Abiquiú, New Mexico

"Abiquiu" redirects here. For the Breaking Bad episode, see Abiquiu (Breaking Bad).

Not to be confused with Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Abiquiú, New Mexico
CDP
The adobe St. Thomas Church in Abiquiú
Location of Abiquiú within New Mexico
Abiquiú, New Mexico Location in the United States
Coordinates: 36°12′34″N 106°19′7″W
Country	United States
State	New Mexico
County	Rio Arriba
Time zone	UTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-6 (MDT)

Abiquiú Post Office

Abiquiu church and plaza around 1920.

Abiquiú (or Abiquiu /ˈæbɪkjuː/ ^ⓘ) is a small census-designated place located in Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States, about 53 miles (85 km) north of Santa Fe. Abiquiu has an elementary school which is part of the Espanola Public Schools.

History

Abiquiú was the starting point of the pioneering route of the Old Spanish Trail. This first route, the Armijo Route, was led by Antonio Armijo of Santa Fe, with a sixty mounted men and a caravan of pack animals carrying blankets and other trade goods to barter for mules in Alta California. Armijo's caravan left on November 6, 1829 made the journey from Abiquiu to San Gabriel Mission in eighty-six days, arriving on January 31, 1830. He returned by the same route in 56 days, leaving March 1st and arriving back on April 25, 1830. Unlike the other routes of the Old Spanish Trail, Armijo's route was documented day by day by him, although in a very brief report listing dates and stopping places with few details and no distances recorded. It was submitted to the governor José Antonio Chaves and published by the Mexican government on June 19, 1830.

Nearby points of interest

• Echo amphitheatre
• Ghost Ranch
• Dar al-Islam (organisation)
• Santa Rosa de Lima, New Mexico, a ghost town
• Monastery of Christ in the Desert
• Abiquiu Lake

Notable people

• Julian A. Chavez (1808–1879), rancher, landowner and elected official in Los Angeles, California

Cultural references

• Abiquiú is mentioned in Willa Cather's 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book Five Chapter 1.
• Ghost Ranch is home of the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology, named in honor of Ruth Hall.
• Several episodes of "Jonathan Park" are set in the area around Abiquiú.
• "Abiquiú" is the title of episode 11, season 3 of the AMC television drama Breaking Bad.
• Abiquiú is shown as the hometown on the drivers license of Mike Franks' alias in the 5th season NCIS episode "Judgment Day".
• Abiquiú is also the location where the opening shot of the 4th Indiana Jones movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was shot. As per the Production Timeline in the Extras section of the movie's Blu-ray Disc: "On June 16, 2007 even before the start of principal photography, the production's second unit crew was on location near Abiquiu, New Mexico, filming the traditional Indiana Jones opening shot of a "mountain" (in this case a prairie dog mound.)" Other notable films shot in Abiquiu are Cowboys & Aliens, City Slickers, Red Dawn, Wyatt Earp, The Last Outlaw, and the TV series Earth 2.
• Artist Georgia O'Keeffe lived at nearby Ghost Ranch for many years and also bought a house in Abiquiu in 1945, using it variously as an art subject, residence and studio for several years. In the mid-1940s, the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan sponsored a project to establish the first catalogue of her work.