Farmland in Sandoval County with a view of the Sandias

Official website:  Sandoval County website 

County Seat: Bernalillo

Government: Five Commissioners are elected by district for 4-year staggered terms. The Commission appoints a County Manager.

Area: 3,707 square miles

Population and Economy

Sandoval County is one of the most geographically and culturally diverse counties in a very diverse state. It’s as old as the first paleo-Indian people who lived here thousands of years ago and as new as the Intel’s semiconductor fabrication plants.

Its largest city is Rio Rancho, founded in 1981. Its county seat, Bernalillo, is one of the oldest towns in the nation. Other communities in Sandoval County include Corrales, a bedroom community of Albuquerque; Cuba and Jemez Springs in the Jemez Mountains; and San Ysidro. Also within Sandoval County are the pueblos of Cochiti, Jemez, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, and Zia as well as portions of the Navajo and Jicarilla Apache Indian reservations.

Once a sparsely settled, rural county, Sandoval County has far outstripped every other county in the state in population growth, with estimated gains of 30.5 percent between 2000 and 2006, according to MRCOG. Growth prior to 2000 was also record-breaking, growing by 100 percent in the 1970s, 82 percent in the 1980s, and 42 percent in the 1990s to total nearly 90,000 in 2000.

Thanks to Intel and other manufacturers in Rio Rancho, Sandoval County workers enjoy the second highest average private-sector weekly wages in New Mexico. (Los Alamos County is first.) Average weekly wages are $728, as compared with Bernalillo County at $670 and the state average of $616.

The county has been an active partner in economic development. Sandoval County in 2004 approved $16 billion in industrial revenue bonds for Intel, which financed a major expansion.

Geography

The county stretches from the Middle Rio Grande Valley west and north to the scenic Jemez Mountains and includes valley farmland, grassy mesas and volcanic features. Rivers, besides theRio Grande, are the Jemez River and the Rio Puerco, which originate in the Jemez Mountains. The Puerco’s 7,340-square-mile drainage accounts for a quarter of theRio Grande watershed.

History

The region that would be called Sandoval County was home to a number of ancient pueblo communities when Don Francisco de Coronado camped near present-day Bernalillo in 1540. Before that, prehistoric Sandia Man lived and hunted here thousands of years earlier.

The area was a partido, or district, when New Mexico was a Spanish province. After New Mexico became a territory of the United States, it became part of Santa Ana County, one of seven political subdivisions created in 1852. Sandoval County was created on March 10, 1903, nine years before statehood. Los Alamos County was separated from Sandoval County in 1949.

Transportation

The major corridor is I-25, fromAlbuquerque through Bernalillo toSanta Fe. U.S. 550 links Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, San Ysidro and Cuba with I-25 and northwestern New Mexico and the Four Corners area. NM 4 is a scenic route from San Ysidro through Jemez Springs and into the Jemez Mountains.

Bernalillo has two stops on the New Mexico Rail Runner commuter train. Sandoval County contributed $10 million to the Rail Runner project. The county offers rural public transit service on the Sandoval Easy Express, which operates five days a week and links with commuter rail in Bernalillo.

1970 Median Age (Census): 21.2
1980 Median Age (Census): 28.2
1990 Median Age (Census): 30.8
2000 Median Age (Census): 35.1
 

2000 Average Household Size (Census): 2.84

Median Household Income

1989 (Census): $28,950 (96% of the U.S. median)
1999 (Census): $44,949

Largest Employers:

• Intel Corporation (computer chip manufacturing)
• Sprint Personal Communication Services
• Rio Rancho Public Schools
• Pueblo of Santa Ana (Tribal government, Casino, other enterprises)
• Bernalillo Public Schools
• Victoria's Secret Catalog
• City of Rio Rancho
• J.C.Penney Company (telemarketing)