Borrego Pass () is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) consisting of two Navajo communitiesIverson, Peter (1983) The Navajo Nation University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, volume 2, pages 144–145, and a trading post in the Navajo lands of McKinley County, in northwestern New Mexico, United States. In Navajo its name is ,Bright, William (2004) Native American placenames of the United States University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, page 71 meaning "Upward Path of the Lamb." As of the 2020 census, the population was 117.
History The community formed around the Borrego Pass Trading Post which was opened in 1927 and was first operated by Ben and Anna Harvey,"Trading post listed as 'historic place'" KRQE News 25 October 2010 and then starting in 1935 by Bill and Jean Cousins.Cousins, Jean; Cousins, Bill and Engels, Mary Tate (1996) Tales from Wide Ruins: Jean and Bill Cousins, traders Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas, pages 77–85, It was sold in 1939 to Don and Fern Smouse who operated it for over forty years. The trading post was named after the nearby Borrego Pass an ancient water gap, across the Continental Divide,Julyan, Robert (1998) "Borrego Pass" The Place Names of New Mexico (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 46, that cuts into the Dutton Plateau.Lekson, Stephen H. (1999) The Chaco meridian: centers of political power in the ancient Southwest Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California, page 119,
Geography Borrego Pass is located in east-central McKinley County on Navajo Route 48, by road southeast of CrownpointEddington, Patrick and Makov, Susan (1995) Trading post guidebook: where to find the trading posts, galleries, auctions, artists, and museums of the Four Corners region Northland Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona, pages 133-134, and north of Prewitt. The town center, including Borrego Pass School, sits at an elevation of less than a mile southwest of the pass proper.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Borrego Pass CDP has an area of , all land. The Continental Divide runs through the northern and eastern parts of the CDP, sometimes forming its northeastern border. Most of the community, on the south side of the divide, drains southward toward Casamero Draw and eventually the Rio San Jose, part of the Rio Puerco watershed leading to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. The northernmost part of the CDP drains north toward Kim-me-ni-oli Wash, a tributary of the Chaco River, part of the San Juan River watershed leading to the Colorado River and ultimately the Gulf of California.
Education There is a Navajo school at Borrego Pass, the Borrego Pass School () which was established in the early 1950s. In 1972, it became one of the first contract schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.). It is now affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).
It is in Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools. It is zoned to Crownpoint Elementary School, Crownpoint Middle School, and Crownpoint High School. - KML files: High boundaries and locations.
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