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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Piedra (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Piedra. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Piedra is located in Archuleta County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Archuleta County: Conejos, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Rio Grande, Rio Arriba (NM) & San Juan (NM).

Below are the counties that are near Piedra. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Piedra:

  • Archuleta County     (The home county of Piedra)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piedra, with the one closest to Piedra listed first.
    • Chimney Rock
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Arboles
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Gato
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Gato is located in Archuleta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gato
    • Juanita ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Juanita is located in Archuleta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Juanita
    • Pagosa Springs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Trujillo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Trujillo is located in Archuleta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trujillo
    • Chromo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • La Plata County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piedra, with the one closest to Piedra listed first.
    • Bayfield
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Allison
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Allison is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allison
    • Gem Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Gem Village is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gem Village
    • Vallecito
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Ignacio
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • La Boca
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • La Boca is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Boca
    • Florida
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Florida is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florida
    • Carbon Junction
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Carbon Junction is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbon Junction
    • Durango
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Hermosa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Hermosa is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermosa
  • Rio Arriba County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piedra, with the one closest to Piedra listed first.
    • Navajo
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Navajo is located in Rio Arriba County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo
    • Dulce
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Lumberton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Lumberton is located in Rio Arriba County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lumberton

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Piedra, see our County-by-County Page for Piedra.

Cemeteries Near Piedra ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Piedra.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Piedra - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Piedra covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Piedra, with the one closest to Piedra listed first.

  • Altura Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Pagosa Juction Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Bayfield Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Allison Tiffany Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • New Rosa Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Carracas Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Ouray Memorial Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Juanita Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Hilltop Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilltop Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hilltop Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Pagosa Springs.
    • The Hilltop Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pagosa Springs Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57341 <3>
  • Tiffany Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Trujillo Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Eoff Ranch Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • La Boca Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Shreck Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • White Ranch Family Cemetery
      • The White Ranch Family Cemetery is located on private property - be sure to secure permission before visiting.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Ranch Family Cemetery
      • The White Ranch Family Cemetery has also been known as:
      • White Spring Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2484263 <3>

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Piedra had a post office and no railroad service.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Piedra, with the one closest to Piedra listed first.

  • Arboles
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Carracas
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Carracas is located in Archuleta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carracas
  • Rosa ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Rosa is located in Rio Arriba County (NM)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosa
  • Ignacio
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Juanita ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Juanita is located in Archuleta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Juanita
  • Pagosa Springs
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • La Boca
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • La Boca is located in La Plata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Boca
  • Navajo
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Navajo is located in Rio Arriba County (NM)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo
  • Dulce
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Durango
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Piedra. See our List of 1890's Communities around Piedra.

Newspapers Published in Piedra ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Piedra.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Piedra, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Piedra.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Piedra:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Piedra) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<4>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Piedra, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.