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.
Ruidoso is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, adjacent to the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 7,679 at the 2020 census. The city of Ruidoso Downs and the unincorporated area of Alto are suburbs of Ruidoso, and contribute to the Ruidoso Micropolitan Statistical Area's population of 21,223.
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico.
The Sierra Blanca is an ultra-prominent range of volcanic mountains in Lincoln and Otero counties in the south-central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The range is about 40 miles (64 km) from north to south and 20 miles (32 km) wide.
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.
The Rio Ruidoso is a 30-mile (48 km) long river located in the Sierra Blanca and Sacramento Mountains in Lincoln County and Otero County, New Mexico in the United States and is part of the Rio Ruidoso Watershed. The Spanish term, río ruidoso, translated into English means literally "noisy river".
The Rio Bonito is a small river in the Sierra Blanca mountains of southern New Mexico, United States. The headwaters of the river start in the Lincoln National Forest on the slopes of Sierra Blanca and travel eastward until they merge with the south fork of the Rio Bonito just west of Bonito Lake, a man-made reservoir. After passing through the reservoir, the river continues in a generally eastward direction passing alongside the historic Fort Stanton and the home of Billy the Kid, Lincoln, New Mexico. The Rio Bonito merges 10 miles (16 km) past Lincoln with the Rio Ruidoso in the town of Hondo, New Mexico where the two rivers join to form the Rio Hondo which then flows towards the Pecos River, though not reaching the Pecos except during floods.
The White Mountain Wilderness is a 46,963 acre designated wilderness area managed by the United States Forest Service. Located in the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest, the White Mountain Wilderness lies in the Sierra Blanca mountains of south central New Mexico, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north northwest of the town of Ruidoso.
Virginia Shanta Klinekole, born Virginia Shanta, was a Mescalero Apache politician from New Mexico. She was elected as the first woman president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and served on the Tribal Council for nearly 30 years. She was known for being the first elected female leader of a major tribe, and for her work in preserving the Apache language.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of New Mexico enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. New Mexico has seen prominent advances in gay and lesbian rights in recent decades. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1975. Same-sex marriage is legal statewide in New Mexico, as is adoption and access to fertility treatments for lesbian couples. Same-sex couples have had the same rights as heterosexual married couples since 2013. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is banned statewide in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations. Additionally, conversion therapy on minors is prohibited in the state.
Michelle Lujan Grisham is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as the 32nd governor of New Mexico. A member of the Democratic Party, Lujan Grisham previously served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 2013 to 2019.
The 2018 New Mexico gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of New Mexico, concurrently with the election of New Mexico's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various local elections. This was one of eight Republican-held governorships up for election in a state carried by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
The 2022 New Mexico gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of New Mexico. The election coincided with various other federal and state elections. Primary elections were held on June 7.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of New Mexico on November 3, 2020. To vote by mail, registered New Mexico voters must have requested a ballot by October 30, 2020.
The McBride Fire was a destructive wildfire that burned in the Lincoln National Forest near the community of Ruidoso in Lincoln County, New Mexico, in the United States as part of the 2022 New Mexico wildfire season. The fire was named after McBride Road, near where it ignited on April 12, 2022. The McBride Fire burned 6,159 acres (2,492 ha), and was fully contained on May 7, 2022. The official cause of the fire was determined to be a drought-stressed tree falling on power lines, which quickly ignited the dry surroundings.
The 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire was the largest and most destructive wildfire in the history of New Mexico. The fire burned 341,471 acres between early April and late June in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in San Miguel, Mora, and Taos counties. It was the most significant fire of the record-breaking 2022 New Mexico wildfire season, as well as the largest wildfire of the year in the contiguous United States. The fire destroyed at least 903 structures, including several hundred homes, and damaged 85 more.
Carrizo Creek is a stream in Otero and Lincoln counties in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It forms to the southwest of, and feeds into, Mescalero Lake, just inside the north central border of the Mescalero Reservation. The creek then continues east of the lake. It turns north and then east again, shadowed by Carrizo Canyon Road, before feeding into the Rio Ruidoso south-southeast of Ruidoso, New Mexico.
Couy Dale Griffin is an American former politician who served from 2019 to 2022 as a county commissioner for District 2 of Otero County, New Mexico, which covers Tularosa, Three Rivers, La Luz, the western parts of Alamogordo, and the Mescalero Apache Reservation. In September 2022, Griffin was removed from office pursuant to the Insurrection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution due to his actions in the January 6 United States Capitol attack. He is a member of the Republican Party.
The 2024 New Mexico wildfire season is an ongoing series of notable wildfires that have been burning throughout the U.S. state of New Mexico.
The South Fork Fire is an ongoing wildfire in New Mexico that has burned 16,335 acres (6,611 ha) and is 0% contained. The fire began on June 17 near the town of Ruidoso and grew very rapidly, surpassing 15,000 acres burned by the following day and destroying at least 1400 houses and structures.
