Portales

The peanut crop on this panel came to lean on one plant. Valencia peanuts, a sweet variety grown in eastern New Mexico and nearby Texas, went largely to the Sunland plant here, for years the country's largest organic peanut processor. In 2012 its products were linked to forty-one salmonella cases in twenty states, and on November 26 it became the first food plant to have its federal registration suspended. It reopened, then closed in bankruptcy in October 2013. A new owner restarted the plant three years later, but most Valencia growers had moved on to other crops.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Portales Elevation 4004 ft. Portales derives its name from the porch- like appearance of a cave entrance at nearby Portales Springs. It developed as a major peanut producing region in the early twentieth century, after the Pecos Valley Railroad opened the area for commercial agricultural development. Eastern New Mexico University was founded here in 1934.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackwater Draw — 6.9 mi
  The site between Clovis and Portales that gave the Clovis culture its name, found by a nineteen-year-old in 1929 and dug for decades inside a working gravel pit.

More markers nearby

• Eastern New Mexico University — steps away
• Portales — 2.5 mi
• Rose Powers White — 7.5 mi
• Blackwater Draw — 7.5 mi