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New Mexico County
Cibola County, New Mexico
Acoma Pueblo - Sky City - and the uranium mining legacy - from Acoma Pueblo's Sky City (the Acoma Pueblo perched atop a 367-foot sandstone mesa has been continuously inhabited since at least 1150 AD - making it one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in North America - the pueblo's dramatic mesa-top position, its Spanish mission church built with forced Acoma labor in 1629, and the community's survival through centuries of Spanish and American colonization make Sky City one of the most significant and moving heritage sites in the Southwest) to Grants's uranium mining heritage (Grants was the uranium capital of the world in the 1950s-1970s - the massive uranium deposits discovered beneath the Colorado Plateau made Grants the center of American nuclear fuel production during the Cold War).
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Dispatch: Cibola Regional Communication Center (CRCC) – 24/7, dispatches Sheriff’s Office, Grants PD, Milan PD, National Park Service, Animal Control, and all Fire/EMS; non-emergency (505) 287-9476/9477/4404.
Sheriff: Cibola County Sheriff’s Office – 114 McBride Road (mail: 700 East Roosevelt, Suite 50), Grants, NM 87020 | (505) 876-2040 | Toll-free (877) 898-0097 | Fax: (505) 876-2090; Sheriff Tony Mace.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-40 and historic Route 66 (the longest drivable stretch in New Mexico) run through Grants, the county seat and largest city.
Notes: Cibola County, created June 19, 1981, is genuinely New Mexico’s youngest county and the third-youngest in the United States, carved from the western four-fifths of the formerly much larger Valencia County. It’s named for the legendary “Seven Cities of Cíbola” Spanish explorers sought.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Cibola County Courthouse – Grants, NM 87020; confirm current phone via cibolacountynm.com.
Notes: Cibola County is genuinely home to Acoma Pueblo, known as “Sky City” – perched atop a 367-foot sandstone mesa and widely recognized as the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. Grants itself was genuinely known as the “Uranium Capital of the World,” the center of a major U.S. uranium mining boom from the 1950s to 1980s that produced over 340 million pounds of uranium oxide, commemorated today at the New Mexico Mining Museum (the world’s only underground uranium mining museum). The county also contains El Malpais National Monument, a dramatic volcanic landscape with a lava tube cave system extending at least 17 miles, and El Morro National Monument. Grants was earlier known as the “Carrot Capital of the World” in the 1930s-40s.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: New Mexico Department of Veteran Services – Grants field office; confirm current contact via cibolacountynm.com.
Federal: Albuquerque VA Medical Center (long distance).
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Grants: Grants Public Library – serves Cibola County residents; offers public computers, printing, fax, and lamination. Confirm current address/phone via facebook.com/GrantsPublicLibrary or cibolacountynm.com.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Acoma Pueblo (Sky City), El Malpais National Monument (lava tubes, ice caves), El Morro National Monument, the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave, Mount Taylor, and La Ventana Natural Arch are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine “Sky City” heritage at Acoma Pueblo and the county’s uranium mining boom are distinctive, nationally significant local facts.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Cibola County Assessor – confirm current contact via cibolacountynm.com.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Grants Animal Control – 1728 Animal Shelter Road, Grants, NM 87020 | (505) 287-4012; services include animal control, cat/dog adoptions, and lost pet/stray reporting.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Cibola County – Grants, NM 87020; confirm current contact via cibolacountynm.com.
NOTES: Cibola County is the fourth county in the New Mexico v3 A+ sourced redo’s first batch (Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, De Baca). The genuine “Sky City” heritage at Acoma Pueblo – the oldest continuously inhabited community in the U.S. – and the county’s dramatic uranium mining boom are distinctive, nationally significant local facts. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Cibola County
Cibola County is Sky City and the uranium capital – Acoma Pueblo’s 900-year occupation of its sandstone mesa and Grants’s Cold War uranium mining boom define a west-central New Mexico county of extraordinary contrasting histories.
Grants (the county seat, population ~9,000) preserves its uranium legacy at the New Mexico Mining Museum while El Malpais National Monument’s lava flows and ice caves attract visitors to one of the Southwest’s most geologically dramatic landscapes.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Cibola County Assessor at 515 W. High Street, Grants, NM 87020, phone 505-285-2520. NM assessed at one-third of market value.
Courts & Legal
Cibola County District Court at 700 E. Roosevelt Avenue, Grants, NM 87020, phone 505-285-2632, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
515 W. High St., Grants, NM 87020
(505) 285-2532
COUNTY CLERK — ELECTIONS
515 W. High St., Grants, NM 87020
(505) 285-2532
Genealogy
PRIMARY STATEWIDE RESEARCH CENTERS (same across all New Mexico counties)
New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, 1205 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe, NM 87507.
New Mexico Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 8283, Albuquerque, NM 87198.
County-level record sources
Cibola County Probate Court, Grants (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Cibola County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Cibola County Probate Court Cibola County Courthouse, 700 East Roosevelt, Suite 50, Grants, NM 87020 (505) 285-4605 Cibola County is in western New Mexico, seated in Grants.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
New Mexico adopted the Uniform Probate Code. New Mexico has a dual court system: the county PROBATE COURT handles informal, uncontested probate matters with minimal court involvement, and has concurrent jurisdiction with the DISTRICT COURT over informal proceedings. The District Court alone handles formal probate – contested cases, determinations of heirship, and trust matters.
Small Estate Affidavit / Affidavit of Successor in Interest (N.M. Stat. § 45-3-1201) – available when the value of the entire estate (after liens and encumbrances) does not exceed $50,000 and does NOT include any real property. At least 30 days must have passed since death. This skips probate court entirely – the affidavit is presented directly to banks, the DMV, or other institutions holding the property.
Homestead Transfer Affidavit for Surviving Spouse (N.M. Stat. § 45-3-1205) – available 6 months after death, when the surviving spouse and decedent owned a homestead as community property valued at $500,000 or less (for property tax purposes). The affidavit is recorded with the county clerk and can avoid formal probate for the residence, but only if funeral expenses, expenses of last illness, and all unsecured debts have already been paid.
Informal Probate – the most common path for uncontested estates, filed with either the Probate Court or the District Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled. No hearing required.
Formal Probate – required for contested cases, disputes over heirship, or trust matters. Only the District Court can hear these.
Step 2: filing for informal or formal probate
File a petition with the Probate Court or District Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled. A probate may be started up to 3 years after death.
The court appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative notifies creditors; New Mexico’s creditor claim period is 2 months from notice to creditors – one of the shortest in the country.
The personal representative inventories the estate’s assets, pays debts and expenses, and distributes the remaining assets according to the will or New Mexico’s intestacy statute.
The estate is closed, typically within 6 to 12 months for straightforward, uncontested cases.
What it costs
The filing fee for probate in Probate Court is generally around $30 – notably lower than in most states. District Court filing fees run higher, commonly $100–$232 depending on the county and complexity.
New Mexico does not set a fixed statutory percentage for personal representative compensation; courts typically look to a reasonable guideline of about 2–4% of the estate’s value.
New Mexico has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
515 W. High St., Grants, NM 87020
(505) 285-3361
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK — ELECTIONS
515 W. High St., Grants, NM 87020
(505) 285-2532
ELECTIONS
515 W. High St., Grants, NM 87020
(505) 285-2532
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Cibola General Hospital – Grants, NM; confirm current contact via cibolacountynm.com.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Grants
Population: 27,000
Area: 4,539 sq mi
Established: 1981
Tier: 3
Public Records
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