Blackdom Townsite

Blackdom Townsite is a New Mexico historical marker in Chaves County.

US 285 -- Roswell vicinity -- south of Roswell

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West of this location stood the now abandoned community of Blackdom. The community was founded circa 1908 by Francis Marion Boyer and his wife Ella. Several dozen African American families homesteaded nearly 15,000 acres of land and built a self-sustaining community that boasted a general store and a Baptist Church. Officially platted in 1920, the community was eventually abandoned due to continued problems with irrigation from the distant Pecos River.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1889 · New Mexico. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1916 · New Mexico (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1925 · Arizona, New Mexico (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1927 · State of New Mexico. General Land Office. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1952 · Hagerman SW, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

New Mexico, 1916, covering the location of Blackdom Townsite, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — New Mexico, 1916, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

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