Rayado or Reyado (older Ryado) was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, 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. Some of the land in the townsite was purchased by

Waite Phillips Waite Phillips (January 19, 1883 – January 27, 1964) was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also develo ...

in the 1920s and Phillips later donated it to the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

and it became part of the Philmont Scout Ranch. Today, Rayado is the home of the Kit Carson Museum including his reconstructed home, and ''La Posta'', a Santa Fe Trail stage stop dating from the 1850s.

Background

Rayado is located where the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail intersects with the Cimarron Trail to

Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., and the oldest perma ...

. Rayado is at , along State Route 21 at the extreme southeast corner of

Philmont Scout Ranch Philmont Scout Ranch is a ranch located in Colfax County, New Mexico, near the village of Cimarron; it covers of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Rocky Mountains. Donated by oil baro ...

. One mile to the south is a classic

southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...

, called Kit Carson Mesa. Rayado Mesa is located southeast of Rayado and Rayado Peak at is located west of Rayado on the

. Rayado was founded by Lucien Maxwell in 1848 at the end of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, as the first

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

s settlement in New Mexico east of the mountain valleys of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Because the plains were still subject to raids by Apache, Comanche and other Indians, he had difficulty attracting settlers, so he convinced

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

to move down from

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

in 1849 to lend an air of safety to the enterprise. Maxwell married his bride Luis Beaubien (daughter of

Carlos Beaubien Charles H. Beaubien (October 22, 1800 – February 6, 1864), also known as Alexis Beaubien, Don Carlos Beaubien and Charles Trotier, was a Canadian-born American fur trader who was one of two investors who owned of northeastern New Mexico and sou ...

) in Rayado and they lived there before moving to Cimarron.Julyan, Robert (1998) "Rayado" ''Place Names of New Mexico'' (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, p.287, . A federal garrison post was established in Rayado in 1850 and lasted until Fort Union was opened.Rathburn, Daniel C. B. And Alexander, David V. (2003) "Rayado, Post at Colfax County" ''New Mexico Frontier Military Place Names'' Yucca Tree Press, Las Cruces, NM, p. 144, Jesus Gil Abreu who also married a Beaubien daughter had his Abreu Ranch house there on the banks of the Rayado Creek from 1859 until his death in 1911. There was a post office there from 1873 to 1919. Kit Carson Mesa

References

External links

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Colfax County, New Mexico