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Did you know that a ghost town haunts north Corrales? The village of Los Montoyas presumably disappeared over 100 years ago, but the name is still around—the Montoyas Arroyo, Paseo Tomas Montoya—and memories and mentions of Los Montoyas are sprinkled throughout the story of Corrales’ north end.
Jasper Koontz, who ranched in north Corrales (the Baylor Koontz Ranch is now Trees of Corrales) in the 1940s and ’50s, told an interviewer that he came “across many ruins of walls and houses†while working his land. He was convinced that the 115-year-old walls in the core of his home and in the ranch bunk house had been built by the Montoyas. Corrales resident David C’ de Baca discovered that his ancestor Nerio Antonio Montoya, (son of Diego Antonio Montoya) was born in 1731 in Corrales, the earliest date found connecting the family name and Corrales.
Some forty years later, Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez in his 1776 report on the missions of New Mexico, noted an “upper Corrales†on the west side of the river “opposite Sandia pueblo.†It was composed of ten families numbering 42 people. This settlement may have been founded by a member of the several Montoya families recorded in early eighteenth century Bernalillo; during this time a Diego Montoya is recorded living in his large hacienda on the west side of the river. He or other members of his family might have moved south and settled across from Sandia.
An 1818 census of Corrales includes several Montoya families in Corrales; whether they were living in the northern reaches of what was known as Corrales is unknown. The 1771-1851 baptismal and marriage records for the Sandia Mission—the jurisdictional church for northern Corrales at that time—are filled with mentions of Montoya families, many of them “vecinos de Los Corrales.†The first American census of New Mexico, made in 1850, but not specifying exactly where the population lived, lists ten families headed by a Montoya in the area we believe is Corrales. Perhaps many were living in north Corrales in their eponymous settlement.
Descendants of the Montoya families listed in the 1850 census continued to live in Corrales as evidenced by subsequent censuses. They farmed their large holdings in northern Corrales well into the twentieth century.
We had the good fortune to interview two descendants of one of these families. In 2009, members of Corrales Historical Society and Montoya relatives Mayta Martinez and Dolores Carrillo met with Tomas Montoya (1921-2016) at his home just north of the Harvey Jones outlet of the Montoyas Arroyo. We later interviewed his son Tito, who lived across Corrales Road from his dad. Tito told us that the arroyo was once called the Rio de los Montoyas and the entrance to the Montoya lands was two gates (las puertas doble) on the east side of what became Highway 528 at Rio Rancho’s Northern Boulevard.
Tomas Montoya was born in the old Montoya home, still standing at 6770 Corrales Road; in recent years it was the home of Tomas’ older brother José Felipe Montoya. Tomas told us that when he was young there were only two houses nearby.
His memories of his youth in Corrales evoked years of hard work (it was “no fun at allâ€) punctuated by rare moments of “fun,†including games of marbles and jacks and swimming in the river. Tomas, who even in his eighties swam at a Rio Rancho fitness club, fondly remembered his favorite spot—North Beach at the deepest part of the river where La Barranca met the Rio Grande just beyond the northern tip of Corrales. Most Sundays they walked to the old San Ysidro Church, but when they had to work he remembered hearing the church bells way up at his home.
Tomas recalled that the old road from Corrales to Bernalillo ran right by the river and was all sand. When the Rio Grande was dry the family simply crossed the river bed near his childhood home to reach Bernalillo. In the winter, he remembered that the swamps in the bosque would often freeze so the kids could slide on them.
He first attended school in a one-room school near Manierre Road. Later he was moved to the larger school farther south. Corrales farmer Alejandro Gonzales had a big Chevy stake bed truck in which he would pick up the kids and bring them home. That memory led to an unforgettable one—during the summer of 1931, Gonzales’ son Ambrosio was killed by lightning.
A brief notice in the Las Vegas Daily Optic of October 13, 1904 reads:
Thomas Werner and family are in Albuquerque from Los Corrales. Mr. Werner is a deputy sheriff of Sandoval County. He states that the village of Montoyas, near Corrales, was completely wiped out by the recent floods.
Gone, but not yet forgotten. Traces of Los Montoyas keep appearing in our Corrales story. Maybe more will be added as a result of this article; let’s hope the ghost of Los Montoyas keeps haunting us.
Information provided by Corrales Historical Society (CHS) Archives Committee. Want to learn more? Visit www.CorralesHistory.org for all the interesting things the Historical Society has to offer.
