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Rayado is a small settlement in northeastern New Mexico. It sits in Colfax County, south of Cimarron and west of Springer.
History
Rayado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. It was founded by Lucien Maxwell (1818-1875) in 1848 and was also the first plains settlement in New Mexico.
Maxwell married Luz Beaubien, the daughter of fur trader and landowner Carlos Beaubien (1800-1864), in Rayado. They lived there until moving north in 1857 to establish Cimarron. Jesus Abreu (1823-1900), who also married a daughter of Carlos Beaubien, had his ranch there.
A federal garrison post opened in the settlement in 1850 and lasted until Fort Union was established a year later. A post office existed in Rayado from 1873 to 1919.
Some of the land in Rayado was part of a ranch purchased by oil magnate Waite Phillips (1883-1964) in the 1920s. He donated that land to Boy Scouts of America and it’s now part of the Philmont Scout Ranch. Today, it’s very quiet and there’s not much to see.
Kit Carson Museum
The Kit Carson Museum is the biggest attraction in Rayado. It’s a living museum where interpreters demonstrate frontier skills common in the 1850s, including blacksmithing, shooting, farming, and cooking. There are also exhibits about frontiersman Kit Carson (1809-1868) and Lucien Maxwell.
The Kit Carson Museum was built by Boy Scouts of America in 1950 and named for Kit Carson, who moved to Rayado from Taos in 1849 to provide security. At that time, settlements in the plains were subject to raids by Apache, Comanche, and other Native American tribes.
The museum is run by the Philmont Scout Ranch and admission is free. It’s typically open from June through October, but was closed for the season when we drove by.
Holy Child Chapel
The Holy Child Chapel is a small Catholic chapel in Rayado. It was built in 1902 by Petrita Beaubien Abreu in memory of her husband, Jesus Abreu. The chapel was deeded to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on February 29, 1904.
