Page "Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico" Paragraph 4

In 1866 the United States Army established Camp Plummer just south of Los Ojos ( established in 1860 ) to rein in already decreased Native American activity on the grant.

The military encampment was deserted in 1869.

Las Nutrias, the site of the contemporary community, was founded nearby c. 1862.

The first post office in Las Nutrias was established in 1866 and bore the name Tierra Amarilla, as did the present one which was established in 1870 after an approximately two-year absence.

In 1877 a U. S. Army lieutenant described the village as " the center of the Mexican population of northwestern New Mexico ".

The territorial legislature located Rio Arriba's county seat in Las Nutrias and renamed the village in 1880.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railway's 1881 arrival at Chama, about ten miles to the north, had profound effects on the development of the region by bringing the area out of economic and cultural isolation.