Rayado, New Mexico

This article is about the settlement. For other uses, see Rayado (disambiguation).
Rayado, New Mexico
Kit Carson Museum, Rayado, New Mexico
Kit Carson Museum, Rayado, New Mexico
Coordinates: 36°22′07″N 104°55′37″W / 36.36861°N 104.92694°W / 36.36861; -104.92694
CountryUnited States
StateNew Mexico
CountyColfax
Elevation
[1]
6,510 ft (1,980 m)
GNIS feature ID915884[1]

Rayado (uncommonly Reyado or Ryado) 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.[2]

Some of the land in the townsite was purchased by Waite Phillips in the 1920s and Phillips later donated it to the Boy Scouts of America and it became part of the Philmont Scout Ranch.

Today, Rayado is the home of the Kit Carson Museum, the Maxwell-Abreu house, the Martinez house, the Holy Child chapel, and La Posta, a Santa Fe Trail stage stop dating from the 1850s.

  1. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rayado, New Mexico
  2. ^ Pearce, T.M. (1965). Rayado. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico. p. 130. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)