Development of our state’s county boundaries over the centuries forms a curious story virtually unknown to New Mexicans.
Neighboring Texas has a total of 254 counties, most of them comparatively small. By contrast, New Mexico’s counties number only 33, but all are respectably large in size, except tiny Los Alamos County, at only 111 square miles.
Neighboring Texas has a total of 254 counties, most of them comparatively small. By contrast, New Mexico’s counties number only 33, but all are respectably large in size, except tiny Los Alamos County, at only 111 square miles.
When
Gen. Stephen W. Kearny seized New Mexico for the United States in 1846,
he found the Mexican province divided into three large administrative
districts, each governed by an official called a prefect. But it was a
far cry from the county system of local government familiar to
Americans.
Such
a system was not introduced until 1850, when Congress created the
Territory of New Mexico. Within two years, 10 counties had been defined,
but were identified only on maps, since no survey of boundaries had yet
taken place.
At
that time, New Mexico stretched from the Texas line westward to the
border of California and took in even the southern portion of Nevada.
Four
of the New Mexican counties extended in an unmanageable sweep from
Texas to California. One of them, Socorro, was believed to have been the
largest county in the United States.
From then on, to the end of the century, county boundaries were constantly redefined by the territorial legislature.
Part
of the reason had to do with federal actions that led to major changes
in the boundary of the territory itself. The first involved the Gadsden
Purchase (1853), when the U.S. acquired from Mexico a large wedge of
country within the border region of the present states of New Mexico and
Arizona.
Soon
afterward, the territorial legislature added the Gadsden acquisition to
Doña Ana County. It thereby became the fifth county reaching from Texas
to California.
However,
what the legislature giveth, it can also take away. In 1860 a
legislative act from Santa Fe lopped off the western half of Doña Ana,
creating the new county of Arizona.
That
entity, nevertheless, enjoyed only a short life. For President Lincoln,
in the midst of the Civil War, signed a bill (1863) cutting New Mexico
roughly in half. The western portion became the separate territory of
Arizona.
As
a result, the New Mexico counties that had included significant ground
in the west now found themselves with much diminished boundaries.
For Taos County, that proved to be its second major territorial loss. The first had occurred in 1861.
With
organization of the Colorado Territory in that year, Congress had
amputated a huge piece of Taos County, centered on Trinidad, to fill out
the Colorado boundaries we know today.
Even
apart from these major episodes, county boundaries remained in a
constant state of flux. As New Mexico’s population expanded into
previously unsettled areas, the territorial legislature seemed to take
genuine glee in scissoring up the map to reshape old counties and from
them cut out new ones.In
the second half of the 19th century, for example, San Miguel County
suffered 11 “boundary redefinitions,” Bernalillo County 15, and the
record-holders, Doña Ana and Socorro, both experienced 17.
It
appears that record keepers of the day had a hard time tracking all the
changes. but it was necessary to do so, since county boundaries played
an essential part in determining the districts for membership in the
territorial House of Representatives.
In
January 1876, the legislature abolished one of the original counties,
Santa Ana, and parceled out its area to neighboring Bernalillo and
Sandoval counties. Geographer Jerry L.Williams claims this was the only
case in New Mexico history in which a functioning county was dissolved.
With
opening of the 20th century, New Mexico had 20 counties. By the
statehood year of 1912, that number had climbed to 26, and then to 31 by
1921.
In
the latter year, the period of radical or chaotic adjustment of county
boundaries seemed to have come to an end. Only two important exceptions
can be noted in the recent era of stability.
The
first occurred in March of 1949. The U.S. government, which had
federalized a mountainous section of Santa Fe and Sandoval counties for
atomic energy research, returned the land to state jurisdiction. From
it, Los Alamos County was formed.
Second,
Cibola County was split from Valencia County in 1982. The main reason
was that residents of the Grants area had been 70 miles from their
former county seat at Los Lunas.
It remains to be seen whether New Mexico has any more new counties in its future.
Now in semi-retirement, author Marc Simmons wrote a weekly history column for more than 35 years. The New Mexican is publishing reprints from among the more than 1,800 columns he produced during his career.
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