The Otowi Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

in northern

Santa Fe County Santa Fe County (; meaning "County of the Holy faith" in Spanish) is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, its population was 154,823, making it New Mexico's third-most populous county, after Bernalillo Count ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, having four

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

and three

contributing structures In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

including Otowi Suspension Bridge and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975. Otowi (

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...

, ''p'otsuivi'', "gap where water sinks") is a place on the west bank of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

at the head of

White Rock Canyon White Rock is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. It is one of two major population centers in the county; the other is Los Alamos (the county seat). The population was 5,725 at the 2 ...

. Established in 1886 with the name ''White Rock Cañon'', it was little more than a stop (with a salvaged

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

for a station building) and a river crossing on the D&RGW's Santa Fe Branch, the

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

railroad popularly known as the

Chili Line The Chili Line, officially known as the Santa Fe Branch, was a narrow-gauge branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW). It ran from Antonito, Colorado, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) began ...

. In 1923, nearby

Los Alamos Ranch School Los Alamos Ranch School was a private ranch school for boys in the northeast corner of Sandoval County, New Mexico (since 1949, within Los Alamos County), U.S., founded in 1917 near San Ildefonso Pueblo. During World War II, the school was bou ...

requested a post office here using the ranch name. But a place near

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

already had that name, so three other names were submitted, and the US Post Office Department chose Otowi. A single-lane, suspension road bridge was built in 1924. The railroad was removed and the post office closed in 1941. When Los Alamos Ranch School was taken over by the

US Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...

in 1943 to become the secret Los Alamos nuclear physics laboratory, most passenger traffic serving the town and laboratory travelled on

New Mexico State Road 4 New Mexico State Road 4 (NM 4) is a State highway#United States, state highway in Sandoval County, New Mexico, Sandoval, Los Alamos County, New Mexico, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Santa Fe counties in New Mexico, United ...

(now renumbered

NM 502 New Mexico State Road 502 (NM 502) is a state highway in New Mexico, United States of America. It is notable as the main access route to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preser ...

), crossing the river at Otowi (heavy freight traffic was routed further north, crossing the river at Española, due to limited loading on the suspension bridge). This place is the setting for

Peggy Pond Church Margaret Hallett Pond (December 1, 1903 – October 23, 1986), known under the pen name Peggy Pond Church, was an American author and poet. She was known as "one of the American west's major poets" and was compared to poet Witter Bynner. Bor ...

's historical memoir, ''The House at Otowi Bridge,'' (1959) which chronicles the life of Edith Warner from 1921 to 1951. She was postmistress and shopkeeper in the early years, and later the hostess of tearooms which became popular with scientists from the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

References

{{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Geography of Santa Fe County, New Mexico Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area National Register of Historic Places in Santa Fe County, New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties Railway stations in the United States opened in 1886 1886 establishments in New Mexico Territory Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad

See also

References