Moriarty, New Mexico

Moriarty sits on the high flatlands east of the Sandia Mountains, named for Michael Timothy Moriarty, an Irish immigrant homesteader who was the first permanent settler here. The Santa Fe Central Railroad arrived in the early nineteen hundreds and opened the floodgates: dryland farmers poured in from Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, planting pinto beans in the thin soil of the Estancia Valley. The original Route Sixty-Six alignment bypassed Moriarty to the north through Santa Fe, but a Santa Rosa to Albuquerque shortcut brought the highway through town, bringing its share of cafes and motor courts. Today Moriarty's biggest celebration is still the annual Pinto Bean Fiesta, honoring the crop that gave this corner of New Mexico an identity when the railroad first arrived.