Reserve is a village in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 387 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Catron County . Currently the village has a hotel, several stores and bars, and a health clinic. It is the site where Elfego Baca held off a gang of Texan cowboys who wanted to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarty.

About

Reserve is situated in the Gila National Forest on the Arizona/New Mexico border. It is the county seat of Catron County, the state's largest and least densely populated county. The area includes ruins from the Mogollon and Anasazi tribes, as well as petroglyphs and historic Old West sites.

Catron became a county in 1921. It was named after a famous attorney and political leader from Santa Fe, Thomas B. Catron.

History

In the 1860s, Mexican-Americans established a string of villages along the river, naming them the Upper, Lower, and Middle San Francisco Plazas. In the late 1870s Anglo settlers began arriving. They renamed Upper Frisco Plaza as Milligan's Plaza, naming it after a merchant and saloon owner.

Milligan's Plaza was the site of the legendary Frisco Shootout of Elfego Baca. In 1882, or perhaps 1884, the nineteen-year-old Baca apparently appointed himself deputy sheriff and rode 130 miles from Socorro to the Plaza. There he set about bringing justice to the Mexican-American community which had been beset by drunken cowboys.

Outnumbered by 80 Texans, Baca holed up in a jacal, the flimsiest kind of hut, and was besieged by the mob. Bullets and dynamite could not dislodge him, and in a gun battle lasting 33 hours, he inflicted death and grievous injury on some of his adversaries without being injured himself.

Geography

Reserve is located at (33.708493, -108.760822) .

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.5 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 387 people, 177 households, and 103 families residing in the village. The population density was 696.2 people per square mile (266.8/km²). There were 238 housing units at an average density of 428.2/sq mi (164.1/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 80.10% White, 0.52% African American, 0.52% Native American, 13.95% from other races, and 4.91% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 40.57% of the population.

There were 177 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.8% were married couples living together, 14.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.8% were non-families. 39.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.84.

In the village the population was spread out with 24.5% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 20.9% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $24,750, and the median income for a family was $30,536. Males had a median income of $30,833 versus $16,000 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,612. About 14.2% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.6% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education

The city is served by the Reserve Independent School District.

References

1. Collier, H.P. (1936) San Francisco Plaza, Catron County: Brief history. Workers Progress Administration. Retrieved 6/12/07.
2. French, Capt William: Recollections of a Western Ranchman
3. " Contact Info." Reserve Independent School District. Retrieved on September 27, 2009.

External links