New Mexico

1La Llorona of the Rio Grande Told story

Humanoid · Rio Grande bosque: Albuquerque, Santa Fe area, Mesilla · first reported traditional · also called The Weeping Woman

La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, is one of the most widely told legends in Hispanic New Mexico. In the usual telling she drowned her own children and is condemned to walk the riverbanks forever, crying and searching for them. Along the Rio Grande, families in Albuquerque say her wailing can be heard in the cottonwood bosque at night, and parents use her to keep children away from the water after dark. The story varies from town to town and teller to teller, which folklorists see as a sign of a living tradition. In southern New Mexico, the historic town of Mesilla marks her story along a riverside La Llorona Trail. She is more ghost than creature, but she is the state's best-known night terror.

• modernTold story Albuquerque families describe hearing a woman crying in the bosque beside the river. A Santa Fe informant recorded in 2018 called her a distinctly New Mexican legend. Source: folkbestiary.com

Visiting: La Llorona Trail along the Rio Grande at Mesilla.

2Giant Birds of Southern New Mexico On the record

Winged · Las Cruces and Maxwell · first reported 1972 · also called teratorns, New Mexico thunderbirds

New Mexico has its own giant-bird reports. In 1972 Ronald Monteleone near Maxwell in the northeast described a creature that looked like a pterodactyl. In a 2007 KRQE television report, Las Cruces resident Dave Zander said that about nine years earlier he had watched two huge black birds with bald pink heads and wings he judged near twenty feet across. Cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard has suggested people may be seeing surviving teratorns, giant Ice Age birds; Teratornis merriami is known only from fossils and had a wingspan estimated around twelve feet. Skeptics point out that the pink bald head fits turkey vultures and condor-like birds, and that size is very hard to judge in the sky.

• c. 1998 (reported 2007)On the record Dave Zander of Las Cruces told KRQE he saw two enormous black birds with pink, featherless heads and wings close to twenty feet across. Source: folkbestiary.com
• 1972Told story Ronald Monteleone of Maxwell described a flying animal that looked like a pterodactyl. Source: folkbestiary.com

3Taos Hum On the record

Other · Taos area, Taos County · first reported early 1990s · also called The Hum

In the early 1990s, some people around Taos began complaining of a constant low sound that others could not hear. Hearers compared it to a far-off pump, an idling diesel truck or bass from a distant stereo. Some blamed it for lost sleep and low energy. The complaints were taken seriously enough that New Mexico's congressional delegation pushed for an investigation in 1993, and a 1995 article in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America reported on the findings. Researchers did not find a single outside source. Ideas range from industrial noise and power lines to something in the hearers' own ears. The Hum remains unexplained, and similar hums are reported worldwide.

• 1993On the record After local complaints, New Mexico's members of Congress asked for a formal study. The Associated Press reported residents linking the sound to sleeplessness and fatigue. Source: folkbestiary.com
• 1995On the record A report in the Acoustical Society of America's journal described the sound as low-pitched, like a distant pump or idling diesel, heard by a small share of residents. Source: folkbestiary.com

4Dulce Base Told story

Other · Archuleta Mesa near Dulce, Rio Arriba County · first reported by 1988 · also called Archuleta Mesa base

Dulce Base is a modern legend about a secret underground facility under Archuleta Mesa, near the small town of Dulce on the Jicarilla Apache Nation. Believers claim it is a joint human and alien complex where strange experiments take place, tying it to cattle mutilations and UFO lights in the area. The story was circulating by 1988, when the Santa Fe New Mexican ran a story headlined 'ETs living in NM? Not likely investigators say.' New Mexico Magazine later placed 'Aliens in Dulce' on its list of the state's unsolved mysteries. No physical evidence of a base has ever been shown. Today the legend draws curious travelers to the town.

• 1988On the record The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on the base rumors, with investigators saying alien residents were unlikely. Source: folkbestiary.com

5Chupacabra in New Mexico On the record

Beast · Albuquerque and rural New Mexico · first reported 1996 · also called goatsucker

The chupacabra reached New Mexico soon after the 1995 Puerto Rico scare; in December 1996 the Albuquerque Journal reported twenty dead rabbits blamed locally on the goatsucker. Later reports shifted to hairless dogs. See the main Chupacabra dossier.

Full story: Chupacabra →

6Skinwalker (Diné tradition) Told story

Humanoid · Navajo Nation, Four Corners · first reported traditional · also called yee naaldlooshii

Skinwalkers belong to Diné (Navajo) tradition, and many Diné people consider it inappropriate to discuss them. Modern sighting stories come from northwestern New Mexico and Arizona. See the main Skinwalker dossier, which handles the subject with care.

Full story: Skinwalker →