Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Tularosa, NM

Tularosa is an incorporated village in Otero County, New Mexico, in the Tularosa Basin at the western foot of the Sacramento Mountains, just north of the much larger city of Alamogordo.

Tularosa takes its name from the Spanish description of the red- or rose-colored reeds, called tules, that grew along the banks of the Rio Tularosa, and its motto is "City of Roses."

Hispanic settlers first tried to settle Tularosa in 1860 but were driven off by Mescalero Apache raids; after a battle at nearby Round Mountain in 1862, farmers from the Rio Grande valley succeeded in settling the area permanently.

The town of Tularosa was formally established in 1863 and laid out with 49 blocks, with water rights from the Rio Tularosa distributed and recorded among the settlers.

The village's St. Francis de Paula mission church was built to fulfill a vow made before the Round Mountain battle that a church would be dedicated to St. Francis if no settler was killed.

Tularosa's original acequia irrigation system remains virtually unchanged and still waters the cottonwood shade trees, gardens, and landscaping that give the village its green, leafy character in the desert basin.

The Tularosa Original Townsite District, covering the original 49 blocks and 182 contributing buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The population of Tularosa was 2,553 at the 2020 census, down from 2,842 in the 2010 census.

There were 1,101 households and 1,335 housing units in Tularosa at the 2020 census.

Tularosa celebrates its flowers with an annual Rose Festival, usually held the first weekend of May, and on Christmas Eve residents line the church plaza, streets, and U.S. Highways 54 and 70 with luminarias in a longstanding holiday tradition.