Music like Trementina

Trementina is an unincorporated community in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Its name is Spanish for turpentine, in reference to the pitch of the pinyon pine which was used by the Spanish Americans as a folk medicine and a substitute for chewing gum. Largely consisting of ranch property, Trementina is so sparsely populated and has such a preponderance of abandoned buildings that some classify it as a ghost town.

It was originally a Spanish American village founded after the American Civil War primarily by sheepherders who grazed their sheep in the mesas and grasslands between Cañon Largo to the north and Variadero Mesa to the South and the Canadian River to the East and the Conchas River to the West. Santiago Blea is credited with founding the community. The early Spanish Americans who settled the area defined land ownership by points of reference. When the area was surveyed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1880, many people lost their land because they did not understand the new laws and did not file for homesteads. Other U.S. citizens from he east took advantage of the new laws and homesteaded tracts of lands. The Spanish Americans were a forgiving people and lived peacefully with the homesteaders. Gradually the Spanish American and homesteaders intermarried and raised their children in the area.