Sunday, September 4, 2016

Ima

Ima, New Mexico was first settled by the Moncus family in 1902 by accident. They were headed to Arizona and stopped to winter near the Caprock, and there they stayed. They built a house overlooking a little canyon, the rim just visible in the pictures, and prospered. And lucky it was for us, as two of the family's members contributed a wealth of information to our regional history.
Herman owned the legendary "Elk Drug: The Museum of the Old West," which, besides for the usual drugstore stuff, served as a local roadside attraction and historical repository. He also wrote about the area, most notably "Prairie Schooner Pirates: The Story of the Comancheros."
Lynn Moncus wrote a column for the Quay County Sun and the book “Quay County, New Mexico, 1903 to 2003: A Pictorial History,” a must read for local history fans.
Today, Ima is more of an area than a town or village, but the cemetery is still there, along with some scattered old homesteads and countless miles of beautiful ranchland.

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