Historic Puerto de Luna
Highway 91 south of Santa Rosa
Puerto de Luna, NM 88435
Puerto de Luna (Gateway to the Moon) is Located ten miles south of Santa Rosa on Highway 91. This historic village offers visitors a display of classic adobe architecture in a few abandoned homes.
A claim to fame for Puerto de Luna is that Billy The Kid ate his 1880 Chrstmas dinner in the home of the Grzelachowski family (photo of house/store at right). After his capture at Taiban, NM, he was brought by Sheriff Pat Garrett to Puerto de Luna in handcuffs and leg irons on his way to jail in Las Vegas where he would await trial for the murders of several Lincolnites.
One of the oldest towns in Guadalupe County, Puerto de Luna, on the Pecos River, was formally settled in 1863 and acquired a post office in 1873. Local legend has it that the explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado named the place when he camped on the spot where the town is now located. He named it Puerto because a narrow gap in the mountains lets the moon shine through and bathe the river valley at certain times of the month.
One more site of interest is Nuestra Señora del Refugio Church, constructed in 1882. Mass is still conducted daily at this historic church.
You can also visit the ruins of the original Guadalupe County Courthouse, built in 1893. The first Guadalupe County Courthouse was designed by Frank Ogden and John C. Hill. The sandstone building served as the Guadalupe County Courthouse until 1903, when the county seat moved to Santa Rosa.
The population of Puerto de Luna was 140 as of July 1, 2018.
