Chama is a village in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,022 at the 2010 census. The village is located in the Rocky Mountains about 7 miles (11 km) south of the Colorado-New Mexico border.
Chama has been featured in numerous films, including The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969), Bite the Bullett (1975), The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982) and Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1989).
Chama is located at 36°53′41″N 106°35′4″W (36.894777, -106.584406), on the Rio Chama, 6.5 miles (10 km) south of the Colorado border. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2), all of it land.
Chama is the western terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a steam-driven, narrow gauge heritage railway which carries visitors to and from Osier, Colorado, and Antonito, Colorado, during the summer months. It is the remaining 64 mile portion of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad's San Juan Extension built in the 1880s between Alamosa, Colorado, and Durango, Colorado. The route was abandoned in the late 1960s and the tracks from Chama westward to Durango were torn up soon afterwards.
At the 2000 census, there were 1,199 people, 467 households and 312 families residing in the village. The population density was 467.9 per square mile (180.8/km²).
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