Cimarron

History

Cimarron is located on the land of what became known as the Maxwell Land Grant. In 1842, Lucien B. Maxwell, a fur trapper, came to the Beaubien-Miranda Ranch in northern New Mexico and courted and married Luz Beaubien, one of the owner's six daughters. He eventually inherited the ranch and built a mansion in 1858 on the future town site. Maxwell built the Aztec Mill in 1864. It is preserved as the Old Mill Museum, operated by the Cimarron Historical Society. The museum's collection includes working mill parts; Native American tools, weapons and pottery; Maxwell Land Grant paperwork and documents; and other materials. Cimarron was officially chartered in 1859 and was named for the Spanish word used to describe a mustang, meaning "wild" or "unbroken". Cimarron was the county seat of Colfax County beginning in 1872, when it replaced Elizabethtown. At that time, Cimarron was a stage stop on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1881, the county seat was moved to Springer, a town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was during this time that Lucien Maxwell, due to rising tensions, sold the Maxwell Land Grant to a group of investors, with the resultant Colfax County War in which more than two hundred people were killed. In 1905, the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railway laid tracks from Raton to Ute Park, with the intent to haul coal between Raton and Cimarron. Passengers used the daily train service, as well as ranchers who moved agricultural animals. During World War II, the tracks were removed, with the steel to be recycled to help with the shortage during the war effort. Soon after the tracks were laid through town, tracks were also laid 22 miles up Ponil Canyon by the Cimarron and Northwestern Railway Company, to haul timber from the…

Geography

Cimarron is located in west-central Colfax County on the north bank of the Cimarron River, where it emerges from the Cimarron Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. U.S. Route 64 passes through the village, leading west up the Cimarron Canyon to Eagle Nest and northeast to Raton, the Colfax County seat. New Mexico State Road 58 leads east from Cimarron to Interstate 25, north of Springer. West of Cimarron is the Palisades Sill, with high cliffs surrounding the Cimarron River.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  431
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  280
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  257
• Western Wood-Pewee

  Contopus sordidulus P.L.Sclater, 1859 · Aves
  219
• mule deer

  Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817) · Mammalia
  218
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird

  Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  217
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  217
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  200