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Colfax County

County in northeastern New Mexico Territory.[1]

Named for Schuyler Colfax, the 17th Vice President of the United States.[1]

Originally part of Taos County, the eastern part of which split off in 1859 to become Mora County. [1]

On January 25, 1869, the northern part of Mora County became Colfax County, its original county seat established at the gold-mining town of Elizabethtown. After the gold rush passed, the county seat was moved to Cimarron, to take advantage of its commercial location on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail.[1]

By 1876, Colfax County also included the sites of Clayton, Elbow Bend, Hallelujah and La Mesa.[2]

The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick: In September of 1876, Sheriff Chick Tucker held Bret Maverick at gunpoint outside of Hallelujah while Coroner Oliver Poole took Bret's empty coffin to the cemetery to be buried. Tucker instructed Poole to tell anyone asking where he was that he had ridden to the county seat[4] in Cimarron[2] to file a report.[4]