There is much to see and do in Northeast New Mexico with its legendary past and beautiful expansive countryside.

Plains Indians once wandered the area before merchants and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail forged through the region, naming many landmarks along the way such as Wagon Mound, Rabbit Ear Mountain, Point of Rocks and the Tooth of Time near Cimarron.

Although the Santa Fe Trail and later the coming of the railroad in the 1880s brought some degree of American refinement to this frontier territory, a barbarous existence was not to be denied. Many characters right from the book of the Wild West made a name for themselves in these parts. Billy the Kid was known to ride through here, as well as Train Robber, Black Jack Tom Ketchum, and Robber's Roost Gang Member William Coe; downing whiskey and letting bullets fly at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, which still has evidence from those wilder times of more than a century ago.

The natural world dominates the Northeast region, especially at Capulín Volcano National Monument, an extinct volcanic cone with a road to the top, where Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas are clearly visible.

To the west the Sangre de Cristo Mountains impose their presence on the many diverse cultures that flourish here. Sangre de Cristo means "blood of Christ" in Spanish, and although the name's origin is unclear, historians believe that Spanish penitentes first began calling the mountains that in the 1800s - they likened the red hues of the mountains at sunrise and sunset to Christ's blood.

Capulin Mountain. From the top you can see five states New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, Photo Courtesy NM Film Office Library