Colfax County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,387. Its county seat is Raton. It is south from the Colorado state line. This county was named for Schuyler Colfax (1823–1885), seventeenth Vice President of the United States under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
Angel Fire is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,216 at the 2010 census. It is a popular ski resort destination, with over 500 acres (2.0 km2) of slopes. Angel Fire and nearby communities experience cold winter temperatures and mild temperatures in the summer.
Eagle Nest is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico. The population was 290 at the time of the 2010 census. Located along the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, Eagle Nest is a small summer-home and resort destination. Originally named Therma, the village was renamed Eagle Nest in the 1930s. The town is located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico near the Colorado border.
Maxwell is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 254 at the 2010 census, down from 274 in 2000. Maxwell was established in 1879 as a railroad town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was named in honor of Lucien Maxwell, who provided the land for the original townsite from his Maxwell Land Grant.
Raton is a city and the county seat of Colfax County in northeastern New Mexico. The city is located just south of Raton Pass. The city is also located about 6.5 miles south of the New Mexico–Colorado border and 85 miles west of Texas.
Springer is a town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 1,047 at the 2010 census.
Clayton is a town and county seat of Union County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,980.
Philmont Scout Ranch is a ranch located in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States, near the village of Cimarron; it covers 140,177 acres (56,728 ha) of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Rocky Mountains. Donated by oil baron Waite Phillips, the ranch is owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America. It is a National High Adventure Base where crews of Scouts and Venturers take part in backpacking treks and other outdoor activities. By land area, it is one of the largest youth camps in the world. During the 2019 season, between June 8 and August 22, an estimated 24,000 Scouts and adult leaders backpacked through the Ranch's extensive backcountry. That same year 1,302 staff were responsible for the Ranch's summer operations.
Kenton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the community had 31 residents.
Baldy Mountain, Baldy Peak, Mount Baldy, or Old Baldy is the highest peak in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. It is located in Colfax County, about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Eagle Nest. It rises abruptly, with 3,640 feet (1,110 m) of vertical relief, from the Moreno Valley to the west and has a total elevation of 12,441 feet (3,792 m).
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a mountain man, rancher, scout, and farmer who at one point owned more than 1,700,000 acres (6,900 km2). Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history. In 1959, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
The Maxwell Land Grant, also known as the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant, was a 1,714,765-acre (6,939.41 km2) Mexican land grant in Colfax County, New Mexico, and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado. This 1841 land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the history of the United States. The New Mexico communities of Cimarron, Dawson, Elizabethtown, Baldy Town, Maxwell, Miami, Raton, Rayado, Springer, Ute Park and Vermejo Park came to be located within the grant, as well as numerous places that are now ghost towns.
Vermejo Park Ranch, Vermejo Ranch, or Vermejo, is a 550,000-acre (220,000 ha) nature reserve and guest ranch in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Ted Turner Reserves, the luxury hospitality company founded by Ted Turner, includes conservation research and ecosystem restoration along with guest operations. The reserve, which stretches from the Great Plains at an elevation of 5,867 ft (1,788 m) to the summit of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, reaches an elevation of 12,931 ft (3,941 m). The ranch produces significant quantities of coalbed methane, a type of natural gas.
Rayado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. The name Rayado derives from the Spanish term for "streaked", perhaps in reference to the lot lines marked out by Lucien Maxwell.
State Road 204 (NM 204) is a 10.882-mile-long (17.513 km) gravel state highway in the US state of New Mexico. NM 204's southern terminus at U.S. Route 64 (US 64) just north of Cimarron, and it the northern terminus at the gate at the southern end of Ponil Campsite on the grounds of the Philmont Scout Ranch in Colfax County. This campsite was formerly the Ranch headquarters, from its inception in 1938 until shortly after its 1941 expansion, when it was moved to its present location south of Cimarron. The road is primarily used by Philmont busses transporting Scouts into and out of the Ranch's North Country at Six Mile Gate and the Ponil Turnaround. The Highway was never paved because the old owner of philmont was afraid people would speed down the Highway and hit their cattle.
Philmont Scout Ranch is located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico. Philmont is about 12 miles (19 km) across at its widest point, and about 30 miles (48 km) long. The southern part of the ranch is mostly grasslands/prairie, while the north is rocky and rugged, but a small part of the eastern area is prairie.
Chase Ranch Cimarron, New Mexico was founded in 1867 by Manly and Theresa Chase. As pioneers, from Wisconsin by way of Colorado, they crossed the Raton Pass in a covered wagon and establish a new home in New Mexico. Manly Chase purchased the land from Lucien Maxwell, part of the Maxwell Land Grant. The ranch is near the Ponil Creek, a mile north of the Cimarron River, not far from the Santa Fe Trail. The Ranch included the old Kit Carson homestead. Before the arrival of pioneers, the land was populated by Apaches and Ute people. Manly provided the local Native Americans with beef, creating peaceful coexistence.
On the morning of June 27, 2015, heavy rain occurred in a great portion of the Scouting reserve Philmont Scout Ranch, which is near Cimarron, New Mexico, United States, causing a flash flood. The flood also affected some other nearby areas in Colfax County that morning, including highways and small towns around Philmont. One youth Scout, Alden Brock, who was situated in a campsite within the staff camp Indian Writings, drowned while being swept away by the flood. The flood also had a significant impact on many individual crews and treks and significantly damaged some campsites. The 2015 flash flood is the largest documented flood in the history of Philmont, and is the only flood at Philmont that has ever caused the death of a person.
The Ute Park Fire was a wildfire one mile east of Ute Park, New Mexico in the United States. The fire started on May 31, 2018. The cause remains under investigation. The fire burned a total of 36,740 acres (149 km2) and was contained on June 19, 2018. It threatened the communities of Cimarron and Ute Park, with mandatory evacuations in place from June 1 2, respectively, until June 8th: when both were lifted. The fire destroyed 14 buildings and threatened over 750 structures.
The Cimarron Range is a mountain range located mainly in Colfax County of northeastern New Mexico, United States. The range forms the eastern margin of the Southern Rocky Mountains in north-central New Mexico to the west of Cimarron, New Mexico. The range is about forty-seven miles (76 km) long and forty-four miles (71 km) wide and is bounded by the Moreno Valley to the west, the Great Plains to the east, the Raton Basin to the north, and Ocate Mesa to the south. The highest point is Baldy Mountain, 12,441 feet (3,792 m)
