Quarai

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“Quarai, also known historically as Quarai State Monument, is a prehistoric and historic unit of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument located north of Mountainair, New Mexico. A National Historic Landmark District, it encompasses the archaeological remains of prehistoric Native American settlements, historic remains of a pueblo that was abandoned in the 1670s during the Spanish colonial period, the ruins of a 17th-century Spanish mission compound, and 19th-century Spanish ranching artifacts.”
Wikipedia article Quarai, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 9 National Register listings published here for Torrance County · listed in 1966 · category: District · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 1 mi. S of Punta de Agua, Punta de Agua, 87036
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. district
Census division. Mountainair-Encino
National Register reference number. 66000498 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

43 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 43 fires within 5 miles of Quarai between 1992 and 2020, burning about 221 acres in total. 4 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22
Debris and open burning	9
Natural	4
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Smoking	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
1 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	FAWN
9 August 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	LAGUNESSE
26 August 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Cibola National Forest	BEAN
8 July 2004	Smoking	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	GRASS
6 July 1993	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	ROMERO
5 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	HWY 55
4 July 2005	Fireworks	9.6 acres	Cibola National Forest	MANZANO
26 July 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	APPLE

Every fire recorded in Torrance County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Quarai: 2 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Jack's Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
	Materials Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Torrance County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Mountainair Municipal Auditorium	6.0 miles	1987
Willard Mercantile Company	6.1 miles	2018
Shaffer Hotel	6.1 miles	1978
Rancho Bonito	7.0 miles	1978

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000498 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Torrance County	All 9 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.