Jack M. Campbell

The commission named this road for Jack Campbell before it carried the number on the panel. In 1965 it was State Roads 111 and 553; US-64 was moved onto it only on November 11, 1972, when the route was cut back from Santa Fe and carried west to Farmington. Campbell, elected governor in 1962, had called an east-west highway across the north the state's first project, and promised Colorado-like scenery with "plenty of potential ski runs." When the gorge bridge opened, a few miles toward Tierra Amarilla were still unpaved, the last gap in the transcontinental route.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Jack M. Campbell Taos To Tierra Amarilla This road passes through some of the most spectacular scenery in the American Southwest. It is a key section of the east-west highway which brings visitors to this region from throughout the United States. Since this route became a reality through the leadership and perseverance of Governor Jack M. Campbell (1963-1966), the members of the New Mexico State Highway Commission voted unanimously on September 23, 1965 to name this portion of US 64 in his honor.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge — 0.3 mi
  A steel truss strung across a slot in the basalt west of Taos, 565 feet above the river by the careful measure and 650 by the signs, built when the road beyond it did not yet exist.
• San Francisco de Asís Church, Ranchos de Taos — 10 mi
  The adobe church at Ranchos de Taos that artists always paint from behind, kept standing by the mud its parish spreads over it every June.
• Taos Pueblo — 10 mi
  Two terraced adobe houses facing each other across Red Willow Creek, lived in for something like a thousand years, with no electricity or running water inside the old walls.

More markers nearby

• Rio Grande Gorge State Park — 0.4 mi
• Lawrence Ranch — 7.9 mi
• Taos — 9.0 mi
• Kit Carson Memorial Cemetery — 10.0 mi