Mora, New Mexico | |
|---|---|
  Mora Location within thestate ofNew Mexico | |
| Coordinates:35°58′27″N105°19′48″W / 35.97417°N 105.33000°W /35.97417; -105.33000[1] | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Mexico |
| County | Mora County |
| Area | |
• Total | 8.03 sq mi (20.81 km2) |
| • Land | 8.03 sq mi (20.81 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
| Elevation | 7,172 ft (2,186 m) |
| Population | |
• Total | 547 |
| • Density | 68.1/sq mi (26.29/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
| ZIP Code | 87732 |
| Area code | 575 |
| FIPS code | 35-50090[1] |
| GNIS feature ID | 0915867[1] |
Mora orSanta Gertrudis de lo de Mora is anunincorporated community andcensus-designated place (CDP) inMora County,New Mexico, United States. It is theseat of Mora County. It is located about halfway betweenLas Vegas andTaos on Highway 518, at an altitude of 7,180 feet (2,190 m). As of the2020 census, the population of Mora was 547,[3] down from 656 in2010.[4]
The Mora area includes threeplazas and four settlements: Mora proper (corresponding to the CDP); Cleveland (originally named San Antonio), 2 miles (3 km) to the northwest; Chacon, 11 miles (18 km) north of Cleveland; and Holman (without a plaza, and originally named Agua Negra) lying between Chacon and Cleveland. In the mid-19th century, there were two settlements, Upper and Lower Mora.
TheRepublic of Texas performed a semi-official raid on Mora in 1843. Two short battles of theMexican–American War were fought in Mora in 1847, whereU.S. troops eventually defeated theHispano andPuebloanmilitia, effectively ending theTaos Revolt in the Mora Valley. The latter battle destroyed most of the community, necessitating its re-establishment.
Spanish settlers had sporadically occupied what is now known as the Mora Valley since the late 18th century. The surviving written history of the settlement of Mora dates to 1818, when a group of settlers petitioned to build a church in what was then named "Lo de Mora";[5] or in long formSanta Gertrudis de lo de Mora; they had come fromSan Juan de los Caballeros[6] (originally Caypa Pueblo, and today namedOhkay Owingeh).
However, Mora was formally founded as a Hispanic farming community – afterMexican independence from Spain – upon aland grant issued September 28, 1835, byCentralist Republic of MexicoGovernor of Nuevo MexicoAlbino Pérez.[7] TheMora Land Grant provided title to a strip of Mora Valley land to each of dozens of families willing to settle there.[7][8][6] Despite fanciful stories about subsistence on berries (mora means "mulberry" in Spanish), the valley, the river, the town, and eventually the county appear to have taken their name from the family name Mora, borne by several of the settlers.[7][6] Whilemulberry trees are found in the area,[6] they were likely introduced by Spanish or later settlers.
The whole eastern half of New Mexico was claimed by the breakawayRepublic of Texas in 1836, but was not occupied by American troops until the arrival ofStephen W. Kearny and his Army of the West in 1846.
The settlement, of Hispanos from elsewhere in New Mexico and localPuebloans, was well established by 1843, when there was a raid on the town byfreebooters from theRepublic of Texas under ColonelCharles A. Warfield,[5] claiming that the people in Mora had purchased stolen Texan cattle from theComanche. The Texans killed five men and took eighteen women and childrencaptive, as well as 75 horses. The people of the Mora Valley convened aposse, overtook the Texans, and sent them back to Texas on foot.[8]
Mora was subject to occupying United States control under theU.S. provisional government of New Mexico beginning in 1846, during theMexican–American War. The town, then consisting of the two settlements of Upper and Lower Mora,[9] (sometimes misspelled "Moro" in American documents of the era) was the site of two armed conflicts betweenUnited States Army troops and amilitia ofHispano andPuebloanMexican-nationalists, in theTaos Revolt, aguerrilla campaign of the war. In theFirst Battle of Mora, on January 24, 1847, a group of over 150 New Mexican resistance fighters repelled an expedition of 80 US Army troops and killed their commander, CaptainIsrael R. Hendley, and several others. On February 1, Capt.Jesse I. Morin and his 200 men, with artillery, destroyed the village and surrounding ranches and crops, in retaliation. This sent surviving combatant and civilian residents of Mora and its environs fleeing into and over the mountains to other settlements.[10] The town was rebuilt some time later, after crops could be re-established. This destruction has made historical and genealogical research on Mora difficult earlier than 1848, because most early records went up in flames with the buildings.
The entire war ended February 3, 1848, with all of New Mexico then under official US control, as theMexican Cession of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo relinquished all claims by Mexico to lands north of theRio Grande. TheNew Mexico Territory was formalized by theCompromise of 1850. The US Army controversially builtFort Union in 1851 on private Mora Grant land in the valley, along theSanta Fe Trail; while this sparked decades of unresolved legal actions, local farmers sold crops to the fort, which was a new and reliable source of income to the community, and the population swelled.Ceran St. Vrain, an American veteran of the Taos Revolt (originally fromSt. Louis in what was then theFrench Upper Louisiana Territory), settled in Mora in 1853; he built agrist mill, and became a major supplier of flour, grain, and fodder to the fort. The ruins of St. Vrain's mill still sit one block north of Mora's main street.[8]
The county of Mora was established in the territory on February 1, 1860.[6] Mora continued to grow as an agricultural community; by the late 19th century, there were five mills operating in Mora, though Fort Union, after being rebuilt for a second time, was finally closed in 1891. The population peaked around 1920, declined markedly for several decades, then stabilized in the 1970s. It remains about 80% hispanic.(SeeMora County, New Mexico § Demographics for details.)
Mora is in western Mora County, in the valley of theMora River along the eastern edge of theSangre de Cristo Mountains.New Mexico State Road 518 passes through the center of the community, leading south 30 miles (48 km) toLas Vegas and north-northwest over the Sangre de Cristos 47 miles (76 km) toTaos, passing throughCleveland andHolman along the way.SR 434 leads north from Mora 36 miles (58 km) toU.S. Route 64 atAgua Fria, whileSR 94 leads south 9 miles (14 km) to the Quebraditas Valley.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the Mora CDP has an area of 8.0 square miles (20.7 km2), all of it recorded as land.[2] The Mora River passes through the center of the community, flowing southeast to join theCanadian River inSan Miguel County.
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 656 | — | |
| 2020 | 547 | −16.6% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[11][4][3] | |||
The settlement is mentioned inWilla Cather's 1927historical novelDeath Comes for the Archbishop (Book Two, Chapter 2), about the establishment of theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe.[citation needed]
Frank Waters' 1941 novelPeople of the Valley takes place high in theSangre de Cristo Mountains where an isolated Spanish-speaking community (based on Mora) confront a threatening world of change.[citation needed]
Mora was mentioned inLouis L'Amour's 1960Western novelThe Daybreakers, in which the character Orrin Sackett is the fictionalmarshal of Mora.[citation needed]
Mora travel guide from WikivoyageMunicipalities and communities ofMora County, New Mexico,United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Village |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Other communities | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
