User:Fletchersparadox/sandbox/projects/towns/ElRito

El Rito, (Spanish for Little River), is an unincorporated community in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, USA. Its elevation is 6875 ft.

El Rito is located on NM 554; 18 mi Northwest of Española and 15 mi Northwest of Ojo Caliente. It is surrounded by the Carson National Forest.

Originally named El Rito Colorado, the red creek, it took its name from the creek that passes through the village. Tewas call the El Rito region "pink below place" for the El Rito Mountains, known to them as the pink mountains. It was established around 1780 as one of the early Spanish land grant settlements in northern New Mexico. The Spanish land grant claim for El Rito was presented to the US Court of Private Land Claims in 1898 and eventually the land was deeded to the land occupants under the Homestead Act of 1891.

The Church of San Juan Nepomuceno was constructed 1827-1832. The church was restored in the 1980s. A Folkstreams interview with the former San Juan Nepomuceno priest, Fr. Jerome Martínez, records his thoughts on the histories of El Rito and the church.

It is the home of the Carson National Forest Service – El Rito Ranger District, the El Rito Public Library, the Las Clinicas del Norte, and a campus of Northern New Mexico College.