Formed January 1, 1901 (20th county)
McKinley County (72,898), Gallup (21,907)
The Spanish Pueblo Revival structure is located on a square Hill, 2nd, Mesa, and 3rd streets. Second Street is New Mexico State Highway 602 in this part of the city. Interstate Highway 40 is five blocks north of the site. The courthouse was built in 1939 to replace an earlier one. Trost & Trost are the architects of this adobe and marble facility. Veteran memorial slabs are in front of the structure. An Annex had been added to the south side. The county was established on January 1, 1901 from Bernalillo County as the 20th county with Gallup as the only county seat. United States President William McKinley was honored by the county’s name. The county seat was named for David L. Gallup, a railroad official.
McKinley County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, a treasurer, an attorney, an assessor, and a clerk (executive). It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.) Six District Court Judges serve McKinley and San Juan counties (judicial.) McKinley County is in the northwest part of the state on the border with Arizona. Albuquerque, New Mexico is east of the county. The county center is 41.7 miles Northeast of Gallup nearer Crownpoint. The county is surrounded clockwise by San Juan, Sandoval, and Cibola counties and Arizona.
The area of the county is 5449 square miles. It is 7 out of 33 in the state. It ranks 8 out of 33 in population in the state. It has a density of 13.4 persons per square mile making it 12 out of 33 in the state. McKinley County has 30.1% of its population in its incorporated areas. Interstate Highway 40 crosses the county from southeast, Cibola County, to west, Arizona. United States Highway 666 comes in from the north, San Juan County, and terminates. The county is a rectangle shape with a large leg extending down from the southwest corner. Gallup is in the far west quarter of the county. Gallup is the county seat and, as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 30.1% of the county population. This county is in the Gallup Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Gallup
