Cibola County, New Mexico

Cibola County is a county in New Mexico, United States, about 78 miles west of Albuquerque and 58 miles east of Gallup along Interstate 40. It had a population of 27,172 at the 2020 census, an estimated 26,807 in 2025, and covers 4,542 square miles (11,760 km2) centred near 34°55′N 107°59′W.

Grants is the county seat; its postal code is 87020. The county holds 1 city, 1 incorporated
village and roughly three dozen census-designated places and unincorporated communities, and it
runs on Mountain Time. Its FIPS code is 35006.

Towns & Villages in Cibola County

Cibola County has about 40 named places on record: Grants and Milan are incorporated, 32 more
are Census Bureau-designated places (CDPs), and the rest are unincorporated communities with no
formal boundary. Most of the county’s CDPs sit on the Acoma or Laguna Pueblo reservations and
are governed by tribal, not county, authority. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp.
covers settlements the Census Bureau has not formally delineated.

Two names on this list can confuse a search: Acomita Lake, North Acomita Village and South
Acomita Village are three separate CDPs on Acoma tribal land, not one place under different
spellings, and Cubero appears once as a CDP even though older county records also listed a
separate unincorporated crossroads of the same name a mile away. New Mexico has no civil
townships, so places here are not grouped by township the way Midwestern counties are.

ZIP Codes

• 87020 — Grants (the county’s largest ZIP by population)
• 87021 — Milan
• 87005 — Bluewater Village
• 87026 — Laguna
• 87040 — Paguate
• 87049 — San Fidel

Most of the county’s smaller CDPs, including San Rafael, McCartys Village and Acomita
Lake, have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under Grants’ or Laguna’s
code depending on the rural route.

Geography

Cibola County sits in west-central New Mexico on the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, a
high-desert landscape of mesas, lava fields and one large volcano. Of its 4,542 square miles,
4,539 are land and 2.3 are water, about 0.05 percent — among the driest splits of any New
Mexico county, since there is no natural lake of any size within its borders. Mount Taylor, an
extinct stratovolcano rising to 11,301 feet, dominates the county’s northeast corner and is
sacred to the Navajo, Acoma, Laguna and Zuni peoples. El Malpais National Monument, a roughly
3,000-year-old lava flow south of Grants, and El Morro National Monument, a sandstone bluff
carved with centuries of traveler inscriptions, protect two of the county’s most distinctive
landscapes. Cibola National Forest covers much of the higher ground.

McKinley County lies to the north, Sandoval County to the northeast, Bernalillo County and
Valencia County to the east, Socorro County to the southeast, Catron County to the south, and
Apache County, Arizona, across the state line to the west. McKinley County, Sandoval County, Bernalillo County, Valencia County, Socorro County and Catron County all border Cibola directly.

Demographics

Cibola County had a population of 27,172 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 26,807 residents. Grants and Milan are the two largest communities, together holding
about 42 percent of the county’s population; most of the rest live on the Acoma or Laguna
Pueblo reservations. New Mexico’s statewide median household income runs $62,268 (2023 ACS)
for comparison. Population density works out to roughly 6 people per square mile of land, low
even by rural New Mexico standards, reflecting the county’s large tracts of tribal trust land,
national forest and lava field where no one lives.

Economy & Local Life

Uranium mining built Cibola County’s economy through the mid-20th century, after a Navajo
prospector found ore near Haystack Mesa and touched off a boom that earned Grants the nickname
“Uranium Capital of the World.” Most of the mines closed by the 1980s, and today the
county’s largest employers are the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, a federal
detention facility, and the Acoma and Laguna Pueblo tribal governments, which run their own
schools, health clinics and casinos on reservation land. Tourism tied to Historic Route 66, El
Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument draws travelers along the old highway
through Grants. The New Mexico Mining Museum in downtown Grants preserves the county’s
uranium-era history with a mock underground mine shaft.

History

The New Mexico Legislature created Cibola County on June 19, 1981, carving it from the
westernmost four-fifths of the much larger Valencia County. That makes it New Mexico’s
youngest county and the third-youngest in the United States. The name recalls the legendary
“Seven Cities of Cibola,” the golden cities Spanish explorers searched for across the
Southwest in the 1540s but never found. Grants was incorporated decades earlier, in 1935, and
grew from a railroad section camp into the county seat. Acoma Pueblo, within the county, is
recognized as one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America.

Getting There

Interstate 40 runs the length of the county, tracing the old Route 66 corridor through Grants,
Milan and San Fidel. New Mexico State Roads 6, 36, 53, 117, 122, 124, 279, 547, 568 and 605 branch
off it toward the pueblos and outlying communities.

• Albuquerque — about 78 miles east
• Gallup — about 58 miles west
• Los Lunas — about 55 miles east
• Springerville, Arizona — about 90 miles southwest

Albuquerque International Sunport, roughly 80 miles east of Grants, is the nearest major
commercial airport. Grants-Milan Municipal Airport, just south of Milan, handles general aviation.
Amtrak’s Southwest Chief does not stop in Cibola County; the nearest station is in Gallup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Cibola County located?
It sits in west-central New Mexico along Interstate 40, about 78 miles west of Albuquerque and
58 miles east of Gallup.

What is the population of Cibola County?
27,172 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 26,807.

How big is Cibola County?
4,542 square miles (11,760 km2), of which 4,539 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Cibola County?
Grants, incorporated in 1935, is the county seat.

How many towns and villages are in Cibola County?
Two incorporated places, Grants and Milan, plus 32 census-designated places and several
unincorporated communities, most on Acoma or Laguna Pueblo land.

What ZIP codes does Cibola County use?
87020 for Grants, 87021 for Milan, 87005 for Bluewater Village, 87026 for Laguna, 87040 for
Paguate and 87049 for San Fidel.

What is Cibola County known for?
Its uranium mining boom that made Grants the “Uranium Capital of the World,” Historic
Route 66, and the volcanic landscapes of El Malpais and El Morro national monuments.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New Mexico.