Seven Rivers, Eddy County, New Mexico

Seven Rivers was 15 miles northwest of Carlsbad--an area where cowboys began to herd cattle in the 1860's. In 1867 Dick Reed established a trading post making this the earliest settlement in southeast New Mexico. The locality was once called Dogtown, later Ashland, and Henpeck and White City. But by 1900, the settlement has become Seven Rivers.

In 1985, as work progressed on a new reservoir involving the Pecos River near Seven Rivers, the Bureau of Reclamation decided to relocate the Seven Rivers Cemetery (known as Boot Cemetery for the number of men who had been killed by others and buried in it with their boots on). The cemetery and ruins of Reed Store were all that was left of Seven Rivers. By court order Terpening and Son Mortuary of Artesia was to supervise the transfer of remains from Seven Rivers Cemetery to Twin Oaks Memorial Park in Artesia.