| Official Name: | Cañones, New Mexico |
| Settlement Type: | Census-designated place |
| Pushpin Map: | New Mexico |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | New Mexico |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Rio Arriba |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 10.72 |
| Area Land Km2: | 10.72 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.00 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 4.14 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 4.14 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.00 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 85 |
| Population Density Km2: | 7.93 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 20.54 |
| Timezone: | Mountain (MST) |
| Utc Offset: | -7 |
| Timezone Dst: | MDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -6 |
| Elevation Ft: | 7356 |
| Coordinates: | 36.1769°N -106.4244°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 87516[2] |
| Area Code: | 575 |
| Blank Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank Info: | 2584065 |
Cañones is a census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 118 as of the 2010 census.[3] Cañones had a post office until it closed on January 3, 2002.[4]
The town had 85 people in the 2020 census.
The origins of the community trace back to 1766, when Juan Pablo Martín Serrano was awarded the Polvadera Grant. Serrano was a wealthy military veteran with a large family, and established a seasonal rancho in the canyon, raising livestock, farming the canyon bottom, and trading with the Utes. Permanent settlement seems to have begun with Juan Bautista Valdez, who bought a grant at the present location of Cañones in 1807.[5]
Cañones was visited by anthropologists Paul Kutsche and John R. Van Ness in the 1960s, who considered the community typical of what they called the Rio Arriba subculture of Hispanic New Mexico. They concluded that this subculture was characterized by communal land grants, small economies, campanilismo (community spirit), and a fair degree of social equality.[5]
During the time Kutsche and Van Ness were guests in the community, the state closed the one-room school and ordered the children to attend school in Coyote, which meant busing the students several miles over a very bad road. The parents refused en masse to send their children to school in Coyote, and the subsequent legal battle seems to have revolved around the issue of whether the parents were acting on legitimate concerns for their children's safety or were using the children to pressure the state into building a better road into the community. The parents were fined for truancy, but the community now has an acceptable paved road.[5]
The ruins of Tsiping or Tsi’pinouinge, is found on Pueblo Mesa just south of Cañones. The settlement was active during the Classic stage, between 1200 CE and 1325 CE, and at its peak the settlement had 335 to 400 ground floor rooms and sixteen kivas surrounding a central plaza. Visitors to the ruins can find the trailhead at the south end of County Rd. 196.[6]