Historic Prewitt New Mexico

Prewitt has dry and sunny weather. The area is quite high and arid close to the continental divide. Summers are hot and Winters are cold; there is a large day-night temperature swing which makes for cool summer nights and very cold winter ones. Only 10,5 inches of rain falls each year (266 mm), most of it during the Summer Monsoon: July, August, September and October with 5.6 inches (143 mm). Strong snowstorms may hit Prewitt during winter; and the average snow fall each winter is about 11 inches (28 cm).

Route 66's original 1926 alignment passed right through the "village", along the Main Street, located on the south side of what was the later alignment of Route 66. This map shows its course through Prewitt. The original 1926 route followed the alignment of NM State Highway 6, which in turn had been aligned in 1914 along the National Old Trails Highway system. It was, like the Trails of those days, not the shortest route, but the easiest to build. It crossed the AT & SF tracks several times between Prewitt and Thoreau. This was not efficient it was too long and also, unsafe so it was realigned when it was paved in the 1930s. It was placed on the south side of the tracks and Thoreau was cut off from the alignment. While in 1926 the Mother road entered the town, now it left it isolated to the north of its roadbed.

There are several parks in the area close Prewitt. TheRoute-66.com is a great resource and has described them in their Grants to Gallup tour and in the Ventana Rock Arch tour, which visit the El Malpais National Conservation Area, the El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument. Much closer to the village is the Bluewater Lake State Park with RV campground. Rebuilding the park here puts you in the center of the action. Originally this RV Park had all the amenities including a swimming pool, Large convenience store / gas station, a laundromat, showers and a recreation hall.