Rio Nutrias Explained

Rio Nutrias
Name Other:Arroyo de las Nutrias,[1]
Rio de las Nutrias,[2]
Nutrias Creek
Subdivision Type1:Country
Subdivision Name1:United States
Subdivision Type2:State
Subdivision Name2:New Mexico
Subdivision Type3:Region
Subdivision Name3:Rio Arriba County
Subdivision Type5:City
Subdivision Name5:Las Nutrias
Source1 Location:North slope of Canjilón Mountain, Carson National Forest
Source1 Coordinates:36.6028°N -106.3389°W
Source1 Elevation:10544feet[3]
Mouth:Confluence with the Rio Chama
Mouth Coordinates:36.5528°N -106.7158°W
Mouth Elevation:6653feet
Tributaries Left:Terrero Creek, Canada del Policarpo

Rio Nutrias is a 35adj=midNaNadj=mid[4] westward-flowing stream originating on the north slope of Canjilón Mountain in the Carson National Forest, in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. Rio Nutrias is a tributary to the Rio Chama which it joins about 3adj=midNaNadj=mid below El Vado Reservoir in Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico.

History

Rio Nutrias is archaic sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish (primarily rural Castilian) for "beavers river".[5] On August 2, 1776 Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante wrote in his diary, "...we halted in a small plain on the bank of another arroyo which is called Rio de las Nutrias, because, although it is of permanent and running water, apparently during all or most of the year it stands in pools where they say beavers breed."[6] In his annotated 1900 translation of the diary of Francisco Garcés, Elliott Coues wrote in a footnote: "In proof of this use of nutrias for beavers I can cite a passage in Escalante's Diario. Doc. para Hist. Mex.,2d ser., i, 1854, p. 426: "Aqui tienen las nutrias hechos con palizades tales tanques, que representan a primera vista un rio mas que mediano - here have the beavers made with sticks such ponds that they look at first sight like a river larger than usual"; the reference being of course to the damming of the stream by these animals."[1] In his dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Rubén Cobos also translates the contemporary Spanish word nutria for otter, as meaning beaver in the archaic Spanish that persists in the region from the earliest settlers since 1598.[7]

Watershed and course

The Rio Nutrias passes through the village of Nutrias, not to be confused with Las Nutrias (Census designated place in Socorro County, NM) at the Highway 84 crossing. It enters Nutrias Canyon in its last couple miles before its confluence with the Rio Chama. This Rio Nutrias is not to be confused with the Rio Nutrias that is a tributary to the Rio San Antonio, or Rio Nutria that is a tributary to the Zuni River.[5]

Ecology

Not surprisingly, the river is excellent habitat for beavers (Castor canadensis).[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: On the trail of a Spanish pioneer: the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garcés (missionary priest) in his travels throughout Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776 Vol. I and II . Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garcés, Elliott Coues . F. P. Harper . 1900 .
  2. Book: The Ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians, Volume 29 of the Annual Report, United States Bureau of American Ethnology . John Harrington Peabody . Government Printing Office . 1916 . 606 .
  3. Web site: The National Map . 2012-06-04 .
  4. 2010 Waterbody Report for Rio Nutrias (Rio Chama to Headwaters) . U. S. Environmental Protection Agency . 2010 . 2012-06-05 .
  5. Book: The Place Names of New Mexico . Robert Hixson Julyan . 297 . University of New Mexico Press . 1996 . 9780826316899 . 2012-06-04 .
  6. Web site: The Diary and Itinerary of Fathers Dominguez and Escalante . 2012-06-04 .
  7. Book: A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish . registration . Rubén Cobos . Museum of New Mexico Press . Santa Fe, New Mexico . 1983 . 978-0890134535 .