New Mexico Emergency Medical Services Region III
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EMS Region III, also known as EMS Region 3, is a 501 (c) 2 non-profit organization which encompasses 12-counties (Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Eddy, Guadalupe, Harding, Lea, Lincoln, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, Union) on the eastern side of New Mexico.

EMS Region III is one of three regional non-profit New Mexico Government co-sponsored corporation’s set-up to handle the many needs of the EMS and Trauma system. The Regions serve are partners with the New Mexico Department of Health, Epidemiology and Response Division, and work closely with the EMS Bureau and the Bureau of Health Emergency Management. We are committed to Trauma and Health Systems Development and work with all emergency care responders to ensure the best possible outcome for patient care.

EMS Region III is engaged in several programs throughout the spectrum from teaching CPR to the general public to assisting hospitals in becoming designated as Trauma Centers. We provide continuing education training for responders and EMS services to ensure they are capable of providing you the best available care necessary. Some of the ways we do this by taking the training on the road by hosting an annual EMS Conference each year in April.

We are involved in Health System Preparedness by participating in Emergency Management activities and working with the Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC’s) to develop and update their local systems All Hazards Emergency Operations Plans (AHEOP).  We are also a working with our pilot communities for the New Mexico Modular Emergency Medical System program which is designed to assist hospitals in dealing with “Extreme Patient Surge” during a catastrophic event. For further details, please visit www.nmmems.org

Trauma Center Designation for hospitals is a project the Regional EMS offices and the New Mexico Department of Health, EMS Bureau is working hard towards accomplishing. Trauma designations in Region III include: Roosevelt General Hospital in Portales, designated as a Level IV Trauma Facility; Carlsbad Medical Center designated as a Level III Trauma Facility; and Gerald Champion Medical Center in Alamogordo designated as a Level III Trauma Facility.

We also participate in various State EMS and Trauma Committees including Medical Direction, JOE Committee, Statewide EMS Advisory, NMEMSTARS Data Registry, Air Ambulance Advisory, ENMU-Roswell EMS Committee, EMS for Children, Trauma System Fund Authority, Trauma Advisory Committee, and Trauma Registry.

The region maintains a large inventory of equipment and learning aids, which are loaned out for use in the educational programs. The Regional Board of Directors governing body is made up of 12 appointed members that live and work in all 12 counties of the region. Our Region takes up all of Eastern New Mexico. The Board elects a Board of Directors, namely the President, Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer, along with various sub-committees. The Executive Director sees to the day-to-day operations of the Regional office, and reports quarterly to the Board of Directors.

CHAVES was named for Colonel José Francisco Cháves, a military leader here during the U.S. Civil War and later in Navajo campaigns. The county seat is Roswell, home of New Mexico Military Institute, the country’s first oil field training center, and the infamous “Roswell incident.” This 1947, event allegedly involving the recovery of remains of a crashed flying saucer outside of town has generated millions of dollars in revenue through tourism and an annual festival commemorating the supposed event. The county is a highly productive farming area since irrigation from Artesian wells makes the land arable and oil companies have productive fields in this eastern area. It is also one, if not the largest, milk producing counties in the nation. Many dairies relocated to Chaves County from California where the land was sold to developers due to the cost of the land, and a better climate for the cattle. The Victorian architecture of the courthouse, built in 1911, replaced the earlier 1890 building used after the county’s creation in 1889. It is one of the two courthouses in New Mexico that has a dome on the top of the structure.

CURRY was created by an act of the legislature carving it from parts of Roosevelt and Quay Counties. It was named for New Mexico Territorial Governor George Curry, who signed the bill creating the county. However, the story began at least 11,300 years prior with evidence of the existence of the “Clovis People” in the area. The more recent history of the area is linked with the coal burner of the Burlington Northern & Santa Fé Railways and the after burner (Cannon Air Force Base). The third smallest county has an expanse of 1,404 square miles of flat, semi-arid, high plains land and its county seat, Clovis, was once known as the “Cattle Capital of the Southwest.” The county courthouse was built in 1936 during the Depression Era with New Deal federal funds and the architecture is similar to others built on the east side of the state at that time. Today, major sources of income are farming, ranching, dairies, airbase, railroad and retail trade.

DE BACA County was named for Ezequiel C de Baca, New Mexico’s second Governor under statehood. The present Georgian-Revival style courthouse in Ft. Sumner was dedicated on November 24, 1930, and houses an outstanding New Deal mural created by Russell Vernon Hunter and Pedro Cervantez depicting the history of the east side of the state. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The county continues to be the scene of large cattle and sheep ranches and farming. This valley is possible by irrigation from the Pecos River. The area is well known for having the burial site of the legendary outlaw William Bonney, alias “Billy the Kid.” He is buried in the old government cemetery seven miles southeast of Fort Sumner.

EDDY was named for Charles B. Eddy, a rancher in southeastern New Mexico during the last decades of the 19th century. He also was the promoter of the Carlsbad Irrigation Project, which turned formerly arid land into fertile farms. Carlsbad, the county seat, is home of the famous Carlsbad Caverns. Eddy is also the site of large oil deposits (the first strike was at Dayton, NM in 1909) and some of the world’s largest potash deposits. The original courthouse built a few years after the creation of the county was a Victorian structure build for $21,000 with a steeple and dark colored brick made locally and additions were similar. When New Deal funds ($185,000) became available in 1939, the architecture of the building was drastically changed to an early Spanish style as it appears today.

GUADALUPE was named for Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, but in 1903 the name was changed to Leonard Wood. Wood was the actual commander of the Rough Riders. In 1905 the name was changed back to Guadalupe and has remained so. Puerta de Luna, which is six miles south of Santa Rosa, later became the first county seat, but, then transferred to Santa Rosa. It was also believed to be the site where Coronado built, in 1540, the first bridge in New Mexico in order to cross the Pecos River as he searched for the Seven Cities of Cíbola. The first courthouse was built in 1909, and a newer building was started in 1940, but, was not finished until after WWII in 1946. Santa Rosa, which is on the Pecos River is known as the “City of Natural Lakes” with its many spring fed lakes, fishing and scuba diving which are popular recreational activities in the area.

HARDING is named for our 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding. The county has the smallest population in the state within its 2,138 square miles and 1.3 million acres. Its scenic beauty includes the spectacular Canadian River Canyon and vast ranch and farmlands. The courthouse was originally a schoolhouse with various additions. Carbon dioxide, used in dry ice and increasingly in tertiary recovery of petroleum, is an important product and growing industry in Harding County.

LEA was created in 1917 from Cháves and Eddy counties and named for Captain Joseph Calloway Lea. The county seat was established in Lovington when the county was founded and a courthouse was built for $25,000. In the 1930’s during the oil boom, a new courthouse was desired and various interesting plays were made to move the county seat to Hobbs. After failing because the site of Hobbs was eight-nine feet short of the state law that required twenty miles from the existing building, a New Deal funded building was built in 1937 for $179,000 and remains in use in Lovington. The county’s 4,393 square miles of wide open space continues to be the base for the county being one of the state’s leading producers of oil and gas. However, ranching, farming and the newer dairy industry also contribute to the economy of the county. Both state and private higher education institutions (New Mexico Junior College and College of the Southwest) are located in the county.

LINCOLN’S rugged natural beauty, cowboys, vast ranch lands and exquisite orchards are all part of the varied setting of this county. Named after the martyred President, it was at one time the largest county in the United States, encompassing almost one fourth of the state. The village of Lincoln (first called Las Placitas, then Bonita) was the first county seat, but, in 1909 it was moved to Carrizozo because the railroad had moved there and Lincoln was on the decline. The area was noted for the famed 1870’s Lincoln County War and for their first courthouse which is famous for being the site where Billy the Kid was jailed and escaped. New Deal funds made it possible to build a new courthouse in Carrizozo in 1940 and that structure is the annex to the current courthouse built in 1964. Mescalero, Apache and Hispanic history plus great fishing, skiing, quarter horse racing, casinos, museums, the Valley of Fires Recreation Area, Smokey Bear Museum, a state park and the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts are many of its attractions. The gorgeous mountainous vistas make the county a year round recreational haven and the basis of their economy.

OTERO was named for Miguel A. Otero, Jr., Territorial Governor of New Mexico from 1897- 1906. Alamogordo, the county seat, in addition to being an important rocket and missile-testing site, is next door neighbor to Holloman Air Force Base. White Sands Missile Range, White Sands National Monument, the mountain resort village Cloudcroft, and the Mescalero Apache Reservation are in Otero County. Alamogordo is the home of the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the New Mexico Museum of Space History. A new courthouse was built in 1955-56 to replace the earlier structure built in 1901-03.

QUAY was named for Matthew S. Quay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1904. Quay was a leading proponent in Congress during New Mexico’s fight for statehood. Tucumcari, the county seat, is storied in songs, and is the terminal center for many large trucking firms. Long ago Tucumcari was one of the leading cattle shipping points in the state. Conchas Lake to the north of Quay County makes it possible for large areas to be irrigated for farming. Also, Ute Lake provides fishing and skiing for the sports enthusiasts. New Deal funds built the 1939 Art Deco style courthouse which looks like others on the east side of the state and west side of Texas.

The New Deal also sponsored the creation of a mural by Ben Carlton Mead for the building, which focuses on Coronado’s passage through the area.

ROOSEVELT was named for Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth President of the United States, who had enlisted New Mexican Rough Riders, when he climbed San Juan Hill during the Spanish- American War. Portales the county seat, is the home of Eastern New Mexico University and near the major Blackwater Draw archeological discoveries of “Bison Nomads” who lived in the area. Today it has the second largest milk cooperatives in the nation and the growing and processing of the delicious Valencia peanut. The desire to get federal monies during the Depression was thought to be the main reason in 1937 for replacing the 1903 courthouse that had been built of concrete blocks on the site. The architecture is the same Art Deco style that is found in Clovis, Tucumcari, Lovington and Ratón, and nearby West Texas public buildings.

UNION was formed from the eastern portions of Colfax, Mora, and San Miguel Counties, and was named for that “union.” The county is rich in frontier history. Rabbit Ears Mountain, near the county seat of Clayton, was a landmark on the Old Santa Fe Trail. The Goodnight-Loving Cattle Drive Trail also crossed the county on its way to Dodge City. The county is still great ranching country and is increasingly involved in carbon dioxide production. In the northwest part of Union County, Capulin Mountain is one of the largest and most symmetrical volcanic cinder cones in the United States. The area is designated a national monument. The first courthouse was built in 1895-96, but, after a tornado it was replaced in 1909-10 by a Victorian, domed structure typical of Midwestern culture and times. This was not typical architecture for Clayton, but is still in use today.