Cimarron is a village in Colfax
County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 917 at the
2000 census. Philmont Scout Ranch, an extensive "high-adventure
base" operated by the Boy Scouts of America, is located just west
of Cimarron. The Chase Ranch (famous for its heart-shaped brand and
allegedly the Marlboro Man's place of origin), Ted Turner's Vermejo
Park Ranch, the CS Ranch, the UU Bar Ranch (formerly the property
of Waite Phillips), the Elliott Barker State Wildlife Area, the
Valle Vidal, and Carson National Forest are also located in the
Cimarron area.
To avoid the rocky and mountainous Raton Pass, wagon traffic used
the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail during the 1840s.
Thereafter, Mountain Branch near Raton Pass became more popular
with traders, immigrants, gold-seekers, and government supply
trains. South of Cimarron is Palisades Sill, with high cliffs
surrounding a modest flow of the Cimarron
River.
In 1842, Lucien B. Maxwell, a fur trapper, came to the
Beaubien-Miranda Ranch in northern New Mexico and courted and
married Luz Beaubien, one of the owner's six daughters. He
eventually inherited the ranch and built a huge mansion in 1858 on
the future town site. Lucien B. Maxwell built the Aztec Mill
in 1864. It is preserved as the Old Mill Museum, operated by the
Cimarron Historical Society. The museum's collection includes
working mill parts, Native American tools, weapons and pottery;
Maxwell Land Grant paperwork and documents, and other materials as
well.
Cimarron was officially chartered in 1861 and was named for the
Spanish word used to describe a mustang, meaning "wild" and
"unbroken". Cimarron was the county seat of Colfax County beginning
in 1872, when it replaced Elizabethtown. At that time Cimarron was
a stage stop on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1881,
the county seat was moved to Springer, a town on the Atcheson,
Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. It was during this time that Lucien
Maxwell sold the Maxwell Land Grant to a group of investors, with
the resultant Colfax County War in which more than two hundred
persons were killed.