Dexter, New Mexico

Dexter, Chaves County, New Mexico is about 16 miles south of Roswell. The community was moved about a mile west of its first site so as to be near the railroad and the irrigation canal. Three men--Theordore Burr, Milton H. Elford, and Albert Macey--selected the site and since Macey was the only married man, he was allowed to select the name. He chose Dexter, for his hometown in Iowa.

By 1902, grazing sheep occupied many of the residents.