Luis Lopez

Luis Lopez

The Mexican period community of Luis López first appears in a list of New Mexico settlements compiled by Manuel Armijo in 1840 (Carroll and Haggard 1942:93; Marshall and Walt 1984:278). On 29 July 1846, Wislizenus mentioned a small town named Lopez; on his map he marked it L. Lopez. He commented that the mountains came closer to the river there and that this area contained the last settlements before the Jornada del Muerto (Wislizenus 1848:37). In December 1846, George Rutledge Gibson and Doniphan’s army camped at Luis López on the west bank of the Río Grande. They forced residents to sell them needed supplies (Bieber 1935:291). Marshall and Walt place the Mexican era settlement of Luis Lopez (LA31748) just east of the present village of the same name (Marshall and Walt 1984:277-278).