Estancia

Estancia is a Spanish word for a stay, or an estate, and the town took it from the ranch at the springs. Bartolomé Baca, granted the land in 1819, built a ranch house and corrals there; under the Otero family, who bought the Baca grant in 1874, the headquarters was a one-story house of terrones, sod bricks cut from the wet ground around the springs. It was taken down early in the 1900s and its terrones reused in two houses, one still standing. New Mexico's last legal hanging took place in Estancia at sunrise on April 6, 1923.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Estancia Population1,830 - Elevation 6,107 Incorporated in 1909 and county seat of Torrance County since 1905, Estancia is located in an enclosed valley or basin. It was ranching country until the early 20th century, when the coming of the railroad opened it to home- steaders and farmers. Pinto beans were the best known local crop until the 1950s.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument — 17 mi
  Three Spanish mission churches raised over Tiwa and Tompiro pueblos east of the Manzano Mountains in the 1600s, each of its own stone, and one never finished.

More markers nearby

• Estancia — 1.0 mi
• Homesteader Mary Ellen "Mollie" Hall Warren Klapp — 12 mi
• Tajique — 13 mi
• Laguna del Perro — 13 mi