Embudo, New Mexico

The name "Embudo", meaning "funnel" in Spanish, was given to the area by early Spanish settlers because the Rio Embudo flowed through a narrow pass which reminded them of a funnel.^[3]

Embudo was founded in 1881 when the Denver and Rio Grande railroad opened a station (depot) there on its Chili Line. The station was named after the village San Antonio de Embudo,^[4] located two miles up the Embudo Creek, and until 1902 the communities shared a post office and were known jointly as Embudo. In 1900, anticipating a separate post office in the village, San Antonio de Embudo changed its name to Dixon after the Presbyterian missionary Dixon, who established a mission there. When the Dixon post office opened in 1902, however, Embudo lost its post office. Embudo got a post office again in 1905, only to lose it in 1909. In 1914, Embudo once again had its own post office,^[4] zip code 87531, but the building was removed in 2016, and mailboxes were transferred to the Dixon post office.

The railroad stop was at the bottom of Barranca Hill, where the line began its steep and twisting climb out of the Rio Grande Gorge, rising 1128 ft (371m) in 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of mostly 4% gradient to Barranca. The station was scheduled as the meeting point for the north- and south-bound mixed trains, and an adjacent restaurant made a mid-day meal available for passengers. The presence of both trains also made it possible, when necessary, to use both locomotives to double-head the northbound train to the top of the Gorge.^[5]

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) established the Embudo Stream Gauging Station here, to measure the flow of the Rio Grande. This was the first USGS stream gauging station and was established by John Wesley Powell in 1888. Embudo was also the first USGS training center for hydrographers.^[6]

Today, from the state road a concrete bridge, replacing the old wooden bridge, crosses the Rio Grande to the "Embudo Historic District" which consists of the old railway station and associated buildings.

Embudo is on New Mexico State Road 68, beginning at Embudo Station located 2.9 miles (4.7 km) south of the intersection of New Mexico State Road 75. It was previously on U.S. Route 64 (US 64), a major national east-west highway and the main route between Santa Fe and Taos. In 1965, upon completion of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge US 64 was realigned to end at Teec Nos Pos, Arizona rather than Santa Fe, bypassing Embudo.

• Casimiro Barela, Colorado politician
• Susan K. Herrera, member of the New Mexico House of Representatives
• Raul Midón, musician
• Ra Paulette, cave sculptor

• 
  View of the mesa in 1885. The tracks for the Chili Line, now gone, can be seen in the foreground.
• 
  Freight train descending Barranca Hill, 1890 by W H Jackson
• 
  NM Route 68 to Taos at right.
• 
  Rio Grande just upstream from the Embudo Bridge
• 
  Gas-alley-boy at Johnnie Meier Classical Gas Museum in Embudo.^[7]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico