Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Carnuel, NM

Carnuel is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon about 12 miles east of central Albuquerque.

The community's full historic name is San Miguel de Loredo de Carnué, and the name Carnuel likely derives from a Tiwa word meaning "badger place."

Carnuel was founded in 1763 to defend Albuquerque from raids by Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache; its first settlers were 19 men, many of them mestizos and genízaros who received land through a land grant.

Apache raids forced the abandonment of Carnuel in 1771, but descendants of the original settlers and other landless families resettled it in 1819.

The genízaro heritage of Carnuel's settlers influenced land and water rights in the Carnuel land grant, whose original area also includes present-day Tijeras and Cedar Crest, into the 21st century.

The 2020 census counted 1,019 residents in Carnuel.

In the 2000 census, Carnuel had 872 residents in 371 households, and 51.15 percent of residents were Hispanic or Latino.

The CDP covers about 5.35 square miles at an elevation of about 5,807 feet in Tijeras Canyon, the natural corridor between the Great Plains and the Rio Grande valley.

Historic U.S. Route 66 passed through Carnuel, where the Old Mountain Lodge survives as a reminder of the highway era.

Carnuel is part of the Albuquerque metropolitan statistical area.