High Rolls, New Mexico | |
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Coordinates: 32°56′20″N105°49′17″W / 32.93889°N 105.82139°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New Mexico |
County | Otero |
Elevation | 6,750 ft (2,060 m) |
Time zone | UTC-7 (MST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 2584111 [1] |
High Rolls is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It is nestled within the Lincoln National Forest at the southernmost tip of the Sacramento Mountains.
High Rolls includes a general store, a post office, an elementary school, two churches, and sometimes a bar. High Rolls has many local attractions and festivities for the locals or first time visitor to enjoy. It is also home to two annual festivals, the Cherry Festival and the Apple Festival, both presented by The High Rolls/Mountain Park Lions Club.[ citation needed ]
Mexicans who settled in the Tularosa Basin in the mid-1880s obtained water rights to graze cattle in the fertile canyons of the Sacramento Mountains. By the 1880s, homesteaders discovered the area, bought the water rights and began establishing farms.
David M. Sutherland located in the High Rolls area in 1883 and was soon followed by Francisco Maes and Cipriano Tefoya, who came up from La Luz in 1884 and settled in the Mountain Park area. P.M. “Uncle Button” Nelson, Jack Tucker and William Karr married sisters and moved into the region in 1885. Other early settlers included I.Q. Snow, Hamilton Kimberlin, Michael Mulchay, George Van Sickle, Eugene Sullivan, Fletcher and James Thompson, J.M. Bennett, Venturo Giron, George Wofford, Charlie McClure, Antonio Vargas and Ben Wooten.
They built and maintained ditches to divert the Fresnal Canyon water to their crops and built the first dirt road from Fresnal to La Luz. Fresnal, later known as Wooten, had the first post office in the area, established in 1894.
The coming of the railroad in 1898 opened up the area for the shipment of goods to market and development of the tourist trade. By 1899, trains went as far as Toboggan Canyon, where passengers were transferred to stagecoaches for the final miles to Cloudcroft. Freight depots and Wells Fargo offices were built in both High Rolls and Mountain Park. The railroad operated on a regular basis until World War II. It finally ceased operation in 1948.
The first official use of the High Rolls name was in 1901, when the post office was moved from Fresnal (Wooten) to High Rolls. The name, which was sometimes spelled as one word, Highrolls, supposedly came from the shape and elevation of the area as compared to the sharper peaks higher up.
Mountain Park received its name from Edgar Cadwallader, who came there in 1903 with the intent to grow fruit and vegetables. Others settled in the area and the resulting orchards produced apples, cherries, peaches, pears, cauliflower, and cabbage. It became so successful that the post office was moved there from High Rolls in 1904.
Other activities in the High Rolls/Mountain Park area included a poultry farm, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop and a shingle mill run by water from the Fresnal stream. The Courtney Mine shipped copper ore from its location 4 miles south of High Rolls.
The first store was the High Rolls Mercantile Store, built in 1905, and it is still standing on Railroad Drive in High Rolls to this day. The original area school was a log cabin built in 1889. A school in Haynes Canyon was built in 1908 and the rock school in Karr Canyon was built in 1922 using some of the lumber from the old Haynes Canyon school. Although designed for indoor plumbing none was installed until 1944, because some school board members believed it was unnecessary.
The first church building was constructed of logs in 1888. In 1906, the Fresnal Baptist Church was built in Haynes Canyon. It is the present High Rolls/Mountain Park United Methodist Church, now a state historical site.
The High Rolls Development Company was formed in 1909 and built a three-story hotel with 25 rooms, which opened in 1912. The company also constructed about 50 guest cottages for summer visitors. Over the years, the hotel served as a tuberculosis sanitarium and later as a retreat for Jesuit priests. Finally, the hotel was dismantled, with part staying and becoming a private residence while other parts became homes in Alamogordo. Of the 50 cottages, only about six remain, all remodeled and added to, on what was known as Cottage Row. The 160 acre Skyline Ranch of the YMCA was a well-known feature of the region from its start in 1908 as Camp Mescalero until it was sold and became private property in the 1980s.
Probably the best known native of the area is Bill Mauldin, nationally syndicated cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize winner known for his wartime cartoons often featuring Willie and Joe. Mauldin was born and raised in Mountain Park and his first cartoon appeared in the Alamogordo High School newspaper.
The two communities have grown over the years. In 1956, the High Rolls/Mountain Park Post Office was established.
It is zoned to Alamogordo Public Schools. [2] High Rolls/Mount Park Elementary is the zoned elementary school, [3] while Chaparral Middle School is the zoned middle school. [4] Alamogordo High School is the district's comprehensive high school.
La Luz School District consolidated into the Alamogordo district on July 1, 1959. [5]
Otero County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,839. Its county seat is Alamogordo. Its southern boundary is the Texas state line. It is named for Miguel Antonio Otero, the territorial governor when the county was created.
Lithonia is a city in eastern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The city's population was 2,662 at the 2020 census. Lithonia is in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Alamogordo is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 31,384 as of the 2020 census. Alamogordo is widely known for its connection with the 1945 Trinity test, which was the first ever explosion of an atomic bomb.
Boles Acres is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,638 at the 2010 census.
La Luz is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,615 at the 2000 census. It is located immediately north of Alamogordo and lies in the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin and on the western flank of the Sacramento Mountains. Until 1848, La Luz was a part of Mexico. The CDP gets its name from the Spanish word for "light".
Timberon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States, and is within the Sacramento Mountains at the southern edge of the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 345 at the 2020 census.
Tularosa is a village in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It shares its name with the Tularosa Basin, in which the town is located. To the east, Tularosa is flanked by the western edge of the Sacramento Mountains. The population was 2,553 at the 2020 census. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the town, north of the much larger Alamogordo, experienced moderate growth and construction as a bedroom community, especially in the housing industry. Tularosa is noted for its abundance of cottonwood shade trees and its efforts to preserve the adobe-style architecture of its past.
The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the south-central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico, lying just east of Alamogordo in Otero County. From north to south, the Sacramento Mountains extend for 85 miles (137 km), and from east to west they encompass 42 miles (68 km).
Bonito Lake is an alpine reservoir located high in the Sierra Blanca mountains northwest of Ruidoso, New Mexico. It is a popular fishing and camping destination, and although it is surrounded by the Lincoln National Forest, it is not a part of the national forest. It is currently owned by the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico as their primary water source. Because of the high altitude, the lake's temperature is cold year round, and is home to an abundance of rainbow trout. The area around the lake has several campgrounds with hiking trails and streams. The 2012 Little Bear Fire caused severe erosion in the watershed above the lake, flooding and the lake was contaminated with sediment and ash. In 2015 the lake was drained in order to dredge it.
Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Lincoln Forest Reserve, the 1,103,897 acres (4,467.31 km2) forest begins near the Texas border and contains lands in parts of Chaves, Eddy, Lincoln, and Otero counties. The Lincoln National Forest is home to three major mountain ranges: Sacramento, Guadalupe and Capitan. The three Ranger Districts within the forest contain all or part of a total of four mountain ranges, and include a variety of different environmental areas, from desert to heavily forested mountains and sub-alpine grasslands. Clean air, water, and soil are necessary elements that the National Forests contribute to the environment. Established to balance conservation, resource management, and recreation, the lands of the Lincoln National Forest include important local timber resources, protected wilderness areas, and popular recreation and winter sports areas. The forest headquarters is located in Alamogordo, N.M. with local offices in Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.
Mountain Park is an unincorporated community in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It is located at 32.951°N, 105.824°W, and its elevation is 6710 feet.
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a state park of New Mexico, United States, whose two tracts preserve a canyon in the Sacramento Mountains and Oliver Lee's historic 19th-century ranch house. The 640-acre (260 ha) park is located in Otero County at an elevation of 4,363 feet (1,330 m). It is situated at the base of Dog Canyon and provides opportunities for camping, hiking, picnicking, wildlife viewing, a nature trail, and guided tours of the ranch house.
Orogrande is an unincorporated community in Otero County, New Mexico, United States, located in the Jarilla Mountains of the Tularosa Basin on U.S. 54 between El Paso, Texas and Alamogordo. The community had a population of 52 in the 2010 census.
The Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railway was built as a branch line for the El Paso and Northeastern Railway (EP&NE). Construction began from the EP&NE connection at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1898 to reach the Sacramento Mountain fir and spruce forests to the east. Sawmills were built in Alamogordo to mill lumber for extension of the EP&NE to reach the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. The railroad reached Cloudcroft, New Mexico, in 1900, where a lodge was built for summer tourists to enjoy the cool mountain air. Cloudcroft was laid out in several villages so tourists might avoid associating too closely with loggers and railway workers. The railway was extended from Cloudcroft to the small community of Russia, New Mexico, in 1903; and several branches were built to reach timber for the Alamogordo Lumber Company.
U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is a part of the U.S. Highway System that travels from Alamogordo, New Mexico, east to Brunswick, Georgia. In the U.S. state of New Mexico, US 82 extends from Alamogordo and ends at the Texas state line northeast of Lovington.
Weed is a hamlet and a census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It lies alongside New Mexico State Road 24 on the southeastern slopes of the Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 7,215 ft. It has had a Post Office since 1885. As of the 2010 census, its population was 63.
The Alamagordo Municipal School District No. 1, also the Alamogordo Public School District or Alamogordo Public Schools (APS), is a school district that serves the communities of Alamogordo, High Rolls, Holloman Air Force Base, Mountain Park, and La Luz and portions of unincorporated Otero County in the state of New Mexico.
Bridge A 249 is a historic wooden trestle bridge in New Mexico's Sacramento Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico, just outside Cloudcroft, New Mexico. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 as Bridge A 249-Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
Mexican Canyon Trestle is a historic wooden trestle bridge in New Mexico's Sacramento Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico, just outside Cloudcroft, New Mexico. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Cloudcroft Municipal Schools is a school district headquartered in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. It includes Cloudcroft Elementary/Middle School and Cloudcroft High School.
Information for this article was taken from the book, Fresnal History, and from the archives of the Sacramento Mountains Historical Museum.[ which? ]