About the Harding County Clerk
Harding County was formed on March 4, 1921 -- the day of Warren G. Harding's presidential inauguration -- carved from parts of Union and Mora counties, making him the most recent U.S. president to have a county named in his honor. Its seat, the village of Mosquero, was founded in 1908 by rancher Benjamin F. Brown and takes its name from the Spanish word for a swarm of mosquitoes, likely a nod to the springs and stock tanks that once drew both wildlife and settlers. The county's landscape splits sharply along the Canadian Escarpment, with high, nearly treeless prairie to the northwest giving way to semi-desert rangeland in the southeast, and cattle ranching has remained the backbone of the local economy for over a century, supplemented in recent decades by carbon dioxide gas extraction from the Bravo Dome field in the county's eastern reaches. With roughly 600 residents spread across more than 2,100 square miles, Harding County is New Mexico's least populous county and one of the most sparsely populated in the entire country. It remains almost entirely rural, with no incorporated town larger than a few hundred people.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within Harding County, this is the Harding County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Mosquero (county seat), Roy.
Unincorporated communities: Bueyeros, Mills, Solano.
Office Details
Address: 35 Pine Street, Mosquero, NM 87733
Phone: (575) 673-2301
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:00 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.
Good to know before you go: Harding County's own clerk page notes that clerk's office staff are not licensed or bonded to perform title searches or research on your behalf; if you need help tracing a property's history before recording a deed, the office can provide a list of local abstract and title companies on request.
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 Harding 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 Harding 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 Harding 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 Harding 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 Harding 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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