Mora River

About the Mora River

• The Mora River rises above 12,000 feet in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and drains a 1,476-square-mile watershed as it flows east onto the plains of northeastern New Mexico toward the Canadian River.1
• In a wet spring its lower stretch can be run by boat for about 30 miles, from just east of Watrous to the confluence with the Canadian River; the run begins lazily and gradually increases in whitewater intensity.2
• A milling system along the river once nurtured a wheat-growing region known as "the bread basket of New Mexico"; today part of the river flows through the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area.345

This report follows 121 miles (195 km) of the Mora River, all within the Mora watershed segment. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 1,457 square miles. Downstream of the mapped reach it flows into the Canadian River. Named tributaries joining it here include the Sapello River, Coyote Creek, Wolf Creek, Tata Vique and Rito Cebolla. 5 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1906 to 2026.

From the archive: NHDPlus river network, WBD watersheds, NHD waterbodies, TIGER urban areas and the report's gauges.

From the headwaters down

Each watershed segment in order, with last week's flow rated against the same week in 1991–2020.

1. 1

   Segment 1: Mora

   86 cfs last week much above normal, 18 dry days this year.

   Median conductance 392 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 158% of normal.

Culture

• Approximately 47 acequias, or irrigation ditches, intersect the Mora River and its tributaries throughout the watershed, according to a University of New Mexico water-resources assessment.1
• Fort Union, the largest 19th-century military fort in the region, operated from 1851 to 1891; its adobe-walled ruins hold what the National Park Service calls the world's largest collection of Territorial-style adobe remnants.4
• Ceran St. Vrain built the Mora Valley's oldest standing industrial mill in 1864 to supply a flour contract with Fort Union; the valley's local gristmills processed grain from the 1860s to the 1940s, and three historic flour mills remain along the river between La Cueva and Cleveland.3

Habitat

• The Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge, created in 2012 from a land donation, protects shortgrass prairie, riparian wetlands, piñon-juniper, oak and coniferous forest along five miles of the river, providing habitat for the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and migrating birds such as the long-billed curlew.5
• The refuge's associated conservation area spans the 952,000-acre Mora River watershed, including the Sapello River and Coyote Creek tributaries, where the refuge partners with others on restoration, research and education.5
• A water-resources assessment of the Mora River found the river is nearly completely diverted for agricultural use as it crosses the Mora Valley, with water that returns to the channel farther downstream carrying higher nutrient concentrations.1

Reservoirs

No reservoir with 500 acre-feet or more of storage on this river in the National Inventory of Dams.

Water users

• Surface water is the main water supply in the Mora River watershed, and most of it goes to agriculture — irrigation and livestock watering — with the river nearly completely diverted as it crosses the Mora Valley.1

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Colfax, Mora, San Miguel): 167,536 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Public water systems beside the river

Mora MDWCA, Buena Vista MDWCA, Agua Pura MDWCA, San Antonio De Cleveland MDWCA, Agua Negra MDWCA, South Holman MDWCA

State Engineer's public water systems layer (service areas within 2 km).