Editing Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico (section)

==History==
According to a local Ruidoso Downs historian, early on Hispanos settlers called the area "San Juanito". The settlers began arriving in the early in the late 1840s, and introduced rodeo and horse racing to the area. Originally the area had scattered farms and ranches, with the Dowlin Mill constructed in 1868. A new wave of families arrived after the [[Lincoln County War]].<ref name="ruidosonews">{{cite news
| title       =The History of Ruidoso Downs
| first       =Cynthia E. 
| last        =Orozco|author-link=Cynthia Orozco| url         =http://www.ruidosonews.com/ruidoso-news/ci_25340676/history-ruidoso-downs
| newspaper   =Ruidoso News
| date        =March 13, 2014
| access-date  = 2015-06-15
}}</ref>

By around 1907 the road between [[Roswell, New Mexico|Roswell]] and [[Alamogordo]], which passed through the area, was still primitive, though it was improved in the 1920s through the Federal Aid Project.<ref name="ruidosonews"/> The road that would become [[US 70]] was paved in the area around 1945, and then improved again in 1958. The road became four lanes in 1981.<ref name="ruidosonews"/>

In 1946 the ''Ruidoso News'' was founded and the airport opened, and two years later radio arrived. Electric lights appeared in the area in 1947.<ref name="ruidosonews"/> The White Mountain Inn opened in the 1940s as a [[sanatorium]] and as a lodging establishment.<ref name="ruidosonews"/>