A History of Lincoln County Post Offices
Chronological Index
By C. W. Barnum
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Post Office History Details Date Founded
Fort Stanton May 5, 1857
South Fork September 28, 1866
Roswell August 20 1873
Lincoln September 19, 1873
White Sulpher Springs* February 15, 1875
Rudolph* November 4, 1878
Seven Rivers* December 9, 1878
Sunnyside* November 4, 1878
White Oaks June 4, 1880
Galena* November 4, 1880
Manchester June 10, 1881
Vera Cruz July 5, 1881
Red Cloud March 30, 1882
Nogal May 9, 1882
Ruidoso May 22, 1882
Bonito City Aug 24, 1882
Three Rivers* April 2, 1883
Lookout* November 13, 1883
Chisum August 14, 1884
Upper Penasco* (Mayhill) August 25, 1884
Lower Penasco November 11, 1884
Weed December 2, 1885
Parsons January 24, 1888
Bass* February 15, 1888
Kennedy* June 2, 1888
Eddy* December 1, 1888
Churchville* September 13, 1889
Pine Springs April 3, 1890 
Cole* June 25, 1890
Hope* Hope October 10, 1890
Picacho June 11, 1891
Jicarilla December 21, 1892
Elk* August 10, 1894
Gray* August 20, 1894
Richardson* See Capitan April 3, 1895
Reventon Rabenton February 26, 1896
Angus March 10, 1898
Crow Flat* June 16, 1898
Hondo February 6, 1900
Capitan February 6, 1900
Arabela October 11, 1900
Oscuro / Oscura March 28, 1901
Alto May 20, 1901
Glencoe November 14, 1901
Corona February 20, 1902
Carrizozo May 31, 1902
Ancho June 12, 1902
Torrance* June 13, 1902
Analla* (See Tinnie) April 27, 1903
Coalora* (See Capitan) June 15, 1903
Meek January 5, 1904
San Patricio June 18, 1904
Eichel* See Capitan June 7, 1906
Eichel* See Ancho June 7, 1906
Holloway* May 9, 1908
Tinnie April 5, 1909
Hulburt October 6, 1908
White Mountain* December 18, 1912
Encinosa* (See Capitan) May 25, 1915
Deseo July 25, 1916
Spindle* February 13, 1918
Bogle November 15, 1919
Bursum* January 12, 1922
Carolita* January 14, 1922
Joneta* December 8, 1922
Pine Lodge* August 14, 1923
Ramon November 13, 1925
Doso* May 21, 1925
Hollywood May 22, 1926
Green Tree January 16, 1947
Ruidoso Downs October 1, 1958

 A History of Lincoln County Post Offices
The Postmasters and Historians of Lincoln County. 
 The National Association of Postmasters of the United States
The New Mexico Chapter of NAPUS
The Lincoln County Chapter of NAPUS
The Postmasters and Employees of Lincoln County
The Volunteers named herein who contributed to this history
The Ruidoso Printing Company, Ruidoso New Mexico, 88345
Presented by permission of the Lincoln County Postmasters and authors. 

A History of Lincoln County Post Offices
Folklore and Tales about People and Postmasters
in early Southeastern New Mexico

This Historical reference Work Was Issued in 
The Golden Anniversary Year of New Mexico's Statehood--1962.

History of Lincoln County Post Offices
(This taken from the 1913 Lincoln County, New Mexico Year Book published at Carrizozo, New Mexico by the late John A. Haley.)

Lincoln County

Lincoln County was created by an act of the Territorial Legislature in 1869, and was not, therefore, one of the original nine counties in the organization of the territory after it had been acquired from Mexico. It was one of the first created, however, after the organization of the Territory, and at the same time the largest. Soon after its organization the county seat was established at Lincoln, then known as the Bonito Plaza. There the seat of the government remained until 1909, at which time the county seat was changed to Carrizozo, where all courts have since been held and where a new court house and jail have been completed. 
Originally Lincoln County covered all the southeastern part of the Territory--about on-fifth of its total area. Three entire counties--Chaves, Eddy and Roosevelt--have been carved out of its former territory, and four other counties--Curry, Guadalupe, Otero and Torrance--contain a portion of its first area.
Lincoln County now occupies a position a little south and east of the south center of New Mexico, and is bounded as follows:

On the north by Torrance and Guadalupe counties. on the east by Chaves County, on the south by Chaves and Otero Counties and o the west by Socorro County. 

It has an area of 4,659 square miles, approximately 3,000,000 acres, of about 1,250,000 acres are subject to homestead entry. A considerable portion of its area is classed as mineral land and more than half a million acres lie in the Lincoln National forest, which covers the central part of the county--its mountain ranges. Lands may be homesteaded in the reserve, when shown to be agricultural, and many settlers now reside within in its boundaries. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... 
Due to the sparsely settled communities in our county all activities centered around the small post offices. In order to pass this information on to future generations, the county organizations of the New Mexico Chapter of the National Association of postmasters of the United States, began a program toward that end.
The first sep was obtaining the authentic records from the Post Office Department in Washington, D.C., on the county offices, names , dates, and appointments of postmasters. This covered the first post office in 1873 through 1939. From 1930 to 1962, when the first book was published the information was supplied by the personnel in the 16 county offices then in existence. For this revised copy, additional records from the National Archives have been received. These records are from 1931 thorough 1971.
To the people who furnished the folklore and human interest stories the Lincoln County Postmasters are deeply grateful.
There may be variations and contradictions in dates and names due to the differences in recollection in our gracious contributors but to the best of our abilities this is historical and legendary in its entirety.

Transcribed by C. W. Barnum ©2005