Old View Cimarron, New Mexico Gallery

IMAGES OF THE AMERICAN WEST

Cimarron, NM Vintage Photographs

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Cimarron's old town today

Old Town Cimarron today, Kathy Weiser, June, 2006.

First home to numerous Indian tribes, including the Ancient Puebloans, Jicarilla Apache, and Ute; Cimarron, located on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, soon became the headquarters for the largest land grant in the United States. When Lucien B. Maxwell, a fur trapper from Illinois, came to the area in the 1840's, he married the daughter of one of the owners of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant and by 1857, had bought out the grant, renaming it the Maxwell Land Grant. He soon built a mansion that was as large as a city block and the settlement began to grow.

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When the town of Cimarron was officially established in 1861 and was named for the Spanish word meaning "wild" and "unbroken." The name was extremely fitting at the time, as Cimarron was quickly attracting mountain men, outlaws, trappers, gold seekers, traders and cowboys. The settlement soon attracted the likes of such frontier characters as Clay Allison, Black Jack Ketchum, Jesse James and Buffalo Bill Cody

It was the site of the controversial Colfax County War in the late 1800's and served as the Colfax County seat from 1872 to 1882.

Today, Cimarron is a charming little small town that exudes its rich history in its museums and historic buildings, and is well worth a visit.