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Home >> State of New Mexico >> Union County >> Des Moines >> Nearby CommunitiesIndex...

Nearest Communities to Des Moines,
Listed County-By-County

The purpose of this page is to identify those communities that are closest to Des Moines, on a County-by-County basis. To explain further, let's use the example from the Genealogy Helper Page for Des Moines:

We have great-grandparents who lived in a small village in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

When doing our research, we make it a practice to expand our search by looking in neighboring counties in addition to the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't checked the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

Keep in mind that when we give a distance, it's a 'straight-line' distance from Des Moines.<1>

If you're researching your genealogy, we hope that the following information helps.

Des Moines is located in Union County.

The following 8 counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Union County: Baca (CO), Las Animas (CO), Colfax, Harding, Quay, Cimarron (OK), Dallam (TX) & Hartley (TX).

Our Gazetteer shows that there are 23 communities within 40 miles [64.4 km]<1> of Des Moines. Of these communities, 11 are located in counties other than Union County.

We usually exclude communities where we still need to verify their location,<2> but for the purpose of this page, we have included the unverified ('unver') and historic ('hist') communities.

After starting with the home county for Des Moines (which is Union County), we list the counties in alphabetical order and for each of those counties, the closest communities are listed in order of their distance from Des Moines

For the following list, only those counties that contain communities within 40 miles [64.4 km] are displayed.

  • Union County   (where Des Moines resides)
    • County Website:   https://unionnm.us/
    • County Seat for Union:   Clayton
    • Genealogy Websites   ...
    • Nearest Communities to Des Moines   ...
      • These communities are listed by their distance from Des Moines.
      • Folsom
        (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Grande
        (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
        • Grande is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grande
      • Madison ‑ Historic
        (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
        • Madison is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madison
      • Capulin
        (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Willow Springs ‑ Historic
        (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
        • Willow Springs is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Springs
      • Emery Gap ‑ Historic
        (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
        • Emery Gap is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emery Gap
      • Grenville
        (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Corrumpa ‑ Historic
        (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
        • Corrumpa is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corrumpa
      • Sofia
        (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
        • Sofia is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sofia
      • Guy
        (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
        • Guy is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guy
      • Mount Dora
        (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Cuates ‑ Historic
        (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
        • Cuates is located in Union County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuates
  • Colfax County
    • County Website:   https://www.co.colfax.nm.us/
    • County Seat for Colfax:   Raton
    • Genealogy Websites   ...
    • Nearest Communities to Des Moines   ...
      • These communities are listed by their distance from Des Moines.
      • Kiowa ‑ Historic
        (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Palo Blanco ‑ Historic
        (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
        • Palo Blanco is located in Colfax County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palo Blanco
      • Tafoya ‑ Historic
        (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
        • Tafoya is located in Colfax County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tafoya
      • Chico ‑ Historic
        (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
        • Chico is located in Colfax County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chico
      • Yankee ‑ Historic
        (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
        • Yankee is located in Colfax County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yankee
      • Farley ‑ Historic
        (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
        • Farley is located in Colfax County
        • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farley
  • Las Animas County

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Des Moines) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>Our data comes from many sources and some sources are more dependable than others. When we add communities to our Gazetteer, we try to verify that we have the correct location for the community. We mark a community as 'Unverified' when we aren't confident about our data and want to do further checking.

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 larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now.

Since our Gazetteer contains over 100,000 communities, verifying everything is going to take time. If you find an error or can help us to improve our accuracy, please let us know.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.