A unique geographical feature inspired Tijeras' name

The 2020 census put the Village of Tijeras at 465 people, but don’t let its small size fool you. What it lacks in population, it makes up for in history and visitors, functioning as an important travel corridor for centuries.

Just outside Albuquerque’s eastern city limit, the town is located at the base of the Sandia Mountains near the junction of Tijeras Canyon, which runs east to west and serves as the dividing line between the Sandia and Manzano mountain ranges. The village provides an opportunity to live in the wilderness with access to all the conveniences of a big city.

It’s this geographical feature that earned the village its name. Tijeras mean scissors in Spanish, with two canyons, or some say roads, coming together there like the blades on a pair of scissors. The canyon was also once known as Cañon de Carnué, after a land grant of the same name.

The modern-day surrounding canyon and the village developed slowly, only mostly accessible by horseback and eventually wagons, until the advent of the automobile in the early 1900s had developers finally considering creating a designated “automobile road” out there.

There were 15 families there in 1880, according to a 2006 East Mountain Area Plan. A post office named Tijeras was opened in 1888, but it’s safe to assume communities existed there well before the arrival of the post office.

Human land use in the area dates back to at least the 1200s. It has shifted through time between Hispanic, Anglo and Native American populations. The pueblo people occupied San Antonio and Tijeras Pueblo, near the present-day town. The Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site is located nearby and it’s believed that many more Native American villages are buried throughout the canyon undiscovered, according to the East Mountain Area Plan.

Gov. Tomás Vélez Cachupín, under the Spanish crown, ordered a permanent settlement in Tijeras Canyon in 1763 to help buffer Albuquerque from Apache and Comanche attacks. The Cañón de Carnué Land Grant was established for the 19 families settling there. They didn’t last long. Apache raids chased them away.

Their descendants and Mestizo peoples without land returned to the area in 1819. They formed agricultural communities, growing beans, corn and other vegetables while raising sheep, goats and some cattle. American pioneers began coming to the area in about 1848.

A Feb. 1, 1881, article in the Santa Fe New Mexican details the murder of a man, identified as Colonel Potter, as he traveled through Tijeras Canyon on horseback. He was met “by the gang of cut-throats” looking to rob him, according to the article. They advised him to take a certain trail as a shortcut. However, the trail was isolated and far away from the houses, leaving him vulnerable to his attackers. He was shot and killed, and according to the article, his body was found in the bed of a stream near the village.

A printed letter from a Miss Mary Tripp in the Sept. 10, 1892, edition of the Las Vegas Free Press describes what life was like in the village and the canyon at that time. She traveled from Las Vegas, New Mexico, via Albuquerque, to become a resident at Camp Whitcomb, which was established by Civil War veteran Horace G. Whitcomb.

Her letter recounts her journey there as well as her first impression of the canyon, declaring it the “wildest place I was ever in.” Getting there from Albuquerque was an arduous task, according to Tripp. Their baggage was tied behind the wagon but they were so overloaded, Tripp and three other women were forced to hold their bags as they traveled.

“Two of the ladies had been up before, but the third was very timid and we had our hands full in keeping her and the baggage in the wagon,” her letter said.

A recent storm had washed out the parts of the road and they had to stop and rest their horses several times. Upon reaching the last, long, steep hill, a man from the camp met them with a third horse to help pull the load, but their relief was short-lived.

“But alas for our hopes!” she said. “The third horse, hitched on in front of the team, refused to draw.”

As they traveled further up the steep hill, their load began to slide back down, but they eventually creeped to the top, where her sister was waiting.

“Everything is on the side of the canyon, which is laid out in terraces, rough, to be sure, but rising one above the other affording a grand view of the canyon, and vast mountain ranges on the other side …”

She references “a little Mexican village called Tijeras” in the valley below that was surrounded by fields of corn, with its inhabitants using nearby reservoirs, fed by the springs flowing down the mountain, to water their gardens and fields.

But life on the mountain could be hard, including getting from one place to another on foot. The continuous up and down the hilly, pine-tree covered landscape forced everyone to walk around with stout sticks to make their treks more manageable, according to Tripp.

There were unwanted guests to contend with as well.

“A large cinnamon bear frequently calls upon us in the night …” she said. “Last night, we were visited by a wolf; also a skunk came to the hen house and left a fearful breeze behind him.”

During the Prohibition Era, the canyon became a hotbed for manufacturing whiskey. Wildlife and humans still share the mountain but getting to the canyon has become much easier with automobiles and paved roads on which to drive them. The roads made the canyon, and the village, an attractive alternative living community for those working in Albuquerque, especially those employed at Sandia National Laboratories. Albuquerque dwellers still flee there for a quieter way of life but it also draws those for recreation and still is home to those whose families settled the area long ago.

A unique geographical feature inspired Tijeras' name

Curious about how a town, street or building got its name? Email columnist Elaine Briseño at ebriseno@abqjournal.com as she continues the monthly journey in “What’s in a Name?”