Portales

Downtown Portales, 2nd Street. Photo courtesy Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce.

Spring waters gushing from a series of caves shaped like porches across a hacienda home gave Portales its name. It is also a door to human history with the discovery of artifacts and skeletons of mastodons dating back 11,000 years. Originally it was known as "Los Portales," portals to the Southwest United States.

Established in the 1800s, irrigation has made agriculture the major industry. Peanuts are a leading crop along with cotton, wheat, corn, milo, hay and potatoes. The dairy industry is also a part of the local economy. Cannon Air Force Base is located fifteen miles north of the city.

The third largest university in the state, Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) is located on a 400 acre campus in the southwestern quarter of Portales. The almost 4,000 students come from the region, all 50 states and 16 foreign countries. Many Cannon Air Force personnel partake in the broad curricula of the classes. Blackwater Draw Museum, under the auspices of the University and seven miles northeast of Portales, features artifacts and mastodon skeletons found in the archeological digs at the Blackwater Site, located ten miles from the Museum on State Highway 467.

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