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Abiquiú, New Mexico Péshú:bú'; Gultɨdda
CDP
The adobe Santo Tomás Church in Abiquiú
Location of Abiquiú within New Mexico
Abiquiú, New MexicoLocation in the United States
Coordinates: 36°12′06″N 106°19′26″W / 36.20167°N 106.32389°W / 36.20167; -106.32389
Country	United States
State	New Mexico
County	Rio Arriba
Area
• Total	0.95 sq mi (2.47 km)
• Land	0.95 sq mi (2.47 km)
• Water	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km)
Elevation	6,172 ft (1,881 m)
Population
• Total	181
• Density	189.73/sq mi (73.28/km)
Time zone	UTC−7 (Mountain (MST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−6 (MDT)
ZIP Code	87510
FIPS code	35-00310
GNIS feature ID	2584043

Abiquiú (/ˈæbɪkjuː/ , Spanish pronunciation: [aβiˈkju], Tewa: Péshú:bú'; Northern Tiwa: Gultɨdda) is a census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States, about 53 miles (85 km) north of Santa Fe. As of 2010, the population was 231. Abiquiú's one school, an elementary school, is part of the Española Public Schools.

Abiquiú means "wild chokecherry place" in the Tewa language. It is also called Santo Tomás de Abiquiú and the Pueblo of Santo Tomás de Abiquiú. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Spanish crown provided land grants to genízaros here and in other places to establish buffer towns to defend the frontier from raiding tribes such as the Comanche.

Abiquiú was one of the homes of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe from 1929 until 1984. The Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio is in Abiquiú. The artist also owned property at the nearby Ghost Ranch. Many of her paintings depict scenes near Abiquiú.

History

Abiquiú was first settled in 1742 by 24 Tewa Pueblo families led by a Roman Catholic priest, Francisco Delgado. The Tewa returned to New Mexico after a lengthy residence among the Hopi people in what would become Arizona. Their settlement in Abiquiú was part of the strategy by New Mexican colonists to defend its frontiers against marauding indigenous peoples such as the Apache, Comanche, and Navajo. Abiquiú was on the northern border of the Spanish settlements of New Mexico. In 1747, in one of the numerous raids in the area, the Comanche took 23 women and children captive, forcing the temporary abandonment of Abiquiú. The captives probably were sold or traded in the flourishing slave trade between and among the Spanish and the surrounding indigenous nations.

In 1754, to deal with the raids and the faltering settlement, New Mexico governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín gave 34 genízaro families a land grant in exchange for them taking a prominent role in frontier defense. Abiquiú was the third such genízaro settlement established in New Mexico, after Belen and Trampas. The genízaros were detribalized Native Americans from various tribes whose origin was typically as war captives, either captured by the Spanish or sold by raiding tribes to the Spanish to work as slaves and servants. Because they had few rights under the casta laws of the Spanish, acceptance of land grants and resettlement on the dangerous frontier of New Mexico was the principal way for genízaros to become landowners. Abiquiú became the archetypal genízaro settlement. Many residents still celebrate their genízaro heritage in the 21st century.

In the late 18th century, peace was established between New Mexico and the Comanche and the Ute. An annual trade fair at Abiquiú drew many indigenous people to the town, especially the Utes, who traded deer skins for horses and tools. Also, settlers purchased or redeemed captive children from the native people. Bands of Utes often camped for the winter near Abiquiú. In the 1840s, the peace with the Utes broke down and 1,000 of them came to Abiquiú with a list of grievances and demands. Several Utes were killed in this confrontation. Peace with the Utes was restored in 1849 by the U.S. government, which had recently invaded and conquered New Mexico in the Mexican–American War.

Throughout the 19th century, the residents of Abiquiú struggled to retain ownership of the 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) of land granted them in 1754. In 1894, their right to the land was validated in the United States Court of Private Land Claims. In 1969, additional land, previously designated as National Forest, was returned to the community. Abiquiú is a popular tourist destination, and some Anglo-Americans have settled in the community.

Old Spanish Trail

Abiquiú was the starting point of the pioneering route of the Old Spanish Trail. This first route, the Armijo Route, was led by Antonio Armijo of Santa Fe, with 60 mounted men and a caravan of pack animals carrying blankets and other trade goods to barter for mules in Alta California. Armijo's caravan left Abiquiú on November 7, 1829, and made the journey to San Gabriel Mission in 86 days, arriving on January 31, 1830. He returned by the same route in 56 days, leaving on March 1 and arriving on April 25, 1830. Armijo documented his route daily, unlike travelers on other routes of the Old Spanish Trail. These reports were very brief, listing dates and stopping places with few other details and no distances recorded. He submitted them to the governor, José Antonio Chaves, and the Mexican government published them on June 19, 1830.

Climate

The climate of Abiquiú is a typical semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk).

Demographics

Education

It is in Española Public Schools. The comprehensive public high school is Española Valley High School.

In popular culture

The colorful canyons and mountains near Abiquiú have been featured in numerous movies, including Red Dawn (1984), Silverado (1985), Lonesome Dove (1989), City Slickers (1991), The Last Outlaw (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), The Wild Wild West (1999), All the Pretty Horses (2000), The Missing (2003), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), No Country For Old Men (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Cowboys & Aliens (2011) and The Lone Ranger (2013), and in the TV series Earth 2.

"Abiquiu" is the title of an episode of Breaking Bad. During the episode, a flashback shows Jesse Pinkman and Jane Margolis visiting a Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition, presumably the one in Abiquiú.

Nearby points of interest

• Abiquiu Lake
• Dar al-Islam (organization)
• Echo Amphitheater
• Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio
• Ghost Ranch, home of the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology
• Monastery of Christ in the Desert
• Santa Rosa de Lima, New Mexico, a ghost town

Notable people

• Julian A. Chavez (1808–1879), rancher, landowner and elected official in Los Angeles, California
• José Manuel Gallegos (1815–1875), priest, politician, delegate from New Mexico Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives (1853–56, 1871–73)
• Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist

Notes

1. On December 30, 1849, U.S. Indian Commissioner James S. Calhoun signed the Treaty of Abiquiú with leaders of the Ute people.
2. Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.

References

1. "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Abiquiú, New Mexico
3. ^ "Census Population API". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
4. "2010 Census Gazetteer Files – Places: New Mexico". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
5. Gonzales, Moises (Winter 2014). "The Genizaro Land Grant Settlements of New Mexico". Journal of the Southwest. 56 (4): 588–592. doi:10.1353/jsw.2014.0029. JSTOR 24394959. S2CID 110030860.
6. Gonzales (2014), pp. 583, 588–589
7. Brooks, James F. (2002). Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-80785-382-5.
8. Gonzales (2014), pp. 588–591
9. The United States of America and the Ute Nation (December 30, 1849). "Treaty with the Utah". Retrieved March 11, 2022.
10. ^ "Pueblo de Abiquiú – A Genízaro Community". New Mexico History.org. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
11. Hafen, LeRoy R. & Armijo, Antonio (November 1947). "Armijo's Journal". Huntington Library Quarterly. 11 (1). University of Pennsylvania Press: 87–101. doi:10.2307/3816035. JSTOR 3816035.
12. "Summary of Monthly Normals 1991–2020". National Weather Service. Archived from the original on July 27, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
13. "NOWData – NOAA Online Weather Data". National Weather Service. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
14. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
15. "2020 Census – School District Reference Map: Rio Arriba County, NM" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
16. "The Last Outlaw (TV 1993)". IMDb. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
17. Maddrey, Joseph (2016). The Quick, the Dead and the Revived: The Many Lives of the Western Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-47662-549-2.
18. Gingold, Howard (November 13, 1994). "On the Set : Weathering 'Earth 2'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017.

External links

v t e Municipalities and communities of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States
County seat: Tierra Amarilla
City	Española‡
Village	Chama
CDPs	Abiquiú Alcalde Brazos Canjilon Cañones Canova Chamita Chili Chimayo‡ Cordova Coyote Dixon Dulce El Duende El Rito Ensenada Gallina Hernandez La Madera La Mesilla La Villita Lindrith Los Luceros Los Ojos Lumberton Lybrook Lyden Medanales Ohkay Owingeh Ojo Caliente‡ Ojo Sarco Pueblito Rio Chiquito‡ San Jose San Juan Santa Clara Pueblo Tierra Amarilla Truchas Velarde Youngsville
Other communities	Arroyo Del Agua Cañoncito Cebolla Embudo Las Tablas Navajo City Petaca Rutheron San Lorenzo Vallecitos
Ghost towns and former settlements	Hopewell Riverside Santa Rosa de Lima Sublette
Indian reservations	Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation‡ Santa Clara Indian Reservation‡
Footnotes	‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties
New Mexico portal United States portal

• Census-designated places in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
• Census-designated places in New Mexico
• Old Spanish Trail (trade route)