Quiletes - New Mexico Ghost Town

QUILETES

NAME: Quiletes
COUNTY: Valencia
ROADS: 4WD
GRID #(see map): 1
CLIMATE: Occcasional snow, hot in summer, summer arroyos flooding.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime, except rainy season.

COMMENTS: The Laguna Indian tribe has now purchased the land where the remains of the town is at. This was probably the only place where a wagon or ox cart could cross the Rio Puerco way back when and I doubt that there are any crossings to this day for 100 miles to the north or 40 miles to the south where the Rio Puerco joins the Rio Grande River.
On your New Mexico map, go west on US Highway # 6 (This was US 66 for many years), and find where US # 6 crosses the Rio Puerco river (about 20 miles west from Los Lunas NM. REMAINS: 65 years ago there were standing walls of some adobe houses and an old church that was built with a lot of rock in the construction.

This was a very old village at a crossing on the Rio Puerco River where the San Jose River and Rio Puerco come together. When I was a young cow boy, 65 years ago, there were some walls of residences, a church, and other outbuildings. At one time, I would imagine there were probably 50 families living there. The name, Quilites, is taken from the name of a wild spinach, still eaten in New Mexico. This little town came about for the fact that I was at a junction of the Rio Puerco and San Jose rivers, about 40 miles north of where the Rio Puerco flows into the Rio Grande River. There have been no inhabitants of the village for at least 100 years. All of the freight and travelers going west to Cubero, a Spanish settlement from the Conquistadores days had to cross the Rio Puerco at this point. I have never done any checking on the town through the archives in Santa Fe, but I do have first hand knowledge of what was there when I was a little cowboy and we gathered cattle there when Reynolds Cattle Company, of Texas Fame, owned the ranch. They branded a long x on their cows. That company still ranches at Kent Texas over in Culberson County, Texas. Submitted by: Sam W McWhorter	Sammuel McWhorter, 1947 at the Quiletes ruins Courtesy Sam McWhorter Quiletes stage route 1846-1912 Courtesy Sam McWhorter

This was a very old village at a crossing on the Rio Puerco River where the San Jose River and Rio Puerco come together. When I was a young cow boy, 65 years ago, there were some walls of residences, a church, and other outbuildings. At one time, I would imagine there were probably 50 families living there. The name, Quilites, is taken from the name of a wild spinach, still eaten in New Mexico.
This little town came about for the fact that I was at a junction of the Rio Puerco and San Jose rivers, about 40 miles north of where the Rio Puerco flows into the Rio Grande River. There have been no inhabitants of the village for at least 100 years. All of the freight and travelers going west to Cubero, a Spanish
settlement from the Conquistadores days had to cross the Rio Puerco at this point. I have never done any checking on the town through the archives in Santa Fe, but I do have first hand knowledge of what was there when I was a little cowboy and we gathered cattle there when Reynolds Cattle Company, of Texas Fame, owned the ranch. They branded a long x on their cows. That company still ranches at Kent Texas over in Culberson County, Texas.

Submitted by: Sam W McWhorter

Sammuel McWhorter, 1947 at the Quiletes ruins
Courtesy Sam McWhorter

Quiletes stage route 1846-1912
Courtesy Sam McWhorter

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