Formed June 19, 1981 (33rd county)
Cibola County (27,172), Grants (9,164)
The Spanish Mission style courthouse is on High Street near Iron Street. Interstate Highway Business 40 is one block to the south of the site. This structure was built in 1981 as a school and converted into the courthouse in 1987. Hoshour & Pearson are the courthouse designers. The stucco District Courthouse supports the county courthouse. Cibola County was established on June 19, 1981 from Valencia County as the 33rd and last county. Grants has been the only county seat. A railroad camp was established at the site of the county seat by Angus A., John R., and Lewis A. Grant thus the name. The county’s namesake comes from the tale of the Seven Cities of Cibola where Native Americans were supposed to have vast riches of gold.
Cibola County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, a treasurer, an attorney, an assessor, and a clerk (executive). It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.) Ten District Court Judges serve Cibola, Sandoval, and Valencia counties (judicial.) Cibola County is in the west part of the state and shares its western border with Arizona. Albuquerque, New Mexico is in the county to the east. The county center is 7.1 miles South of Grants nearer San Rafael. The county is surrounded clockwise by McKinley, Sandoval, Bernalillo, Valencia, Socorro, and Catron counties and Arizona.
The area of the county is 4540 square miles. It is 10 out of 33 in the state. It ranks 17 out of 33 in population in the state. It has a density of 6.0 persons per square mile making it 19 out of 33 in the state. Cibola County has 42.8% of its population in its incorporated areas. Interstate Highway 40 comes from the east, Bernalillo County, and goes to the northwest, McKinley County. The county’s shape could be described as a plow sitting face down. Grants is in the northern half of the county, slightly east of center. Grants is the county seat and the largest city. It is 33.7% of the county population. The county is pronounced SEE-BOE-LA. This county is in the Grants Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Grants
Milan
