driest 1956 with 8.63 inches (219.2 mm).

Demographics

Tierra Amarilla has the

It is within the Chama Valley Independent Schools school district.^[17] The two schools in the community are: Tierra Amarilla Elementary School (PreK-6) and Escalante Middle/High School (7-12).^[18]

Notable people

• Walter K. Martinez, New Mexico lawyer and state legislator, was born in Tierra Amarilla.^[19]
• Sabine Ulibarrí, American poet, born in Tierra Amarilla.^{[20][circular reference]}

See also

• List of census-designated places in New Mexico
• Spanish land grants in New Mexico

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico.

• Tierra Amarilla
• Brazos Cliffs