| Borrego Pass, New Mexico | |
| Settlement Type: | Census-designated place |
| Pushpin Map: | USA New Mexico#USA |
| Pushpin Label: | Borrego Pass |
| Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | New Mexico |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | McKinley |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 13.23 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 13.23 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.00 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Population Total: | 117 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | auto |
| Timezone: | Mountain (MST) |
| Utc Offset: | -7 |
| Timezone Dst: | MDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -6 |
| Elevation Ft: | 7438 |
| Coordinates: | 35.5731°N -108.005°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 87323 (Thoreau) 87045 (Prewitt) |
| Area Code: | 505 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 35-08493 |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 886640 |
Borrego Pass is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) consisting of two Navajo communities[3] and a trading post in the Navajo lands of McKinley County, in northwestern New Mexico, United States. In Navajo its name is ,[4] meaning "Upward Path of the Lamb." As of the 2020 census, the population was 117.[2]
The community formed around the Borrego Pass Trading Post which was opened in 1927 and was first operated by Ben and Anna Harvey,[5] and then starting in 1935 by Bill and Jean Cousins.[6] It was sold in 1939 to Don and Fern Smouse who operated it for over forty years. The trading post was named after the nearby Borrego Pass an ancient water gap, across the Continental Divide,[7] that cuts into the Dutton Plateau.[8]
Borrego Pass is located in east-central McKinley County on Navajo Route 48, by road southeast of Crownpoint[9] and north of Prewitt. The town center, including Borrego Pass School, sits at an elevation of less than a mile southwest of the pass proper.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Borrego Pass CDP has an area of 13.2sqmi, all land.[1] The Continental Divide runs through the northern and eastern parts of the CDP, sometimes forming its northeastern border. Most of the community, on the south side of the divide, drains southward toward Casamero Draw and eventually the Rio San Jose, part of the Rio Puerco watershed leading to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. The northernmost part of the CDP drains north toward Kim-me-ni-oli Wash, a tributary of the Chaco River, part of the San Juan River watershed leading to the Colorado River and ultimately the Gulf of California.
There is a Navajo school at Borrego Pass, the Borrego Pass School which was established in the early 1950s. In 1972, it became one of the first contract schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.). It is now affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).[10]
It is in Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools.[11] It is zoned to Crownpoint Elementary School, Crownpoint Middle School, and Crownpoint High School.[12]