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.
Cimarron is a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States, which sits on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The population was 792 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth most populous municipality in Colfax County.
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.
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada, which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock.
The Tooth of Time is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the tertiary period some 22 to 40 million years ago. It is a geological feature on the Philmont Scout Ranch located five miles (8.0 km) southwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, United States, and is one of Philmont's most popular sights. It is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era some 22-40 million years ago.
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).
Atlanta is an unincorporated community in the western United States, located in Elmore County, Idaho.
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.
The Juneau mining district is a gold mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska.
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.
Mount Phillips, formerly called Clear Creek Mountain was renamed in 1960 in honor of the then living Waite Phillips, who donated the area to the Boy Scouts of America. It is located in Colfax County about 11 miles (18 km) south of Baldy Mountain in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico.
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 in 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.
Kit Carson Mesa is the name of a mesa near Rayado in Colfax County, New Mexico. New Mexico State Road 21 runs adjacent to the mesa. It is named after Kit Carson, who is said to have been the first English speaking traveler to visit the town of Rayado.
The Baldy Mining District was one of the largest gold producing districts in New Mexico. Also sometimes known as the Elizabethtown Mining District, it encompasses Baldy Mountain. There is no longer any large scale mining. Most of the land is now owned by the Boy Scouts of America as a part of Philmont Scout Ranch. The Baldy Mining District is approximately 18,247 Acres.
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)
Baldy Town, New Mexico is a former mining town in the Baldy Mining District in Colfax County, New Mexico. Baldy Town was established in 1868, to service mining prospects on the East side of Baldy Mountain, notably the Aztec Mine. After Baldy Town's initial high profit boom from 1868 to 1870, Baldy Town suffered a series of booms and busts as investors and prospectors searched for profitable lodes. The town was originally a conglomerate of miner's homes and services in Ute Meadow. Then in 1886, Baldy Town's core was moved to a strip of services just above the Aztec Mill. The new town grew to accommodate hundreds of residents with a store, stables, saloons, boarding houses, a church, small school, and post office. In 1895, at the height of its population, Baldy Town was home to around 1,000 residents. Multiple ambitious and extensive expeditions were made from 1870 to 1936 to discover additional gold veins, but only a select few found substantial lodes. By 1941, Baldy Town had been deserted and a majority of its infrastructure sold. In 1963, the eastern half of Baldy Mountain, including former Baldy Town, was donated to the Boy Scouts of America by Norton Clapp. Today, Baldy Town operates as a staffed camp at Philmont Scout Ranch providing a living history program regarding mining as well as logistical support like food resupply for hikers
