24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Anton Chico, NM

Anton Chico, also called Anton Chico Abajo or Anton Chico de Abajo, is a census-designated place in Guadalupe County, New Mexico.

The community stands on the Pecos River and is the largest of a string of historic Hispano settlements strung along about 7.5 miles of the river, among them Tecolotito, Upper Anton Chico, Llano Viejo, La Loma, Llano del Medio, Dilia, and Colonias.

Anton Chico began with the Anton Chico Land Grant, created by the government of New Mexico in 1822 and covering some 378,537 acres.

Its first settlers came from La Cuesta, now Villanueva, upstream on the Pecos; the first settlement was abandoned, and Anton Chico was successfully resettled in 1834.

The village was built for defense around a central plaza, its one-story adobe houses fronting inward behind high walls, and it held some 200 to 300 people by the early 1840s.

Anton Chico was a homeland of the Ciboleros, the bison hunters of the plains, and of the Comancheros who traded with the Plains tribes in the 19th century.

The community reached its peak about 1890, with some 900 residents, nearly all Hispanic, when it was a mercantile center for much of eastern New Mexico.

Its long decline was hastened when Route 66, which before 1937 crossed the Pecos River near Anton Chico, was rerouted through Santa Rosa.

The twin-spired San José Church, built in 1878, still anchors the old plaza.

The Anton Chico de Abajo Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, recognizing its plaza plan and adobe architecture.