Luna, New Mexico

This article is about the unincorporated community in New Mexico. For the county, see Luna County, New Mexico.

Luna, New Mexico
Census-designated place
Luna Location within the state of New Mexico
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	New Mexico
County	Catron
Area
• Total	5.56 sq mi (14.41 km2)
• Land	5.56 sq mi (14.39 km2)
• Water	0.008 sq mi (0.02 km2)
Population (2010)
• Total	158
• Density	28/sq mi (11.0/km2)
Time zone	Mountain (MST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	MDT (UTC)
Area code(s)	575

Luna is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northwestern Catron County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 158. It is situated on the San Francisco River and U.S. Route 180, 7 miles (11 km) east of the Arizona border and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Reserve, the Catron county seat.

History

In the 19th century Luna was part of the extensive lands of Don Salomon Luna, and the valley was used for sheep ranching. It briefly was an outlaw hide-away, but was settled by Mormon ranchers in 1883 and subject to Chiricahua Apache attacks until the surrender of Geronimo. The town was named after Don Salomon Luna.

The post office was opened in 1886;

Culture

See also: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Mexico

"Mormon Pioneer Day" is celebrated on the Saturday closest to July 24 at the village rodeo grounds with a parade, rodeo and dance.

References

• Pearce, T. M. (1965) "Luna" New Mexico place names; a geographical dictionary University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 94, OCLC 420847
• Julyan, Robert Hixson (1998) "Luna" The place names of New Mexico (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 215, ISBN 0-8263-1688-3

External links

• Banks, Phyllis Eileen (30 December 2002) "Luna — holding on to history" Southern New Mexico dotcom