Formed January 30, 1899 (19th county)
Otero County (67,843), Alamogordo (30,930)
The Modern red brick facility is on New York Avenue between 10th and 11th streets. United States Highway 54 passes one block west of the site. The courthouse was built in 1956 using the designs of Wolmagood and Millington. The building was enlarged in 1988 and remodeled in 2009 featuring columns. There was a 1901 courthouse also in Alamogordo, the only county seat. A 1938 Administration Building supports the courthouse. Otero County was established on January 30, 1899 from Lincoln County as the 19th county. The county was named for Territorial Governor, Miguel A. Otero III. The local trees inspired the name for the county seat, Spanish for “fat cottonwood”. Otero County was the birthplace for 1 New Mexico Governor, Edwin L. Mechem.
Otero County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, a treasurer, an attorney, an assessor, and a clerk (executive). It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.) Four District Court Judges serve Otero and Lincoln counties (judicial.) The county is in south central New Mexico on the border with Texas. Las Cruces, New Mexico is just to the west and El Paso, Texas is southwest of the location. The county center is 45.2 miles East of Alamogordo nearer Weed. The county is surrounded clockwise by Lincoln, Chaves, and Eddy counties and Texas and Dona Ana and Sierra counties.
The area of the county is 6627 square miles. It is 3 out of 33 in the state. It ranks 9 out of 33 in population in the state. It has a density of 10.2 persons per square mile making it 14 out of 33 in the state. Otero County has 50.5% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 54 crosses the county from north to south, Lincoln County to Texas. United States Highway 70 goes northeast to southwest from Lincoln County to Dona Ana County. United States Highway 82 enters from Chaves County, east, and terminates. The county is shaped like a capital letter L. Alamogordo is in the northwest quarter of the county. Alamogordo is the county seat and the largest city. It is 45.6% of the county population. The county is pronounced OE-TEER-OE. The seat is pronounced AL-A-MOE-GORE-DOE. This county is in the Alamogordo Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Alamogordo
Cloudcroft
Tularosa
