Moriarty: Pinto Bean Capital of the World

Moriarty sits in the Estancia Valley east of the Sandia Mountains at roughly six thousand two hundred feet, on the old Route Sixty-Six alignment that carried travelers between Albuquerque and Santa Rosa. The town grew up around ranching and farming in the high-desert valley, and for much of the twentieth century it promoted itself as the Pinto Bean Capital of the World, reflecting the valley's role as one of New Mexico's primary bean-growing regions.

The Estancia Valley's thin, alkaline soil and short frost-free season proved surprisingly well-suited to pinto beans, a staple crop that needed little water. Production peaked in the mid-twentieth century before a series of drought cycles diminished the harvest. Today Moriarty is better known as a waypoint on Interstate Forty, but the old Route Sixty-Six two-lane still runs through town, and the Moriarty Historical Museum holds the agricultural history of the valley that the highway once served.