Flying “C” Ranch – Moriarty, NM

Area near Moriarty

The City of Moriarty is a progressive little community along I-40. It is located in the center of New Mexico in the high desert climate of Estancia Valley, which is surrounded by beautiful mountains and has sunsets that are an artist’s dream when set against mountains that turn a rich lapis at twilight. Moriarty is called the “Crossroads of Opportunity” because it is perfectly located in the heart of New Mexico along the Historic Route 66, “The Mother Road” and offers many prospecting possibilities. Moriarty’s strong agricultural and ranching roots and rural character make it the perfect setting for horse racing, which is in the works with the planned relocation of the Downs at Albuquerque to Moriarty.

The City of Moriarty was named for the first permanent family to settle in the community. Michael Timothy Moriarty, his wife, and their three children arrived (at what is now Moriarty) in the fall of 1887, and homesteaded their land. The first Moriarty family home was located about a mile and a quarter west of present day Moriarty. There were no railroads, no towns, and very few settlers in the Estancia Valley. The area was suited for cattle grazing, and Michael Moriarty became one of the many ranchers in central New Mexico.

A post office was established in Moriarty in 1903, with Michael Moriarty as the first postmaster. The Santa Fe Central Railroad built a line in this area in 1903; and in 1908, the line became the New Mexico Central Railroad. The Moriarty Depot soon became the center attraction in the community. Mr. Moriarty built the first store, which he rented to Dunlavy Mercantile Company. Another early business was the Levi Hughes store, which years later became the Moriarty Trading Company. The commercial buildings of the original town of Moriarty were located on present day Center Avenue. Many of the original buildings were destroyed by fire in the mid-1920’s.

Route 66 was formed in 1926 by the Federal Highway Act. Originally, Route 66 was located just west of Santa Rosa with a route turning north toward Santa Fe. However, in 1937, Route 66 was re-routed to NM Highway 6 in the Rio Grande valley and passed through Moriarty. In the 1960’s, Route 66 was superceded by Interstate 40. Two I-40 interchanges were completed for Moriarty in the 1970’s, resulting in greater accessibility and the potential for increased growth. Moriarty continues to prosper as a service community for travelers.

Nearby Locations

Albuquerque – 41 miles www.cabq.gov

Albuquerque, New Mexico is a high desert city nestled up against the Sandia Mountains. The one-of-a-kind character of Albuquerque is the result of many different forces, perhaps none as important as the centuries of history that have shaped the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Starting with the Native Americans who have lived here for thousands of years and continuing through Albuquerque’s official founding in 1706, the city has grown into a multi-cultural metropolis of nearly 800,000 people. While the modern city of Albuquerque is a center of high-tech industry and research, it retains vital connections to the past, such as the ancient rock carvings at Petroglyph National Monument, the historic Old Town Plaza, and the trail of vintage neon signs along Route 66 spanning the city.

As one of the oldest cities in America, Albuquerque has provided a home for humans in the Rio Grande Valley for many centuries and is rich with history and culture. More recently, the city has worked hard to earn recognition as one of the best places to live, work, and do business.

Visiting Albuquerque allows you to experience the authentic Southwest. Albuquerque boasts a unique multicultural heritage and history where Native American, Hispanic & Latino, Anglo, and other cultural influences are a part of everyday life. Nowhere is the confluence of past and present more dramatic than in Albuquerque, where the modern city skyline is set against a backdrop of the ancient Sandia Mountains and an endless, timeless blue sky.

When visiting Albuquerque, you’ll find its spectacular weather — 310 days of sunshine - perfect for outdoor activities. The unique weather features also make Albuquerque the hot air ballooning capital of the world. Balloons dot the clear blue skies almost every morning, revealing a myriad of colors year-round. While visiting Albuquerque at night, you’ll notice the city is bathed in the glow of neon signs, relics of Albuquerque’s place on historic Route 66.

Today, Albuquerque is a major Southwestern city with a diverse population and some of the nation’s leading high-tech research facilities including Sandia National Laboratory, Intel, and University of New Mexico. At the same time, its cultural traditions continue to be an essential part of everyday life in the city. With one foot in the past, one foot in the present and both eyes on the future, Albuquerque is a fascinating place to visit and an even better place to call home.

Edgewood – 11 miles www.edgewood-nm.gov

Originally known as Venus, the town of Edgewood is one of New Mexico’s newest incorporated communities; it has only officially been in existence since 1999. Located 20 miles east of Albuquerque along Interstate 40, the town sits at the intersections of I-40, New Mexico State Road 66, and New Mexico State Road 344. The town encompasses approximately 44 square miles of property located in southern Santa Fe and eastern Bernalillo Counties.

Edgewood provides an exciting environment in which to live, work, or own a business. With a robust economy, rapidly growing regional population, and excellent transportation infrastructure, Edgewood provides convenient access to the Albuquerque market as well as those of Santa Fe, Moriarty, Estancia, and Mountainair. Much of the regional population east of Albuquerque comes to Edgewood for shopping, dining, and entertainment.

Conveniently located to the west of Edgewood, the Sandia Mountain Wilderness, which includes the Sandia Peak Tramway and Sandia Peak Ski Area, boast miles of hiking trails and numerous picnic areas. The equestrian community has worked long and hard to help establish a series of outstanding trails for horseback riding in the Edgewood area. Cross country skiers and snowshoe enthusiasts find plenty to do in the wide open spaces in and around Edgewood. Edgewood and the surrounding area provide plenty of fun for geocaching enthusiasts, as well as cyclists and mountain bikers, and golfers will enjoy the course at nearby Paako Ridge.

Santa Rosa – 80 miles www.santarosanm.org

Here in Northeast New Mexico, where the Great Plains rise up to meet the Rockies, lies a startling oasis. Amid the red mesas is an unusual array of spring-fed lakes, from clear mineral springs, to the Blue Hole, famous for scuba diving, to the man-made Santa Rosa Lake. This ranching area on the banks of the Pecos River is full of surprises, from its legacy of railroading to its wild beauty. Halfway between Albuquerque and Amarillo, travelers stop off in Santa Rosa, some for a few days, and some forever.

Though the little city was once a busy railroad intersection, cars have now transferred from rail to road in Santa Rosa. The legacy of ranching endures in the surrounding landscape, but tourism provides the area’s biggest economic base. Nineteen hotels and 21 restaurants beckon travelers on I-40. The Correctional Facility employs 180 people.

Besides being the Guadalupe county seat, Santa Rosa is home to Luna Vocational Technical Institute, as well as four schools, two medical clinics, a 58-bed nursing home, and a small hospital. Tucumcari Area Vocational School and New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas are within 70 miles of Santa Rosa.

Area Attractions

Wildlife West Nature Park www.wildlifewest.org

Wildlife West Nature Park is the premier attraction in Edgewood, New Mexico - not to mention the entire region. Located conveniently just 20 minutes east of Albuquerque, Wildlife West is a wildlife preserve, enhanced zoo, entertainment venue, and education facility. All the park’s captive animals are non-releasable, and the Park has the distinction of being one of the few - if not the only - zoos built entirely by youth. Each year, Wildlife West hosts a wide variety of events. The annual Wildlife West Music Festival has become one of the area’s best recognized and best attended events of the year. Every Saturday during the summer, the Park hosts a Chuckwagon Sunset Supper, featuring a traditional barbecue dinner, falcon show, and entertainment. The Chuckwagon Sunset Suppers have become popular not only with Edgewood area residents but with an increasing numbers of our neighbors from Albuquerque and other communities who come to spend a little time visiting the animals, learning a few things, and experiencing a bit of good old traditional entertainment.

Other events include the Bear Fair, Green Energy and Kite Festival, Harvest Festival, and local theater productions. The Park also provides employment for people ages 14 to 25 through the New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps program, and holds two one-week sessions of Junior Zookeepers’ Camp in June.

Puerto de Luna www.nenewmexico.com/counties.php?p=89

An ancient adobe village in a hauntingly beautiful landscape, Puerto de Luna (10 miles south of Santa Rosa) was once the most thriving village in the area. According to one legend, Coronado’s conquistadores built a bridge across the Pecos here and watched the moon come up behind rock outcroppings. The area was not permanently settled until Civil War times, relatively late by Southwestern standards. Early settlers found a beautiful, fertile valley with soft, sweet drinking water from nearby springs and sufficient acequia water to irrigate their fields. The coming of the railroad signaled the beginning of the end for Puerto de Luna when it was bypassed. Special sites in “PDL,” as the locals call it, include the Nuestro Señora del Refugio Church, the original County Courthouse, and the nearby Grzelachowski House, home to one of the town’s most colorful entrepreneurs. “Grezla,” as the retired Civil War chaplain was nicknamed, was a business partner to Charles Ilfeld, pioneer merchant, and also friend to outlaw Billy the Kid. Billy is said to have eaten his last Christmas dinner in Grezla’s home in PDL.Puerto de Luna is also famous for “PDL Chile” a unique strain of chile that has been cultivated here for over 100 years. Look for specials on local restaurant marquees or menus boasting PDL Chile.

Blue Hole www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/locations/BlueHoleStRosaNM.html

While the landscape around Santa Rosa is more semi-arid ranch country than desert, Santa Rosa is a scuba diving mecca. For there is located the famous Blue Hole, a geological phenomenon. The natural, bell-shaped pool is 80 feet deep and has astonishing clarity and a constant water temperature of 64 degrees. There’s even a training platform at 20 and 25 feet. A privately-operated dive center near the pool provides divers with tank refills and equipment rentals and is one source of permits to use Blue Hole for diving exercises. Permits can also be purchased at Santa Rosa City Hall, open 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. Another diving attraction is a twin-engine plane 55 feet down at the bottom of nearby Perch Lake. This lake is primarily for advanced scuba training.

Blue Hole Facts

Diameter-80' at surface, 130' at bottom

Depth-over 80'

Temperature-constant 64°

Visibility-80' when undisturbed

Flow-3,000 gallons per minute; water recycles every six hours

Altitude-4,600' above sea level making the bottom equivalent of over 100' of depth in the ocean

Sandia Peak Tramway www.sandiapeak.com

A trip on the world’s longest aerial tramway transports you above deep canyons and breathtaking terrain for a distance of 2.7 miles. See some of nature’s more dramatic beauty unfold before you. At sunset the desert skies produce a spectacular array of color, and your vantage point from the observation deck atop 10,378 foot Sandia Peak in the Cibola National Forest affords an 11,000 square-mile panoramic view of the Rio Grande Valley and the Land of Enchantment. The tram is located on the eastern edge of Albuquerque in the Sandia Foothills at the end of Tramway Road.

Sandia Mountains and Cibola National Forest www.fs.fed.us/r3/cibola/districts/sandia.shtml

Just east of Albuquerque are the most visited mountains in New Mexico. Millions of people journey into the Sandia Mountains each year. The Sandias are part of the signature of Albuquerque’s unique sense of place. They serve as a premier open space refuge to a population of over 700,000 people in the extended metropolitan area. Over one-third of the State’s school-age population lives within an hour’s drive of the Sandias, and there is a great demand for fire prevention, fire ecology, and other environmental education programs.

Sandia Mountain is a landmark in the spiritual universe of many active traditional Indian beliefs. It is regularly visited for ceremonial purposes by the Sandia Pueblo and at least annually by many other pueblos. It also has direct ties to Spanish land grant communities established by the King of Spain in the 1700’s and Mexican land grants from the 1820’s. Some Spanish land grants adjoining the Sandias are still active.