Mountainair

Mountainair was laid out in 1903 ahead of the Santa Fe Railway's Belen cutoff, whose first through trains ran in 1907, and one of its founders, John Corbett, meant it to be more than a bean town. He met visitors at the depot himself and ran a lecture series to make the place a cultural center, until his death in 1917 ended it. The depot is now on the National Register, and the Manzano Mountain Art Council, founded in 1995, has revived the lectures. The beans themselves gave out in the drought of 1946 to 1950.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Mountainair Population 1,170 - Elevation 6,535 Founded in 1902, Mountainair developed as a major center for pinto bean farming in the early 20th century until the drought of the 1940s. The region had been occupied earlier by Tompiro and eastern Tiwa pueblo Indians from prehistoric times through the mid-17th century, when it served as a major center for Span- ish Franciscan missionaries.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument — 6.2 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

• Mountainair — 1.0 mi
• Quarai Ruins — 6.1 mi
• Abó Ruins — 9.6 mi
• Tajique — 16 mi