Questa, New Mexico – A Mining Maven
Nestled within the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico lies Questa, a village steeped in history and surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty. Situated in Taos County, Questa is strategically located along the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, near the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Red River. This unique location has shaped the village’s identity, attracting diverse cultures and industries over the centuries.
Ancient Crossroads
The story of Questa begins with the Paleo-Indian Clovis and Folsom peoples, who roamed the area in pursuit of big game. As temperatures warmed around 5000 BC, permanent settlements began to emerge as indigenous communities followed the migratory patterns of animals. Over time, trails were forged through the region, transforming Questa into a vital crossroads for hunting and trading.
One of the most significant routes was the Kiowa Trail, also known as El Camino de los Kiowas, Taos Mountain Trail, Trapper’s Trail, Tewa Trail, and Sangre de Cristo Trail. This ancient path paralleled the western face of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, connecting the buffalo hunting grounds of the Kiowa-Rita Blanca National Grasslands with the bustling trading center of Taos Pueblo. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Kiowa Trail was in use for over five millennia, from approximately 5,200 years ago until the late 1800s. It served as a vital artery for various cultures, including the Archaic, Anasazi, Kiowa, Comanche, Puebloan, Ute, and Apache peoples.
Around 1150 AD, ancestors of the Taos Pueblo people established El Pueblito at the mouth of Red River Canyon. This strategic location, overlooking the valley to the west and situated near the Red River and Cabresto Creek, had long been a favored campsite along the Kiowa Trail. The inhabitants of El Pueblito constructed pit houses, above-ground work areas, and adobe-style rooms, utilizing local materials and resources. They employed metates and manos made of granitic sandstone to grind seeds, nuts, and minerals, and they crafted pottery from local clays. They also cultivated crops in the valleys below and hunted with bows and arrows in the surrounding pastures and mountains. El Pueblito quickly became a thriving trading and travel hub, attracting merchants, hunters, and travelers from across the region. Remnants of this ancient route, including trail fragments, artifacts, and petroglyphs, can still be found along the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
However, by around 1225 AD, the early Puebloans had abandoned the site. Despite their departure, the location’s advantageous position near two rivers and fertile land ensured that it would soon be occupied by newcomers.
Spanish Exploration and Colonization
In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado may have been the first Spanish explorer to venture into the area. In 1593, gold-seekers Juan Humana and Francisco Borilla met their demise at the hands of local tribes along the Purgatoire River. Spanish colonization of northern New Mexico began in 1598, and by the 17th century, the Kiowa, Jicarilla Apache, and Ute tribes utilized the old Pueblito walls as campsites. In 1694, Diego de Vargas reported an Apache farming village overlooking the Rio Colorado (Red River) along the Kiowa Trail. Later accounts from Spanish Army expeditions in the mid-1700s and early 1800s mentioned native people residing in an abandoned village along the Rio Colorado, with the ruins reportedly still standing in 1887. Today, the site of this lost pueblo is located within the Questa VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) cemetery, established in 1933.
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 temporarily expelled the Spanish from New Mexico. Afterward, the Spanish were slow to return to the Questa area due to ongoing conflicts with Taos and Ute warriors. However, trade and military activity persisted, particularly by French, French-Canadian, and English fur traders.
Settlement and Conflict
Around 1800, Spanish soldiers arrived with settlers, establishing tentative settlements in the area. Hispanic settlers from Taos began to move north, seeking new grazing lands for their sheep and goats. However, these settlers remained vulnerable to raids by the Ute Indians.
In the early 19th century, the first settlers began to traverse the Kiowa Trail. In 1815, the first land grant in the Questa area was awarded to 50 settlers.
In 1820, a permanent settlement known as Rio Colorado was established. However, the village’s location at the confluence of rivers along ancient trade, raiding, and hunting routes made conflict inevitable, leading to repeated abandonment. Spanish, Mexican, and eventually American soldiers tasked with defending the beleaguered settlement often expressed frustration with their assignment.
Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, U.S. trade expanded along the Santa Fe and Old Spanish Trails. In the subsequent decades, many Americans and Europeans traveled through and settled in the area.
Growth and Transformation
The San Antonio del Rio Colorado land grant, encompassing Questa, was initially requested from Mexico in 1841. The petition was granted to 35 families in January 1842 by Juan Antonio Martinez. That year, the village of Rio Colorado was officially founded, and a wall was constructed around the plaza to provide some protection to area settlers. Guards were stationed atop two prominent peaks overlooking the village: Flag Mountain and Sentinel Peak. During that decade, numerous buildings were constructed on the mesa rather than along the river.
Construction of the San Antonio Church began in 1842, but it would take years to complete.
In 1845, soldiers were dispatched to the area to protect settlers from Cheyenne raids. More troops were sent at the outset of the Mexican-American War in 1846. When America won the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo upheld the land grants. By 1849, 100 families resided in the village. In 1851, New Mexico became a territory, land grants were disputed, and the U.S. Calvary continued to protect settlers from Indian raids.
In 1860, Bishop Lamy visited Rio Colorado, noting "the beautiful new church on the plaza’s north side."
In 1883, when a post office was established, the town’s name was changed from Rio Colorado to "Questa." The intended spelling was Cuesta, Spanish for "ridge" or "slope," but the postmaster misspelled the name.
The close of the 19th century marked the end of the Indian wars. The arrival of the railroad north of Questa, just over the Colorado border, brought an end to the long-term trade and barter economy as manufactured goods became more readily available in the region.
The Mining Era
While the mountains of northern New Mexico had seen extensive hard-rock prospecting in the 1800s, the area mines of gold, silver, copper, and lead were abandoned by 1900. However, in about 1914, molybdenum was discovered in the Questa district along the Red River. The first mining claims, covering an area of 200 acres, were staked that year for this soft, blue-black mineral.
Molybdenum is used as a hardening agent in the steel industry, for items such as cast-iron engine blocks, energy pipelines, oil platforms, and medical equipment, as well as in pigments, lubricants, and petroleum catalysts. It is also used in everyday residential items such as automobiles, cast iron, and gardening tools.
By 1918, the R and S Molybdenum Mining Company began underground mining of high-grade veins. The ore, which was a bit softer than pencil lead, was hand-drilled and hauled several miles by horse and mule-drawn wagons to the June Bug Mill, a relocated gold mill from Elizabethtown. Even this labor-intensive method eventually produced 50 tons of ore per day.
In 1919, the company was reorganized and renamed the Molybdenum Corporation of America in 1921. Additional property was purchased, and the mine expanded from 200 acres to 14,300 acres. The company soon milled 50 tons of ore per day. The miners and their families lived on-site in a self-contained company town. In 1923, Molycorp built a processing mill, one of the first flotation mills in North America.
Questa weathered the Great Depression with the aid of the Work Progress Administration (WPA), which employed locals to build the Fish Hatchery and an elementary school.
Underground mining of high-grade vein ore occurred from 1919 to 1958. By the mid-1950s, 50 miles of tunnels had been excavated when the seam began to run out. However, exploration continued from 1953 to 1964, when open-pit mining commenced, and a new mill was built. From 1965 to 1982, the company mined some 81 million tons of ore from their open-pit mine. In 1975, deeper deposits were found underground, and two years later, Molycorp was bought by Union Oil Company of California (later named Unocal.) A ten-year, $250-million project transitioned the mine to go underground again in 1982.
Molycorp continued mining through 1986 when poor market conditions caused the temporary shutdown of the mine until 1989. Mining operations were again placed on standby in 1992 and resumed in 1995. In early April 2005, Chevron-Texaco announced the purchase of Unocal, including Molycorp, Inc., and in October 2007, Molycorp, Inc. officially became Chevron Mining Inc.
The mine continued to function until June 1, 2014, when its employees were called together and told the mine was closed forever. This proved catastrophic economically for many families of Questa.
At its peak, the mine operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year long. Questa’s mine accounted for 10% of worldwide production and 15% of U.S. consumption for a time. During its operation, miners extracted approximately 100 million tons of molybdenum ore.
Throughout the years, the mine provided significant economic opportunities for residents, at one time being the largest private employer in Taos County, with as many as 750 workers. The mine’s owners also funded the village’s infrastructure, including a local park, streetlights, and the new solar array.
Environmental Challenges and Remediation
However, the mine also polluted the Red River and local watershed, posing potential health risks to both employees and area residents through the dangers of daily mining operations and exposure to mine-related pollution of local water, air, and land. In its years of operation, it also left behind metal-laden tailings, 328 million tons of waste rock, a nine-mile-long pipeline that carried acidic waste from the mill to lagoons, collapse zones from underground tunneling, and heavy machinery and milling buildings.
For some years, it was well-known that the mine was careless in disposing of its waste, with multiple spills from tailings and pipelines that flooded the land and poured into the Red River and acequias (irrigation ditches.) This became so bad that in the 1980s, the Red River began to turn a cloudy blue, representing acid drainage and high metal content. It also killed the fish in one of the best-known trout streams in the West.
During those years, the accumulating dust from the tailings just west of town created blinding storms that caused schools to be shut down, events to be canceled, and caused respiratory problems for area residents.
Though reports were made by the authorities and the mine owners were fined for violations, little was done to correct the problem.
Finally, the molybdenum mine was declared a Superfund Cleanup Site by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009.
Chevron then stepped in to provide remediation, beginning with building an onsite water treatment plant to prevent further runoff or seepage of contaminants. They also drained, dredged, lined, and landscaped the popular Eagle Rock Lake east of the village on the banks of the Red River. Groundwater in Questa and the waters of the Red River are now reportedly clean. In 2016, the Justice Department, EPA, and the State of New Mexico announced a cleanup settlement of $143 million. Chevron has also led the efforts toward a brighter and cleaner future in northern New Mexico, building a 20-acre solar farm adjacent to their obsolete tailings ponds where contaminated soil and water have been removed. It provides enough power for Questa to live off the grid during daylight hours.
A Future Forged in Resilience
Today, Questa’s primary economic means are agricultural. Alfalfa, hay, and winter wheat are cultivated in the fields, and some are beginning to supply a growing market for organic goods. Cattle herds have mostly replaced traditional sheep herds. Many residents also commute to Taos and Red River to work in the hospitality industry.
The village has also become a destination for outdoor enthusiasts, from anglers to hikers, artists, and equestrians.
Cradled by the Sangre de Cristo scenic mountains, valleys, and mesas, the village is near the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and the Carson National Forest. In the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument are two popular locations: the La Junta Overlook, where the Rio Grande and the Red River come together over 800 feet below, and the Big Arsenic Trail containing petroglyphs and a natural spring. Paralleling Questa to the east, the Carson National Forest provides trout fishing, mountain lakes, campgrounds, and the Columbine Hondo and Latir Peak Wildness areas. Just outside Questa’s Village limits is Eagle Rock Lake.
The historic San Antonio Church, which has stood at the center of the old plaza since the mid-1800s, continues to serve parishioners today. After the structure suffered a partial collapse several years ago, parishioners and residents gathered together to restore the adobe church to its former glory. The church is always open during daylight hours and welcomes all guests.
The village is called home to about 1,750 people. Questa is located 24 miles north of Taos on New Mexico Highway 522.
Questa’s story is one of resilience, adaptation, and transformation. From its ancient origins as a crossroads for indigenous cultures to its rise as a mining center and its ongoing efforts to revitalize its economy and environment, Questa embodies the spirit of the American Southwest.