Cuba

The river the first settlers farmed became a warning. Overgrazing turned the land along the Rio Puerco into a textbook case, and it has never recovered; today the river carries about 78 percent of the suspended sediment entering the Rio Grande while draining only 26 percent of its basin. A railroad once promised to reach this country: the Cuba Extension, begun from San Ysidro in 1924, was graded north toward the coal at La Ventana, well short of Cuba. The village incorporated in 1964 and is now the supply stop for Chaco.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historical Marker Cuba In 1769, Spanish Governor Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta made the San Joaquin del Nacimiento land grant to 35 pioneering families who had settled the headwaters of the Rio Puerco in 1766. The community was later abandoned, owing to raids by frontier Indian tribes, but was resettled in the late 1870s. Originally known as Nacimiento or La Laguna, it was renamed Cuba when the post office was established in 1887.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jemez Historic Site — 22 mi
  The stone walls of a 1620s mission church standing among the ruins of Gisewa, a Jemez village named for the hot springs beside it.

More markers nearby

• Cuba — 1.6 mi
• San Juan Basin — 5.6 mi
• Continental Divide — 10 mi
• Jémez State Monument — 22 mi