Quemado

The panel reads the name off the volcanic country around the town. The story the Padilla family handed down is plainer: arriving from Belen, they found the brush along the creek scorched, burned, they said, by Native people, and called it Rito Quemado. The town became the trading point and road junction for western Catron County ranches. Since 1977 it has had a second role. Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field, four hundred polished steel poles in a grid a mile by a kilometer, can be seen only overnight, and visitors meet the Dia Art Foundation driver here.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Quemado Population 1,028 - Elevation 6,890 ft. Spanish word for "burned," Quemado is located in an extinct volcanic area. This community was first settled in 1880 by José Antonio Padilla, who brought sheep and started the stock raising industry in this part of the state. Quemado was once famous for its colony of rodeo celebrities in Largo Canyon south of town.

Where it stands