Government

Guadalupe County

Future Plan - Courthouse Square 3D renders



Guadalupe County was created by the territorial legislature in 1891 and named after Our Lady of Guadalupe.  In this area, the name predates the county, for earlier documents show an old road running by the Mesita de Guadalupe16 miles SW of Santa Rosa to the Llano de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Plain). 

In 1890, San Miguel County was bounded on the north by all of Mora County and part of Taos County; on the south by all of Chavez County and by a small part of Lincoln County; on the east by the State of Texas, and on the west by Santa Fe County and Valencia County. 

The bill providing for the creation of Guadalupe County was introduced by the Honorable Pablo Aragon, a member of the House from Puerto de Luna, San Miguel County.  Section 3 of the Act provided that the county seat be established in Puerto de Luna, and the county commissioners provided for the Act were empowered to designate some convenient place for the erection of the public building for said County.  



The original territorial county courthouse and jail was built after the creation of the county in 1891.  The county commissioners making the arrangements for the construction of the courthouse were Roman Dodge, President, Matilde Chavez, and Placido Baca y Baca, publisher of the town newspaper La Voz Del Pueblo and son of Santa Rosa founder Don Celso Baca.  The land for the original courthouse was donated by Alexander Grezlachowski.

When the county was created its first seat was in Puerto de Luna, 10 miles S of Santa Rosa, there were no automobiles, and no highways worthy of the name “highways.” All transportation was by means of buckboard, buggies and horses on dirt roads and trails.    There were no permanent bridges across the Pecos River; the ford at that time was below Chaperito on the Gallinas, and later on the Pecos at Bado de Juan Pais.

In 1903 following the creation of Roosevelt County, the territorial legislature renamed this county Leonard Wood County for a colonel in the First NM Volunteer Cavalry (the “Rough Riders”), but most people disliked the name change and Guadalupe County became possibly the only nation’s only county to lose its name and then regain it again. 

The Santa Rosa post office was established while part of San Miguel County in 1873 but the name was changed to Eden in 1891 when the county was named Guadalupe County.   The Eden post office was at a settlement near Table Top Mountain along the Pecos River. 

Guadalupe County Physical Attributes

Guadalupe County is located in the east central portion of New Mexico and occupies an area of approximately 1,918,720 acres.  About 10,000 acres are broken land for cultivation of which some 5,000 acres are under irrigation. 

The Pecos River bisects the county from northeast to southeast in a fairly deep canyon.  The altitudes range from above 6,000 feet in the northwest to about 4,000 feet in the southern portion.  The topography is rolling plains, characterized by ridges or mesas.