Santa Barbara, New Mexico

Santa Barbara is a former settlement in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, now the site of Hatch, New Mexico. It lay at an elevation of 4,058 feet/1,237 meters.^[1]^[2]

History

Santa Barbara was first established by native New Mexican farmers in 1851, along the road between the Jornada del Muerto and Cooke's Wagon Road northwest of the San Diego Crossing. Apache raids soon drove them away until 1853 when Fort Thorn, was constructed nearby to the west northwest that protected it from the raids of the Apache.^[3]

Following the abandonment of Fort Thorn in 1859, the fort continued to be the location of the Apache Agency of Dr. Michael Steck. However the Agency and Santa Barbara were abandoned in 1860 in the face resumed Navajo raiding.^[4] Hatch was later founded in 1875, on the site of Santa Barbara.^[5]

References

^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Hatch
^ Hatch Variant Name: Santa Barbara
^ Sanitary Report - Fort Thorn by Asst. Surgeon P. A. Quinan; Sept. 1858, Statistical Report on the Sickness and Mortality in the Army of the United States, United States, Surgeon-General's Office, George W. Bowman, Printer, Washington, D. C., 1860, p.224, "The Mexican village of Santa Barbara is in the neighborhood of the garrison."
^ Julyan, Robert Hixson (1998) "Hatch " The place names of New Mexico (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 162, ISBN 0-8263-1688-3
^ Archuletta, Phil T. and Holden, Sharyl S. (2003) "Hatch" Traveling New Mexico: A Guide to the Historical and State Park Markers, Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM, page 111, ISBN 0-86534-400-0