Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
|name = Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico
|settlement_type = Census-designated place
|nickname =
|motto =
|image_skyline = Rio Arriba CCH.jpg
|image_caption = Rio Arriba County Courthouse, Isaac Rapp, 1916-17
|image_flag =
|image_seal =
|pushpin_map = New Mexico#USA
|pushpin_label = Tierra Amarilla
|pushpin_label_position = right
|pushpin_map_caption = Location within the state of New Mexico
|image_map =
|mapsize =
|map_caption =
|coordinates = {{coord|36|42|22|N|106|33|35|W|region:US-NM_type:city_source:GNIS|display=it}}
|subdivision_type = Country
|subdivision_name = United States
|subdivision_type1 = State
|subdivision_name1 = New Mexico
|subdivision_type2 = County
|subdivision_name2 = Rio Arriba
|government_footnotes =
|government_type =
|leader_title =
|leader_name =
|established_title =
|established_date =
|unit_pref = Imperial
|area_total_sq_mi = 2.69
|area_land_sq_mi = 2.69
|area_water_sq_mi = 0.01
|area_total_km2 = 6.98
|area_land_km2 = 6.96
|area_water_km2 = 0.01
|elevation_ft = 7487
|population_as_of = 2020
|population_total = 297
|pop_est_footnotes =
|pop_est_as_of =
|population_est =
|population_density_sq_mi = 110.49
|population_density_km2 = 42.65
|timezone = MST
|utc_offset = −7
|timezone_DST = MDT
|utc_offset_DST = −6
|postal_code_type = ZIP code
|postal_code = 87575
|area_code_type = Area code
|area_code = 575
|blank_name = FIPS code
|blank_info = 35-77670
|blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
|blank1_info = 2584225{{GNIS|2584225}}
|website = {{URL|http://www.sangres.com/newmexico/rioarriba/tierraamarilla.htm}}
|footnotes =
}}
Tierra Amarilla is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx|access-date=2011-06-07|title=Find a County|publisher=National Association of Counties}}
Tierra Amarilla is Spanish for "Yellow Earth". The name refers to clay deposits found in the Chama River Valley and used by Native American peoples.{{rp|352–353}} Tewa and Navajo toponyms for the area also refer to the yellow clay.{{rp|352–353}}
History
There is evidence of 5000 years of habitation in the Chama River Valley including pueblo sites south of Abiquiu. The area served as a trade route for peoples in the present-day Four Corners region and the Rio Grande Valley. Navajos later used the valley as a staging area for raids on Spanish settlements along the Rio Grande. Written accounts of the Tierra Amarilla locality by pathfinding Spanish friars in 1776 described it as suitable for pastoral and agricultural use. The route taken by the friars from Santa Fe to California became the Spanish Trail. During the Californian Gold Rush the area became a staging point for westward fortune seekers.{{cite web|url=http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=738|title=Tierra Amarilla|author=Southwest Crossroads Spotlight|year=2006|publisher=SAR Press, School for Advanced Research|access-date=2009-10-29}}
=Tierra Amarilla Grant=
The Tierra Amarilla Land Grant was created in 1832 by the Mexican government for Manuel Martinez and settlers from Abiquiu.{{cite book|last=Julyan|first=Robert Hickson|title=The Place Names of New Mexico|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque|year=1998|edition=Revised/2nd|isbn=0-8263-1689-1}}{{rp|352–353}}{{cite book|last=Pike|first=David|title=Roadside New Mexico: a guide to historic markers|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque|year=2004|pages=81–82|isbn=978-0-8263-3118-2 |oclc=53967286|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SSXRGB21WH4C&q=Tierra%20Amarilla%20in%20navajo&pg=PA81|access-date=4 August 2009}} The land grant encompassed a more general area than the contemporary community known as Tierra Amarilla.{{rp|352–353}} The grant holders were unable to maintain a permanent settlement due to "raids by Utes, Navajos and Jicarilla Apaches" until early in the 1860s. In 1860 the United States Congress confirmed the land grant as a private grant, rather than a community grant, due to mistranslated and concealed documents. Although a land patent for the grant required the completion of a geographical survey before issuance, some of Manuel Martinez' heirs began to sell the land to Anglo speculators. In 1880 Thomas Catron sold some of the grant to the Denver and Rio Grande Railway for the construction of their San Juan line and a service center at Chama. By 1883 Catron had consolidated the deeds he held for the whole of the grant sans the original villages and their associated fields. In 1950, the descendants of the original grant holders' court petitions to reclaim communal land were rebuked.{{cite web|url=http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=810|title=La Tierra Amarilla: Its History, Architecture and Cultural Landscape|last=Wilson|first=Chris |author2=David Kammer|year=1989|publisher=Museum of New Mexico Press|access-date=2009-10-29|location=Santa Fe}}
=Rio Arriba's county seat=
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.{{Rp|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.{{Rp|352–353}} In 1877 a U.S. Army lieutenant described the village as "the center of the Mexican population of northwestern New Mexico". The territorial legislature located Rio Arriba's county seat in Las Nutrias and renamed the village in 1880.{{Rp|352–353}} The Denver and Rio Grande Railway's 1881 arrival at Chama,{{cite book|last=Myrick|first=David F.|title=New Mexico's Railroads: An Historical Survey|publisher=Colorado Railroad Museum |location=Golden|year=1970|pages=104}} 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.
When Tierra Amarilla was designated as the county seat the villagers set about building a courthouse. 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.{{cite book|last=Whisenhunt|first=Donald W.|title=New Mexico Courthouses|publisher=Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso|location=El Paso|year=1979|edition=annotated|pages=31}} The neoclassical design by Isaac Rapp is now on the National Register of Historic Places.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/nm/Rio+Arriba/state2.html|title=State Listings|publisher=National Register of Historic Places|access-date=2009-10-29}}
=Courthouse raid=
The Alianza Federal de Mercedes, led by Reies Tijerina, raided the Rio Arriba County Courthouse in 1967. Attempting to make a citizen's arrest of the district attorney "to bring attention to the unscrupulous means by which government and Anglo settlers had usurped Hispanic land grant properties," an armed struggle in the courthouse ensued resulting in Tijerina and his group fleeing to the south with two prisoners as hostages. Eulogio Salazar, a prison guard, was shot and Daniel Rivera, a sheriff's deputy, was badly injured. The National Guard, FBI and New Mexico State Police successfully pursued Tijerina, who was sentenced to less than three years.
Geography
The Brazos Cliffs are a prominent nearby landmark and attraction. Also nearby are the artificial Heron Lake and El Vado Lake.
Tierra Amarilla's elevation is 7,524 feet above sea level.
=Layout=
The settlement is situated in a cluster of villages along U.S. Route 84 and the Chama River. 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.
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 {{convert|0|F|C|1|disp=or}}, although maxima top freezing on all but nineteen afternoons during an average winter. The coldest temperature has been {{convert|−39|F|C|1}} 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 {{convert|62.2|in|m|2|disp=or}} with a maximum of {{convert|55.9|in|m|2}} in January 1997 and a maximum annual total of {{convert|125.5|in|m|2}} between July 1996 and June 1997. The maximum snow depth has been {{convert|44|in|m|2|disp=or}} 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 {{convert|34|F-change|C-change|1|disp=or}}, is the wettest period due to frequent monsoonal thunderstorms. The wettest months have been September 1927 and August 1967 which each saw {{convert|5.96|in|mm|1}} of precipitation, the wettest calendar year 1986 with {{convert|24.85|in|mm|1}}, and the driest 1956 with {{convert|8.63|in|mm|1}}.
{{Weather box
|location = Tierra Amarilla 4 N, New Mexico, 1991–2020 normals, 1927-2020 extremes: 7464ft (2275m)
|single line = Yes
|Jan record high F = 60
|Feb record high F = 65
|Mar record high F = 74
|Apr record high F = 80
|May record high F = 91
|Jun record high F = 95
|Jul record high F = 102
|Aug record high F = 97
|Sep record high F = 90
|Oct record high F = 85
|Nov record high F = 72
|Dec record high F = 66
|year record high F =
|Jan avg record high F = 54.1
|Feb avg record high F = 55.6
|Mar avg record high F = 64.0
|Apr avg record high F = 70.7
|May avg record high F = 80.5
|Jun avg record high F = 87.3
|Jul avg record high F = 91.3
|Aug avg record high F = 88.7
|Sep avg record high F = 82.7
|Oct avg record high F = 75.5
|Nov avg record high F = 63.5
|Dec avg record high F = 53.5
|year avg record high F = 90.2
|Jan high F = 40.2
|Feb high F = 43.3
|Mar high F = 51.2
|Apr high F = 58.8
|May high F = 68.1
|Jun high F = 79.5
|Jul high F = 83.3
|Aug high F = 80.9
|Sep high F = 73.9
|Oct high F = 62.5
|Nov high F = 50.4
|Dec high F = 40.0
|year high F =
|Jan mean F = 22.9
|Feb mean F = 26.6
|Mar mean F = 34.7
|Apr mean F = 41.5
|May mean F = 49.7
|Jun mean F = 58.9
|Jul mean F = 64.8
|Aug mean F = 63.2
|Sep mean F = 55.7
|Oct mean F = 44.7
|Nov mean F = 33.6
|Dec mean F = 23.9
|year mean F =
|Jan low F = 5.7
|Feb low F = 9.8
|Mar low F = 18.2
|Apr low F = 24.2
|May low F = 31.3
|Jun low F = 38.3
|Jul low F = 46.3
|Aug low F = 45.5
|Sep low F = 37.5
|Oct low F = 26.8
|Nov low F = 16.8
|Dec low F = 7.8
|year low F =
|Jan avg record low F= -10.3
|Feb avg record low F= -8.0
|Mar avg record low F= 1.9
|Apr avg record low F = 12.4
|May avg record low F = 21.8
|Jun avg record low F = 28.8
|Jul avg record low F = 37.7
|Aug avg record low F = 38.7
|Sep avg record low F = 25.9
|Oct avg record low F = 14.3
|Nov avg record low F = 0.5
|Dec avg record low F = -8.7
|year avg record low F = -13.9
|Jan record low F = −39
|Feb record low F = −40
|Mar record low F = −16
|Apr record low F = -9
|May record low F = 12
|Jun record low F = 21
|Jul record low F = 31
|Aug record low F = 29
|Sep record low F = 19
|Oct record low F = 5
|Nov record low F = -19
|Dec record low F = −31
|year record low F =
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation inch = 1.20
|Feb precipitation inch = 1.32
|Mar precipitation inch = 0.95
|Apr precipitation inch = 1.15
|May precipitation inch = 1.50
|Jun precipitation inch = 0.69
|Jul precipitation inch = 1.74
|Aug precipitation inch = 2.19
|Sep precipitation inch = 1.93
|Oct precipitation inch = 1.37
|Nov precipitation inch = 1.22
|Dec precipitation inch = 1.31
|year precipitation inch =
|Jan snow inch = 17.70
|Feb snow inch = 15.30
|Mar snow inch = 9.80
|Apr snow inch = 6.60
|May snow inch = 0.70
|Jun snow inch = 0.00
|Jul snow inch = 0.00
|Aug snow inch = 0.00
|Sep snow inch = 0.00
|Oct snow inch = 1.60
|Nov snow inch = 8.40
|Dec snow inch = 15.00
|year snow inch =
{{cite web
|url = https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1?dataset=normals-monthly-1991-2020&startDate=0001-01-01&endDate=9996-12-31&stations=USC00298845&format=pdf
|title = Tierra Amarilla 4 N, New Mexico 1991-2020 Monthly Normals
|access-date = November 11, 2023
}}
|source 2 = XMACIS2 (records & monthly max/mins)
{{cite web
|url = https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/
|publisher = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
|title = xmACIS
|access-date = November 11, 2023
}}
}}
{{Weather box
|single line=Y
|location=Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico (1927 to 2012)
|Jan record high F = 60
|Feb record high F = 64
|Mar record high F = 74
|Apr record high F = 80
|May record high F = 91
|Jun record high F = 95
|Jul record high F = 102
|Aug record high F = 97
|Sep record high F = 90
|Oct record high F = 82
|Nov record high F = 72
|Dec record high F = 64
|Jan high F = 38.9
|Feb high F = 42.4
|Mar high F = 49.1
|Apr high F = 59.0
|May high F = 68.5
|Jun high F = 78.6
|Jul high F = 83.1
|Aug high F = 80.5
|Sep high F = 74.2
|Oct high F = 63.3
|Nov high F = 49.4
|Dec high F = 39.7
|Jan mean F = 22.1
|Feb mean F = 26.1
|Mar mean F = 33.7
|Apr mean F = 42.0
|May mean F = 50.3
|Jun mean F = 58.9
|Jul mean F = 64.9
|Aug mean F = 63.2
|Sep mean F = 56.0
|Oct mean F = 45.5
|Nov mean F = 33.1
|Dec mean F = 23.8
|Jan low F = 5.2
|Feb low F = 9.8
|Mar low F = 18.2
|Apr low F = 25.0
|May low F = 32.1
|Jun low F = 39.2
|Jul low F = 46.7
|Aug low F = 45.9
|Sep low F = 37.8
|Oct low F = 27.7
|Nov low F = 16.7
|Dec low F = 7.8
|Jan record low F = −39
|Feb record low F = −30
|Mar record low F = −16
|Apr record low F = −8
|May record low F = 12
|Jun record low F = 21
|Jul record low F = 31
|Aug record low F = 29
|Sep record low F = 19
|Oct record low F = 5
|Nov record low F = −19
|Dec record low F = −31
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation inch = 1.26
|Feb precipitation inch = 1.13
|Mar precipitation inch = 1.16
|Apr precipitation inch = 1.03
|May precipitation inch = 1.09
|Jun precipitation inch = 0.80
|Jul precipitation inch = 1.97
|Aug precipitation inch = 2.46
|Sep precipitation inch = 1.83
|Oct precipitation inch = 1.30
|Nov precipitation inch = 1.04
|Dec precipitation inch = 1.16
|Jan precipitation days = 6
|Feb precipitation days = 6
|Mar precipitation days = 6
|Apr precipitation days = 6
|May precipitation days = 5
|Jun precipitation days = 5
|Jul precipitation days = 10
|Aug precipitation days = 11
|Sep precipitation days = 7
|Oct precipitation days = 5
|Nov precipitation days = 5
|Dec precipitation days = 6
|year precipitation days = 77
|unit precipitation days = 0.01 inch
|Jan snow inch = 15.1
|Feb snow inch = 11.7
|Mar snow inch = 9.4
|Apr snow inch = 4.1
|May snow inch = 0.4
|Jun snow inch = 0.0
|Jul snow inch = 0.0
|Aug snow inch = 0.0
|Sep snow inch = 0.0
|Oct snow inch = 1.4
|Nov snow inch = 7.7
|Dec snow inch = 12.4
|source 1=Western Regional Climate Center
[http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?nm8845 TIERRA AMARILLA 4 N, NEW MEXICO (298845)]}}
Demographics
{{US Census population
|2020= 297
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census{{cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|accessdate=June 4, 2016}}{{cite web|url=https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/pl?get=P1_001N,NAME&for=place:*&in=state:35&key=5ccd0821c15d9f4520e2dcc0f8d92b2ec9336108|title=Census Population API|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=Oct 12, 2022}}
}}
Tierra Amarilla has the ZIP code of 87575. The ZIP Code Tabulation Area for ZIP Code 87575 had a population of 750 at the 2000 census.{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=2008-01-31|title=U.S. Census website}}
Education
It is within the Chama Valley Independent Schools school district.{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st35_nm/schooldistrict_maps/c35039_rio_arriba/DC20SD_C35039.pdf|title=2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Rio Arriba County, NM|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|accessdate=2022-07-13}} The two schools in the community are: Tierra Amarilla Elementary School (PreK-6) and Escalante Middle/High School (7-12).{{cite web|url=https://www.chamaschools.org/schools|title=Schools|publisher=Chama Valley Independent Schools|accessdate=2022-07-13}}
Notable people
- Walter K. Martinez, New Mexico lawyer and state legislator, was born in Tierra Amarilla.[http://lawschool.unm.edu/alumni/events/2007/distinguished-dinner-after/honorees.php University of New Mexico Law School-Distinguished Honorees-Walter K. Martinez]
- Sabine Ulibarrí, American poet, born in Tierra Amarilla.Sabine Ulibarrí{{Circular reference|date=May 2017}}
See also
{{portal|New Mexico}}
References
{{reflist|22em}}
External links
{{commons category|Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico}}
- [http://www.sangres.com/newmexico/rioarriba/tierraamarilla.htm Tierra Amarilla]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071102202233/http://sangres.com/nationalforests/brazoscliffs.htm Brazos Cliffs]
{{Rio Arriba County, New Mexico}}
{{New Mexico county seats}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Census-designated places in New Mexico
Category:Census-designated places in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico