Rio Grande

Doña Ana County · US 70 -- Off Picacho Ave. near river in La Llorona Park

(SIDE 1) The Rio Grande (big river) has been an integral part of the history of New Mexico for thousands of years. Running through the entire state, it is both its backbone and lifeblood. It originates in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then forms the boundary between Texas and Mexico before spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Over 1,800 miles long, it is one of the great rivers of the world. (SIDE 2) The Rio Grande has provided water for irrigated crops and sustenance to countless peoples who have lived and traveled along its banks. The river flow through the Mesilla Valley is now highly channeled and controlled by several dams, the largest of which is Elephant Butte Dam, seventy miles north. Consequently, the river no longer changes course or floods as it frequently did in the past.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands.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

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USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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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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