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History · Medanales

Medanales’ post office opened in 1945

Below: maps from 1953 on.

1945first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Medanales began

When was Medanales founded?

1945

The Medanales post office opened in 1945, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 22481 years
Founding year: the first Medanales post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Medanales’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Medanales are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Medanales’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Medanales’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Medanales, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Medanales yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Medanales is an unincorporated community located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, Medanales had a population of 224. The community is located on the Chama River near U.S. Route 84, 14 miles (23 km) north-northwest of Española. Medanales has a post office with ZIP code 87548, which opened on March 10, 1945.

Its first post office opened in 1945.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Medanales on the map, 1953 to 1995

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Medanales. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Medanales on the 1953 USGS mapMedanales on the 1995 USGS map1953Medanales sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Medanales.

Famous people

Famous people close to Medanales

Nobody well known was born in Medanales itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Maria MartinezNative American potter 1887-1980 · b. 1887
Manuel LujanAmerican politician · b. 1928
Scott TiptonAmerican politician · b. 1956
A
Al HurricaneAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1936
Antonio José MartínezNew Mexican priest, educator, publisher, ranche… · b. 1793
José Manuel GallegosAmerican politician · b. 1815

Questions about Medanales’ history

What year was Medanales founded?

The Medanales post office opened in 1945, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.