ALGODONES, New Mexico
Algodones (ahl-go-doe'nace) is a countryside village in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico and lies on the historic Camino Real (Royal Highway), which was the route from Mexico City north to Santa Fe. In its earliest history, the Angostura River crossing at Algodones was a safe trading trail for over a thousand years. The crossing was used by tribes on both sides of the river. Today, the Angostura Diversion Dam is a diversion dam on the Rio Grande in Sandoval County, New Mexico, near Algodones and north of Bernalillo.
Algodones means cotton fields in Spanish. While cotton was grown by the natives as a crop, the whole Bosque along the river is full of cottonwood trees. Cottonwood seeds are surrounded by a soft "cotton-like" wrapper. When Cottonwood trees release their seeds, the cotton wrappers are caught by the wind and disperse the seeds widely. The air is full of "cotton". The name may have come from the crop or the trees.
Algodones was founded as a military garrison to protect wagon trains in the early 1700s. In 1693, Don Diego de Vargas called it "Bernal's Camp". This is where the Town of Bernalillo gets its name. The camp was on the west side of the river, on the flood plain, where the Jemez River comes into the Rio Grande. The camp washed away in 1695. Later, it served as an army supply depot in 1846. In the 1880s, Algodones was an important center of trade for the ranching and sheep industry. To meet the demands of the ranching industry, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad built a stop in Algodones in the 1880s. The La Hacienda Vargas Bed and Breakfast was the site of the Algodones stagecoach and train stop.
Later, in 1926 Route 66 and U.S. Hwy. 85 were aligned through Algodones between Santa Fe and Albuquerque bringing tourists and prosperity to the region.
Algodones’ claim to movie fame includes parts of the Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Coen Brothers), which included the segment, “Near Algodones.” The segment of the film “Near Algodones” tells the simple tale of a hapless crook who chooses the wrong bank to rob.
An episode of Breaking Bad, the one where "Mike Ehrmantraut, a fictional character portrayed by Johnathan Banks was killed was also filmed near the Angostura Crossing, NM Highway 313 / Route 66.
More recent movie fame for Algodones included parts of Season 3 of the ABC drama Big Sky, filmed on the Baca Ranch on NM 313 in Algodones. Created by David E. Kelly, Big Sky tells the story of private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt, who join forces with Cody's estranged wife and ex-cop, Jenny Hoyt, to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. I there that they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area.