New Mexico State Road 478
state highway in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States
State Road 478 (NM 478) is a 24.342-mile-long (39.175 km) state highway located entirely within Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Starting in Anthony and ending in Las Cruces, NM 478 was once a section of historic US 80, a major transcontinental highway between San Diego, California and Savannah, Georgia. In 1946, it also became part of U.S. Route 85, when the latter highway was extended south to the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas. US 80 and US 85 were rerouted onto a newer alignment to the east in the mid 1950s. This was also around the time the older highway was designated NM 478. For two years, the southern terminus of NM 478 also served as the national western terminus of US 80 until that highway was removed from New Mexico completely in 1991. Today, NM 478 remains on much the same route it has since it was first designated and serves several old US 80/US 85 communities long since bypassed by I-10
History
The first designated highway between Anthony at the Texas state line and Las Cruces was New Mexico State Road 1 in 1912. NM 1 continued past Las Cruces through Albuquerque and Santa Fe to the Colorado state line near Raton. The road to Lordsburg was designated NM 4 while the road to Alamogordo was designated NM 3. Between Las Cruces and Anthony, NM 1 passed through Berino and Mesquite.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “New Mexico State Road 478” as state highway in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as state highway in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q981719. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1991 and 1912.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “New Mexico State Road 478”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow New Mexico State Road 478 primary sources, New Mexico State Road 478 archive and Mexico research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “New Mexico State Road 478”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “New Mexico State Road 478” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.