Post Office History

San Miguel County Post Office History
This Project made possible by James W. White
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Post Offices Alphabetically Listed

Saint Patrick	November 11, 1850
Jaramillo	August 16, 1851
Charco	August 16, 1851
Montezuma	August 16, 1851
Ribera	July 3, 1858
Sena	January 17, 1873
Beulah	June 24, 1874
El Porvenir	July 7, 1874
Willis	October 26, 1874
Sanchez	January 6, 1875
Coca	March 8, 1876
Guillou	May 15, 1876
Chaves	July 24, 1877
Trementina	October 29, 1877
Onava	January 15, 1878
Jardin	February 6, 1878
Sibley	March 25, 1878
Corazon	March 28, 1878
Maes	March 28, 1878
Hadley	February 14, 1881
Cowles	June 20, 1881
Olguin	November 29, 1881
Variadero	May 11, 1882
Casa Grande	May 26, 1882
Valley Ranch	March 6, 1883
Leyba	March 6, 1883
Buxton	February 7, 1884
Cherryvale	June 6, 1884
Mishawaka	January 27, 1886
El Cerrito	April 24, 1888
Hilaria	July 31, 1888
Trujillo	August 2, 1888
Park Springs	September 18, 1889
Sabinosa	April 3, 1890
Ferndale	May 23, 1890
Doretta	July 6, 1891
Red Mountain	June 27, 1892
Rencona	August 11, 1892
Soham	July 11, 1893
Las Vegas	March 31, 1894
Rociada	May 3, 1894
San Miguel	April 22, 1895
Tecolote	March 26, 1896
San Jose	March 26, 1896
La Cuesta	December 14, 1896
Sapello	June 22, 1898
Johnson	March 4, 1899
Gallinas Spring	September 1, 1899
Chaperito	January 14, 1901
El Pueblo	April 12, 1901
San Lorenzo	February 18, 1902
La Cinta	September 19, 1902
Romeroville	April 21, 1903
Cabra	December 4, 1903
La Liendre	February 16, 1904
Chapman	March 14, 1904
Los Alamos	February 24, 1905
San Hilario	December 21, 1905
Chapelle	January 19, 1907
Lopezville	July 23, 1907
Mineral City	January 14, 1908
Hot Springs	August 13, 1908
La Concepcion	February 23, 1909
Hamilton	February 8, 1910
Pecos	July 16, 1910
Rowe	August 2, 1910
Arragon	September 3, 1910
San Ignacio	October 26, 1912
El Cuervo	July 31, 1913
Bell Ranch	November 7, 1913
Fulton	November 12, 1914
Tajon	July 2, 1915
Mineral Hill	February 9, 1916
Villanueva	November 25, 1916
Oakwood Springs	December 6, 1916
Gavaedon	May 29, 1917
Pendaries	November 13, 1917
Los Vigiles	November 17, 1917
Ilfeld	March 2, 1918
Lourdes	November 23, 1918
Garita	April 29, 1919
Estrada	July 9, 1919
San Geronimo	August 25, 1919
Tecolotenos	August 13, 1920
Serafina	August 28, 1923
Tererro	March 3, 1927
Tapia	November 14, 1927
Hilton Lodge	June 17, 1935
Conchas Dam	July 10, 1936
Guagolotes	July 13, 1937
Mesa Rica	February 11, 1938
Gabaldon	April 8, 1941
Pine	August 3, 1943
Gonzales Ranch	May 1, 1953

The Santa Fe Trail had been open for trade with the United States for over ten years when Las Vegas was first founded. The merchants that settled there were quick to profit from this trade. Business transactions were conducted outside the mails and were carried back and forth by the traders. When the Las Vegas Post Office was established on November 11, 1850, the office was added to the new stage mail route on the Santa Fe Trail. A route was quickly established in Las Vegas to provide faster mail service to Fort Bascom.

With the arrival of the railroad in 1879, Las Vegas became the hub for several routes delivering mail to the eighteen post offices that had been opened since 1850. Those offices located on the railroad route received Railway Post Office (RPO) service. By 1885, routes were established from Las Vegas to Mora, Hot Springs and Fort Bascom via Chaperito. Other routes had been established from Chaperito to Fort Sumner and from San Miguel to Arragon.

When the railroad was completed into Douglas (Tucumcari) and Santa Rosa in December of 1901, two routes were established to speed delivery of the mails. Mail for the Bell Ranch Post Office was routed to Douglas and carried north by a star route. The other route connected Las Vegas to Santa Rosa giving the western part of San Miguel County access to two railroads.

Six star routes were now operating out of the Las Vegas Post. Office to provide mail to the growing number of post offices. Fifty post offices had been established in the county since 1850. More than half of these were still in operation. These routes were constantly changing to accommodate the opening and closing of offices. By 1907 another route had been established from the Montoya Post Office (on the Chicago, Rock Island and El Paso Railroad) to carry mail to Rincon, Variadero, Trementina and Sanchez.

There were over thirty post offices operating in the county in 1912. The increase in the volume of mail and the number of stops created a need for better transportation. Automobiles were making an appearance when the road conditions warranted. Except for gas powered vehicles replacing horse drawn vehicles, the transportation remained about the same until Air Mail route AM 12 began service in 1933. First Flight ceremonies were held in Las Vegas on November 11.

In 1934, Varney Speed Lines (Continental) received an airmail contract (AM 29) with service to Las Vegas. This route replaced AM 12. A second Air Mail route (AM 64) was inaugurated on May 1, 1948. Very few changes were made to the transportation after the Air Mail service was started and none of them were related to the air service. The route out of the Montoya Post office was changed to Newkirk and some of the routes out of Las Vegas were split.

Even the implementation of ZIP Codes and. the creation of the Sectional Center Facility at the Las Vegas Post Office did not alter the transportation. Las Vegas was already the hub for ail the routes in the western part of the county and the offices on the eastern side were given an ZIP Code. These offices were already receiving their mail from Tucumcari.

When the RPO service was terminated in 1967, Highway Contract routes (HCRS) were established to replace the trains. Most mail from outside the county was then . routed to Albuquerque on commercial planes and delivered to Las Vegas by truck. Other HCRs were established from Las Vegas to Santa Fe and Raton. Since then, very few changes have occurred. The stops have changed due to offices being discontinued and the frequency and arrival times have changed due to the mail volumes.

In the summer of 1937, my dad negotiated and purchased the mail and freight delivery contract from Mr. Caldell of Albuquerque. The contract remainder was for the last half of 1937 and all of 1938 and 1939. The route was from Glorieta to Pecos, Valley Ranch, Tererro and Cowles. The first four or five months we used our 1931 Model A roadster convertible to deliver with, but the freight part of the contract was too much. We were finally able to buy a 1938 Dodge one ton stake bed truck that had dual wheels and a lot more power. With the purchase of the newer truck, I was able to go along and help my brother, Charles, with the deliveries. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we started very early because we had to pick up ice at the ice house in Santa Fe. We packed it in saw dust filled boxes to insulate it from the heat. On Tuesday and Thursday we didn't start until 8:00 am at Glorieta.

We would, pick up the mail at the depot in Glorieta and drive across town to deliver it to the Post Office. At the Glorieta Post office, the postmaster would sort out the Glorieta mail and the individual residences mail between Glorieta and Pecos. The individual mail was then placed in sacks that were homemade by each family along the route. Most of the sacks were made out of cloth with each family using a different pattern. Some of the sacks were just flour sacks and a few were made of canvas. Some of the bags had the family name written on them, some just had initials, but most of them we learned which bag was theirs by which pattern the cloth had. The only requirement that the bags had was that they all had to have a tie string or snaps. Any mail that was not put into the sacks was then put into the Pecos bag.

After we loaded the bags we took off for Pecos, which was about 5 miles down US 85. As Charles drove, I would toss the sacks into each families box along the route. Once in a while the box was on the left and Charles would have to toss the sack. We got pretty good and usually hit the boxes. Stops were only made for putting packages in the box. These boxes were all hand made and were set on posts so that they were the same height as the truck windows. The boxes were everything from old fruit and vegetable crates to boxes that were cut and nailed together. The owners would come out to pick up their mail and put any mail that had to be sent out back in them. They would then hang the sacks out of the box with a rock to weight down the end and keep it from falling out of the box. As we drove by real slow to put the mail into the box, we would grab the outgoing mail or empty sack out of the box.

When we got to Pecos, we delivered the mail to the Harrison Store, which also housed the Post Office at the rear of the store. We would help Mr, Harrison sort the mail out for Pecos, and filled all the sacks that were delivered between Pecos and the Valley Ranch. When we were finished we sorted the remainder into the Valley Ranch bag. After loading the mail again we left for the Valley Ranch, about five or six miles down the road. This was the slowest part of the trip because there were always kids and dogs playing on the road, and because the old adobe houses were built so close to the road making the road very narrow. It would usually take us 30 or 40 minutes to make this part of the run.

At Valley Ranch we again unloaded all of the mail and sorted it. The Post Office here was in the main building of the dude ranch. We sorted out the Valley Ranch mail and any individual mail that had to be delivered on the way to Tererro. After loading up again we left for Tererro. This was the longest part of the route, about 17 miles. Just past Valley Ranch was another dude ranch. The Brush Ranch was the largest mail drop that we had, and we usually had to stop there because they would have so much mail I could not throw it from the truck to the box. The road stayed along the Pecos River until we were about four miles from Tererro. Here the road began to switchback up the side of the canyon. Also here is where we had the most trouble during the winter. Sometimes, after a heavy snow, we would fight that stretch of road for hours, and once in a while we just couldn't make it up the hill. We never went more than one day though without delivering the mail to Tererro and beyond.

At Tererro we unloaded the mail again and sorted it for the last time. There were only two individual sacks and the rest went to Cowles. The first sack we delivered was about a mile out of Tererro. This was a store and gas station owned by an Italian man. I remember the one gas pump. It was one that you had to pump the gas into the glass top and then gravity feed it into your vehicle. He also made a sausage and cheese that he would slice like bologna. We would buy four slices of meat and four slices of cheese and enough bread to make four sandwiches. Further along the Pecos River came alongside the road again. If we were running ahead of schedule we would stop there, eat our lunch, and watch people fish. If we we're behind, then we kept on going and I would make lunch and we would eat while we were driving.

When we got to Cowles, we made out last delivery to old man Jiles at his store. His store was just below the Post Office at the base of the hill, but he was so old he couldn't climb the hill to the Post Office so we dropped his mail off. At Cowles we unloaded the mail and picked up any return mail. We also picked up any mail that Mr. Jiles had as we left. At each Post Office we dropped off the empty individual sacks, removed any out going mail from them and kept on going.

Sometimes the bags would hang up on a nail or some splintered wood and as I grabbed it would tear. The next day we would tape the bag up and put a note in it for the family to please sew their bag up that day. We would have to be back at the Glorieta Post office by 5:00pm so that the mail could be sorted and delivered to the train station before the afternoon train came through. We were almost always back at Glorieta by 4:30pm.

The freight part of the contract was the delivery of ice and produce to the people along the route. The ice was for their ice boxes as there was no electricity in the area. Our worst ice delivery was at Valley Ranch, where the kitchen was upstairs, and no one would help us carry the fifty pound blocks. On the three days we delivered freight and mail, we were completely wore out by the time we got home.
Note: The above story consists of excerpts from Mr. Dewitt's written story and conversations I had with him. James W. White

This presentation is an abstract from the Book The History of San Miguel County Post Offices Copyright 1997 by James W. White. The material is the copyright of James W. White and must not be copied in any manner. For further information concerning availability of the set of post office books written by Mr. White, please write to him directly.

CASA GRANDE
Dionisio Ulibarri July 23, 1907
Tomasita G. de Ulibarri February 19, 1909

HATCH'S RANCH / CHAPDIAN
Robert J. Hamilton March 28, 1878
John L. Chapman January 27, 1879

EL PUEBLO
Jose Lino Rivera March 8, 1876
Antonio A. Rivera June 4, 1884
Jose S. Ribera January 19, 1885
Francisco R. y Baca July 14, 1892

FERNDALE
William P. Cook November 12, 1914
Maude K. Reindorf May 14, 1915
Henry Lesperance February 5, 1919

GUIILLOU
H. C. Guillou September 1, 1899
Sostenes Esquibel October 10, 1902
Gregorio S. Esquibel April 30, 1903

HILARIO
Jose G. Romero September 3, 1910
Adelaido B. Gonzales May 21, 1914
Frederico Gurule August 18, 1916
Lorenzo Gonzales January 7, 1919

LA CONCEPCION
Carlos Martinez May 26, 1882
Domingo Moore August 2, 1882
Carlos Martinez April 12, 1883

LOPEZVILLE
Felipe Delgado y Lucero June 20, 1881
Felipe Lopez October 15, 1884
W. S. Goodley December 8, 1885

LOS ALAMOS
Andres Sena March 28, 1878
William Frank February 24, 1887
Albino G. Gallegos June 9, 1911

LOS VIGILES
Epifanio A. Crespin November 17, 1917
David Garcia August 22, 1919
Epifanio A. Crespin March 29, 1920

MINERAL CITY
John W. Barney November 29, 1881
Oscar F. Roberts November 20, 1882

PECOS
Atanacio Riobal March 6, 1883
Antonio Varela September 22, 1884
Arthur L. Bailhache January 13, 1887
Discontinued September 11, 1888
Transito Chavez June 3, 1893
Atanasio Roibal July 19, 1894
Refugito Bustamante April 5, 1902
Aniceto Bustamante May 2, 1904
John W. Harrison June 28, 1904
Charles S. Earickson April 6, 1914
Refugio Vigil May 16, 1928

EL PUEBLO
Jose Lino Rivera March 8, 1876
Antonio A. Rivera June 4, 1884
Jose S. Ribera January 19, 1885
Francisco R. y Baca July 14, 1892

FERNDALE
William P. Cook November 12, 1914
Maude K. Reindorf May 14, 1915
Henry Lesperance February 5, 1919

Guillou
H. C. Guillou September 1, 1899
Sostenes Esquibel October 10, 1902
Gregorio S. Esquibel April 30, 1903

HILARIO
Jose G. Romero September 3, 1910
Adelaido B. Gonzales May 21, 1914
Frederico Gurule August 18, 1916
Lorenzo Gonzales January 7, 1919

FORT BASCOM / JOHNSON
Arthur A. Fletcher July 7, 1874
Francis H. Davenport July 6, 1875
Charles Ebel September 6, 1875
Bishop Goodrich March 30, 1876
Charles B. Austin April 9, 1877
James T. R. Stapp November 7, 1877
W. A. Clark September 9, 1878
Andrew Nelson April 23, 1879
Discontinued November 8, 1880
William J. Waddingham December 20, 1880
Stephen E. Booth December 11, 1884
Name Changed to Johnson January 23, 1892
Andrew H. Souter January 23, 1892
Isaac H. Garvey August 22, 1894

LA CONCEPCION
Carlos Martinez May 26, 1882
Domingo Moore August 2, 1882
Carlos Martinez April 12, 1883

LA LIENDRE
Manuel Baca February 6, 1878
Cecilio Royval January 13, 1879
Discontinued January 29, 1880
Ezequiel C. de Baca September 4, 1882

SAN GERONIMO
Sostenes Esquibel August 25, 1919
Louise Biesman January 11, 1922
Ludwig 0. Siegling September 8, 1922
Antonio Lucero December 18, 1942
Mrs. Praxedis Herrera May 31, 1944

SENA
Vicente Martinez April 22, 1895
Epifania G. Medina March 19, 1935
Eurcinia Manzanares February 11, 1939
Orlando C. Sena October 29, 1969

SERAFINA
Basilio Griego August 28, 1923
Petrita G. Sandoval November 14, 1927
Max Gonzales February 7, 1936
Ramona 0. Bustamante March 30, 1974
Lucy T. Dimas October 31, 1975

TAPIA
Filiberto M. Tapia November 14, 1927
Magadalena Archibeque December 29, 1928
Mrs. Porfirio Tapia November 20, 1937
Daniel S. Chavez March 13, 1939

KOOGLER / TECOLOTENOS
Clare V. Koogler August 13, 1920
John O. McCauley April 14, 1922
Victoriano Padilla January 30, 1931

SAN GERONIMO
Sostenes Esquibel August 25, 1919
Louise Biesman January 11, 1922
Ludwig 0. Siegling September 8, 1922
Antonio Lucero December 18, 1942
Mrs. Praxedis Herrera May 31, 1944