New Mexico Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary

by T.M. Pearce

5,000 individual items. Explores the folklore, history and frontier humor of New Mexico. Gives the location of place named, highways leading to it,historical inflrmation relevant to the namibg of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826300820
• Release Date: January 1965
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr
• Length: 187 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.0" x 1.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A very handy reference for history-minded New Mexicans

First, buy Robert Julyan's "The Place Names of New Mexico." Then, if that book doesn't tell you all you need to know...well then you're probably clinically obsessed with New Mexico history. And that's okay. There are worse ailments, and this one's easily soothed by picking up a copy of "New Mexico Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary." This book is very well organized, and it's interesting because it contains a lot of information that the other book doesn't. Plus, this book is much older, and so it writes from a perspective and a place in time that's very much changed today. For instance, the other place names book tells a little about Cedar Crest, New Mexico being a former tuberculosis sanitarium. This one says it still is--and it gives details. I agree with the other review currently posted about this book: get both place names books, and use them together. You'll learn a lot more that way, and sometimes it'll feel like piecing together a puzzle.

Great as a New Mexico reference

This is one of two books on NM place names. One isn't better than the other, but each has information the other doesn't. I'd recommend both as an interesting addition to your library if you're a New Mexican or just traveling through. It's good to have one in the car when you're driving the back roads, but if you live in Albuquerque and just find yourself scratching your head about why Las Lunas is named Las Lunas or what the Jornada del Muerto means and why, this is the book for you.