A history of Costilla,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Costilla from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The village of Costilla was originally known as San Miguel, named after its church. On November 1, 1861, the Territory of Colorado created 17 original counties, with San Miguel as the original seat of Costilla County, Colorado Territory. When its post office opened on November 13, 1862, the village selected the new name Costilla, perhaps in recognition of its new status. In 1863, county voters decided to move the county seat 17 miles (27 km) north to San Luis. In 1869, a U.S. government survey determined that Costilla was actually located in the Taos County, New Mexico Territory. It wasn't until October 21, 1872, that the village post office was officially renamed Costilla, New Mexico Territory.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Costilla’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewRugMakingWomanPassesShuttle (crop…, 1939: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Costilla
See all 11 →
Costilla, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Costilla is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Costilla has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Iglesia de San Francisco de Assisi in San Luis, 13.4 miles away.
Costilla and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as RugMakingWomanPassesShuttle (cropped) (1939) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.