Highway in New Mexico
State Road 143 (NM 143) is a , paved, two-lane state highway in Luna County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. NM 143's northern terminus is east of Deming at the road's junction with NM 549. The road's southern terminus is at the entrance to the Rockhound State Park. NM 143 is also known as Stirrup Road.
Route description.
NM 143 begins at the junction with NM 549 in the unincorporated area east of the city of Deming. The road starts out by heading straight south through the arid desert, skirting the Little Florida Mountains from the west, while the Dragon Ridge of the Florida Mountains can be clearly seen to the south. After approximately the highway intersects former state road NM 141, an original access road to the Rockhound State Park. Shortly after the junction, the highway turns southeast, and travels through an unincorporated sparsely populated community for approximately before turning east. NM 198 forks right at roughly mark, and NM 143 turns northeasterly before reaching the entrance of the Rockhound State Park in the southern part of Little Florida Mountains.
History.
After Rockhound State Park was formed in 1966, a road was built connecting it to NM 11 south of Deming. At some point this road became known as NM 141. The road connecting US 80 to ranching communities southeast of Deming was known as Luna County Road B 026. On July 1, 1988 a road exchange agreement was signed between the NMDOT and Luna County which transferred the County Roads B 023 and B 026 to the state. The former county roads were broken up into several segments to avoid road concurrency, with the stretch between the former US 80 (which was redesignated as NM 549) and a three-way junction with NM 497 and NM 141 became known as NM 143. NM 141 was removed from the state control some time after 2000, and NM 497 was consolidated with NM 143 into a single road.
References.
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