RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> Luna County >> AkelaIndex...

Welcome to Akela ...

So far, we found very little information about Akela. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Akela to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Akela, please Contact Us.


Akela would have been located within present day Luna County<2>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Akela, you might consider that their post office opened in 1921.

While the community is gone, the present day location for Akela is 4,160 feet [1,268 m] above sea level.<3> In other words, the altitude of Akela is about ¾ mile [or ~1¼ km] above sea level.

Time Zone: The area where Akela was located is in the Mountain Time Zone (MST/MDT) and observes daylight saving time

The Area Code where Akela was located: 575

Communities near Akela ...

We have created a list of 5 communities that are near Akela.

  • Deming
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Sunshine ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Sunshine is located in Luna County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunshine
  • Nutt ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Nutt is located in Luna County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nutt
  • Afton ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Afton is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
  • Hatch
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Hatch is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatch
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,678 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hatch <4>

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Akela. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Akela.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Akela. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Akela.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Akela. See our Newspapers Page for Akela.

Adding Akela to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Akela in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Akela was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Akela post office opened in 1921. The Akela post office closed in 1943.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Akela.

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Akela, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>If you're interested in how the shape of New Mexico's counties, including Luna, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Akela - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/