Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico

Los Ranchos de Albuquerque is a village located on the east side of the Rio Grande in the North Valley area (across the river from Petroglyph National Monument). Like most of the North Valley area, the village is composed mostly of residential areas of expensive, large, widely-spaced homes, although with Los Ranchos being in the heart of the Rio Grande Bosque, the vegetation can be very dense, especially close to the river.

The area has seen human habitation and cultivation for at least 2,500 years but the location was often flooded by the Rio Grande during heavy spring runoffs. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District was formed in the mid-1920's to deal with the flooding issues and a large system of ditches, laterals, drains, canals and levees was built. While this provided stimulus for further agricultural development, the ending of World War II brought a population explosion in the Albuquerque Valley and the area of Los Ranchos was ripe for residential development. It was concern over the direction of that development that led the citizens to incorporate the village in 1958.

The original townsite wasn't very big but has since been expanded several times. As the population has more than tripled since 1970, you can assume that considerable open space has been lost to residential developments. However, certain parts of the village still retain the older original Hispanic family plot plan (long narrow lots with access to irrigation supplies at one end and a road at the other). As the land passed from generation to generation, the length of the lots remained the same throughout the various subdivisions, but the width got narrower and narrower...

In keeping with those historic roots, there is still considerable irrigated land under cultivation and many large mammals being raised within the village limits. In spite of the urbanization going on all around Los Ranchos, the villagers are determined to keep that quiet rural atmosphere.