Tierra Amarilla is a small unincorporated community near the Carson National Forest in the northern part of the U. Tierra Amarilla is Spanish for "Yellow Soil".
The name refers to clay deposits found in the Chama River Valley and used by Native American peoples. There is evidence of years of habitation in the Chama River Valley including pueblo sites south of Abiquiu.
The area served as a trade route for peoples in the present-day Four Corners region and the Rio Grande Valley. Navajos later used the valley as a staging area for raids on Spanish settlements along the Rio Grande.
Written accounts of the Tierra Amarilla locality by pathfinding Spanish friars in described it as suitable for pastoral and agricultural use. During the Californian Gold Rush the area became a staging point for westward fortune seekers. By Catron had consolidated the deeds he held for the whole of the grant sans the original villages and their associated fields.
In , the descendants of the original grant holder's court petitions to reclaim communal land were rebuked. The military encampment was deserted in The first post office in Las Nutrias was established in and bore the name Tierra Amarilla , as did the present one which was established in after an approximately two-year absence. Army lieutenant described the village as "the center of the Mexican population of northwestern New Mexico".
