The museum is open to the public. There is no cost, but donations are gratefully accepted. It is open during the summers from early June to the third week in August, and then opens after Labor Day and stays open until Halloween. Call (575) 376-2281 for information and ask about the special candlelight tour.
From the Philmont web site: Rayado was founded by Lucien Maxwell in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War as the first plains settlement in New Mexico east of the mountain valleys of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The area was far from secure due to marauding Apaches and Comanche, so Maxwell persuaded his friend Kit Carson to help provide security in 1849. A detachment of US Army Dragoons was based at Rayado the following year. After a few years at Rayado, Kit Carson returned to Taos.
Founder Lucien Maxwell left Rayado to found Cimarron in 1857, and his brother-in-law Jesus Abreu and his family took over operations of Rayado Rancho.
In 1950, the Boy Scouts of America built an adobe museum at Rayado to serve as an interpretive area to portray its history and recount the exploits of Maxwell and Carson.
Staff at the Museum dress in period clothing and demonstrate frontier skills and crafts like blacksmithing, cooking, shooting, and farming. Each room in the museum is outfitted with reproduction furniture and objects typical of New Mexico in the 1850s. The Rayado Trading Company, located at the museum, sells books, maps, reproduction tools and equipment, moccasins, and blankets.
TheRayado Museum is seven miles south of Philmont Camping Headquarters on NM Highway 21.
Rayado was founded by Lucien Maxwell in 1848 who later became owner of over 1.7 million acres, the largest single tract of land ever possessed by one man in the history of the United States.
Rayado was the first settlement in Colfax, County, NM. It was located on the Santa Fe Trail. Kit Carson built a small house and lived here for a while. Maxwell and Carson entertained a number of Santa Fe Trail traders.
Though it was the only settlement for miles around, Maxwell had difficulty in attracting settlers as the area was subject to raids by the Apache, Comanche, and other Plains tribes.
In 1857, the settlement of Cimarron was established and Maxwell soon moved headquarters there.
Today, Rayado is part of the Philmont Scout Ranch and includes the original Maxwell home, a reconstruction of Carson’s home, the Chapel of the Holy Child, and La Posta, a Santa Fe Trail stage stop dating from the 1850s.
