Red River Historical Society

10/17/2026

Ever wonder where the term "Ice Box" came from? Ice was "harvested" before reliable refrigeration came to Red River.

09/27/2026

If you haven't checked it out yet, we've got a booth set up at Aspencade. And we now have 50×60 throws for sale as well. Come see us today from 10-3.

09/19/2026

This wonderful pillow was donated by Carol Woerndle. Her late mother-in-law, Ilse made it.

09/19/2026

09/19/2026

In case you missed our annual event, here's the youtube link to Fritz's talk about how Route 66 impacted tourism in our little valley.

Route 66 turned 100 this year. Fritz gave a talk about how it impa...

09/12/2026

“Getting old is mind over matter: If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”

Winifred Hamilton was from a cattle ranching family in Raton, NM.
She visited Red River in 1920 to see her uncles, Read and George Oldham, who first came to town in 1895. A school teacher in the coal mining camps east of Raton, she moved to Boulder City, Nevada in the early 1930s with her husband, Englishman, Walter Hamilton, who went to work there on the Border Dam (renamed Hoover Dam). Winnie established the first school for workers’ children there.

By 1935, she and Walter returned to Red River and ran the Tall Pine Camp (built by her uncles in the 1920s).
She remained in Red River until her death in 1998.

09/12/2026

Everyone’s Aunt Becky

Rebecca Coffelt came to Red River around 1900 and spent her entire adult life in the town. She was part of the Moad/Armstrong/Coffelt families that first came to town in 1895. She became everyone’s “Aunt Becky”. During the town’s development in the 1920s and 30s she was the unofficial babysitter for children of locals and tourists. Her cabin was wallpapered with colorful pages of magazines and she was especially known for the flowers that she raised around her cabin, which was located on the road currently known as Jayhawk Trail.

09/05/2026

09/02/2026

This excellent article is in the Taos News' "Land, Water, People, Time" magazine:

Mining among Indigenous, Hispanic and Anglo peoples has shaped Northern New Mexico for centuries, leaving behind cabins, streets named for prospectors, abandoned and collapsed tunnels, scarred mountainsides and communities that

08/30/2026

The auction ends at 4pm today 8/30/26. You've got plenty of time.