Playas, New Mexico
Census-designated place
Playas town center, February 24, 2005
Playas town center, February 24, 2005
Playas is located in New Mexico
Playas
Playas
Playas is located in the United States
Playas
Playas
Coordinates: 31°55′00″N 108°32′01″W / 31.91667°N 108.53361°W / 31.91667; -108.53361
CountryUnited States
StateNew Mexico
CountyHidalgo
Area
[1]
 • Total1.86 sq mi (4.83 km2)
 • Land1.86 sq mi (4.83 km2)
 • Water0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation
[2]
4,498 ft (1,371 m)
Population
 (2020)[3]
 • Total25
 • Density13.41/sq mi (5.18/km2)
Time zoneUTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-6 (MDT)
ZIP Code
88009
Area code575
FIPS code35-58210

Playas is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 74.[4]

History

A training exercise at the Playas Training and Research Center in April 2010

It is a former company town, named after a nearby former settlement along the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was developed by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in the 1970s for employees of its then-new Hidalgo Copper Smelter, located 10 miles (16 km) south of the development. Over 270 rental homes, six apartment buildings, a post office, grocery/dry goods store (Phelps Dodge Mercantile), medical clinic with heliport, a bowling alley ("Copper Pins"), grill, a rodeo arena, horse stables, a fitness center, a shooting range, an airstrip and a swimming pool were built for the community, which even has its own ZIP Code (88009). At its peak, the town had about 1,100 residents and included two churches built on land leased from the mining company.

The smelter, which included state of the art environmental controls, a power plant and sulfuric acid plants, was closed by the company as part of a move towards new processing technologies for processing copper concentrates. Declining copper prices accelerated the closure in 1999; all of its residents were required to leave within a year,[5] though a skeleton crew of about a dozen employees remained in the area. Before completion of razing the plant and reclamation of the site, the smelter, about 30 miles (48 km) north of the border with Mexico, was nicknamed La Estrella del Norte by illegal migrants using its lights as a beacon for crossing into the country.

Four years later, New Mexico Tech agreed to purchase the town and the surrounding 1,200 acres (490 ha) for $5 million, using Department of Homeland Security funds secured by Senator Pete Domenici. The town is now a training and research facility (the Playas Training and Research Center, operated by New Mexico Tech's EMRTC) for the university's first responders, counter-terrorism,[6] and Air Force[7] programs, supported by tens of millions of dollars in federal funds.

Geography

Playas is located in eastern Hidalgo County and is bordered to the east by Grant County. It is at the south terminus of New Mexico State Road 113 5 miles (8 km) south of New Mexico State Road 9, 15 miles (24 km) east-southeast of Animas, 15 miles (24 km) west of Hachita and 32 miles (51 km) south of Lordsburg, the Hidalgo County seat. It sits at the northwestern base of the Little Hatchet Mountains, on the east side of the Playas Valley.[8][9]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Playas CDP has an area of 1.9 square miles (4.8 km2), all land.[4]

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
201074—
202025−66.2%
U.S. Decennial Census[10][3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  2. ↑
  3. 1 2 "Census Population API". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Census Summary File 1 (G001): Playas CDP, New Mexico". American Factfinder. U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Donna Johnson (December 30, 2002) Animas, Cotton City, and Playas — remnants of the Westward Ho! movement". Archived from the original on August 13, 2004. Retrieved September 26, 2004.
  6. ↑ Jennifer Mason (August 28, 2013) A Community Commoditized: Playas, New Mexico Pt. 2
  7. ↑ Mark Pomerleau (19 May 2021) Air Force held first information warfare test exercises
  8. ↑ Playas Lake North, NM, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1982
  9. ↑ New Mexico Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, 5th ed., 2009, p.53 ISBN 0899333176
  10. ↑ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
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