Palomino Horses for Sale near Santa Rosa, NM

About Santa Rosa, NM

The first Euro-American settlement in the area was Aqua Negra Chiquita, "Little Black Water" in Spanish, in 1865. The name was changed in 1890 to Santa Rosa (Spanish for "Saint Rose"), referring to a chapel that Don Celso Baca (the founder of the city) built and named after both his mother Rosa and Saint Rose of Lima. The "Rosa" may also refer to the roses in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and is indicative of the Catholicism of the Spanish colonizers who settled in the area. At the turn of the twentieth century, Santa Rosa was not the largest settlement within the region. Puerto de Luna, about ten miles south, held the county seat for Guadalupe County.