My great-grandparents lived in this small valley and were the original settlers in 1879, tucked away on the edge of the White Mountains and guarded by the huge presence of Escudilla Mountain. Here, the sandstone of the Colorado Plateau is capped by huge lava flows and all of the rounded hills in the area are long dormant volcanoes. The combination of a short growing season and poor thin soil made for really difficult farming. The only real possibilities were cattle ranching or timber harvesting. Neither of these activities turned out to be very profitable and nearly all of the settlers left the area after a few years of discouragement.
The area is called Nutrioso from the Spanish nutria or beaver and oso or bear. There are now very few beavers, but there are still quite a number of bears. By 1886, a scarlet fever epidemic had wiped out most of the young children in the town. Even though the land appears green and inviting, it is subject to the desert droughts and during the early times hungry timber wolves would come into the settlement and eat calves, colts, lambs, dogs and cats. Around 1900 a severe drought forced most of the rest of the settlers to leave the area. The current year round population is estimated at about 150.
During the past few years, the land speculation boom finally reached the area and land prices began to rise, but when the bust came, it came hard to Nutrioso and a tour though the subdivisions around the valley shows dozens of for sale signs.
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