Garfield Traditional Cache

This is a series of geocaches to commemorate our Great State of New Mexico.  All of the geocaches are named for settlements that once thrived in Dona Ana county but some of them are now nothing more than footnotes in our history.  They have all played an important role in the settling and growth of our county and some of them are still active communities, rich with culture, architecture, and historic buildings.
 

A settlement on NM 187, nine miles NW of Hatch.  Post Office 1896 to present.  The farming community now known as Garfield originally had been on a rise west of the present site. It was moved after Elephant Butte Dam, completed in 1916, eliminated periodic flooding of the Rio Grande floodplain and permanent settlement became possible.  Like many towns of the Upper Mesilla Valley, this one originally had a Spanish name, Loma Parda, ”gray hill” for a nearby hill.  The name is said to have been shared with nearby Derry.  The name Garfield likely came from President James A. Garfield, assassinated in 1881, fifteen years before the Post Office was established.