RATON

city, seat (1897) of Colfax county, northeastern New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the southern end of Raton Pass (7,834 feet above sea level), in the Sangre de Cristo Range near the Colorado border. Located on the old Santa Fe Trail and settled in 1871, it was used as a watering place by cattlemen. The town was laid out in 1880 after the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad and was named Raton (Spanish: rat) for a nearby lava-capped mountain that was inhabited by many small rodents. It developed as a shipping point for coal and livestock. The Capulin Mountain National Monument (a symmetrical volcanic cone rising 1,500 feet from a plain) and the site where prehistoric artifacts of the Folsom complex were found are about 30 miles (48 km) east. Inc. 1891. Pop. (1990) 7,372.