About the De Baca County Clerk
De Baca County is New Mexico's least populous county after Harding, created in 1917 and named for Ezequiel Cabeza de Baca, a former state governor who died only a month into his term. Its seat, Fort Sumner, began as a U.S. Army post established in 1862 to oversee the Bosque Redondo Reservation, where the federal government forcibly interned roughly 9,000 Navajo people after the Long Walk and several hundred Mescalero Apache from 1863 to 1868 -- a period now remembered at the Bosque Redondo Memorial as one of the darkest chapters in the region's history. After the fort was decommissioned, rancher Lucien Maxwell bought the property and helped turn the area into a hub of the open-range cattle industry, and Fort Sumner later became notorious as the place where Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed the outlaw Billy the Kid in 1881. Today the county's economy still centers on cattle ranching and irrigated farming along the Pecos River, supplemented by tourism tied to its Billy the Kid and Bosque Redondo history.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within De Baca County, this is the De Baca County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated city: Fort Sumner (county seat).
Unincorporated communities: Yeso, Taiban, Sunnyside.
Office Details
Address: 248 East Avenue C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119
Phone: (575) 355-2601
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM (closed for lunch 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM)
Recording Fee: New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- not a percentage of the property's value. Contact the county clerk's office for current amounts.
E-recording: De Baca County is part of the CSC eRecording network, allowing deeds and other real property documents to be submitted electronically.
Good to know before you go: The counter goes dark for lunch here, from noon to 1:00 p.m., on top of the office's regular 4:30 p.m. close -- a midday drop-off needs to work around that gap.
How to File a Document
- Sign in Front of a Notary -- In Person or Remotely: New Mexico requires the grantor's signature to be acknowledged before a notary public before the De Baca County Clerk will accept a deed for recording. New Mexico has permitted remote online notarization on a permanent basis since January 1, 2022, under the state's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (NMSA 1978, Sections 14-14A-1 to 14-14A-32) -- the notary handling it must be commissioned and physically located in New Mexico at the time, even if you're signing from somewhere else.
- Attach a Full Legal Description, Not Just an Address: A street address alone won't satisfy New Mexico's requirements -- the deed needs the property's actual legal description (a metes-and-bounds description, a government survey reference, or a platted lot and block, depending on how the parcel was originally surveyed and subdivided), plus a reference to the prior deed that brought the property into the grantor's name, to keep the chain of title intact. You can usually copy the legal description directly from the deed that transferred the property to you.
- Get Both Spouses to Sign if It's Community Property: New Mexico is a community property state, and state law (NMSA 1978, Section 40-3-13) generally requires both spouses to join in a deed transferring community real property -- even when only one spouse's name appears on the title. Skipping the second signature doesn't necessarily void the transfer outright, but it leaves the deed open to being challenged, so it's worth confirming with the De Baca County Clerk or an attorney whether your specific situation calls for both signatures before you file.
- File a Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit With the Assessor: For most residential property transfers, New Mexico law (NMSA 1978, Section 7-38-12.1) also requires a separate Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit to be filed with the county assessor's office -- not the De Baca County Clerk -- within thirty days of recording the deed. It's a distinct step from recording itself, used to keep the assessor's records current for property tax purposes, and the assessor's office can supply the current form.
- Record With the County Clerk: Bring, mail, or (where the county supports it) e-file the signed, notarized deed with the De Baca County Clerk for the county where the property sits. New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- never a percentage of the property's value -- and the state has no separate real estate transfer tax on top of it. The first page needs roughly an inch and a half of blank space at the top for the clerk's recording stamp, with the document's title placed just below it.
Still Have Questions About Filing With the De Baca County Clerk?
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Other Counties in New Mexico
Filing somewhere else in the state? Here are a few other county pages:
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