All that part of the county of Socorro situated to the eastward of a direct line drawn from north to south, from Malpais, and to be the western line of the new county, is hereby constituted and established, a new county which shall have the name of, and be called the county of Lincoln; the line of the north of said county shall be the dividing line of the county of Valencia; from thence drawing a line eastward without interfering with the boundaries of the county of San Miguel; and on the south a line passing east and west through the head of El Ojo de Tularosa; and this shall be the fixed boundary between the counties of Dona Ana and Lincoln.

History: Laws 1868-1869, ch. 8, § 1; C.L. 1884, § 303; C.L. 1897, § 550; Code 1915, § 1083; C.S. 1929, § 33-1301; 1941 Comp., § 15-1301; 1953 Comp., § 15-14-1.

Compiler's notes. — Lincoln county was originally created out of the eastern portion of Socorro county. An addition was made to it by taking the eastern part of Dona Ana county by Laws 1878, ch. 34 (C.L. 1897, § 538; Code 1915, § 1077), which read: "The dividing line between the counties of Dona Ana and Lincoln shall be as follows, to wit: following the line which separates said counties from east to west, as now established by law, up to the intersection of parallel 28 degrees 30 minutes west of Washington; thence following said parallel of 28 degrees 30 minutes southwardly to the intersection of the line which separates said county of Dona Ana and the state of Texas, and all that part of the territory to the east of said parallel 28 degrees 30 minutes heretofore pertaining to said county of Dona Ana, be and the same hereby is annexed to and shall form a part of the county of Lincoln."

The area of Lincoln county has since been greatly reduced by the creation of new counties.

The present boundaries may be described as follows: commencing at the northeast corner of township 1 north of range 19 east; thence south [description from 4-3-1 NMSA 1978] on the range line between ranges 19 and 20 east to the base line; thence south on the range line between ranges 19 and 20 east to the first standard parallel south; thence east on said standard parallel to the northeast corner of township 6 south of range 20 east; thence south on the range line between ranges 20 and 21 east to the second standard parallel south; thence south on said range line to the southeast corner of township 11 south of range 20 east; thence west on the township line between townships 11 and 12 south to the northeast corner of township 12 south of range 20 east; thence south on the range line between ranges 20 and 21 east to the southeast corner of township 13 south of range 20 east; thence west [description from 4-3-3 NMSA 1978] on the township line between townships 13 and 14 south to the southwest corner of township 13 south of range 17 east; thence north [description from 4-19-1 NMSA 1978] on the range line between ranges 16 and 17 east to the township line between townships 11 and 12 south; thence west on said township line to the southwest corner of township 11 south of range 13 east; thence north on the range line between ranges 12 and 13 east to the second standard parallel south; thence west on said standard parallel to the southwest corner of township 10 south of range 6 east; thence north [description from 4-14-2 NMSA 1978] on the range line between ranges 5 and 6 east to the northwest corner of township 8 south of range 6 east; thence east on the township line between townships 7 and 8 south to the northeast corner of township 8 south of range 8 east; thence north [description from 4-14-1 NMSA 1978, redefined indirectly in 4-14-2 NMSA 1978] on the range line between ranges 8 and 9 east to the first standard parallel south; thence east [description from 4-14-2 NMSA 1978] on said standard parallel to the southwest corner of section 32 in township 5 south of range 10 east; thence north on the section line to the northwest corner of section 5 in township 1 south of range 10 east, on the New Mexico base line; thence east [description from 4-30-1 NMSA 1978] on the base line to the range line between ranges 15 and 16 east; thence north on said range line to the northwest corner of township 1 north of range 16 east; thence east [description from 4-10-1 NMSA 1978] on the township line between townships 1 and 2 north to the point of beginning.

The sections of this article were incorporated in article 8, chapter 24 of the 1915 Code. They were not reenacted by their inclusion therein, but were compiled merely for convenience. See the 1915 Code, p. 1665.

Cross references. — For boundaries of Dona Ana county, see 4-7-1 to 4-7-3 NMSA 1978.

For boundaries of San Miguel county, see 4-25-1 NMSA 1978.

For original boundaries of Socorro county, see 4-28-1 NMSA 1978.

For original boundaries of Valencia county, see 4-32-1 NMSA 1978.