Click photo to enlarge

Click photo to enlarge

Vista Verde Memorial Park
Rio Rancho, Sandoval County, New Mexico

Lat: 35° 13' 52"N, Lon: 106° 39' 03"W

Contributed by Cheryl Harris, Dec 22, 2010, last edited Feb 11, 2011 [rich1223@comcast.net]. Total records = 4,238.

To reach this cemetery, driving north on Rio Rancho Drive, in Rio Rancho, turn right or east onto Sara Road SE. The cemetery will be on the south side of the road, and west of Meadowlark Lane SE.

The history is sketchy because it has been sold to a larger mortuary/cemetery foundation but here is what they gave me. Vista Verde began around 1977 with the first burial in January 1978. The original owners were David and Tony Santillanes. It was sold and bought by Daniels Family Funeral Services a few years ago. There are offices and mortuary on the grounds and they hold funerals on site as well.

My Tombstone Transcription group originally walked this cemetery in 2004 (prior to it being purchased by Daniels). We did a quick re-walk in 2007. In 2010 soon-to-be Eagle Scout Logan Pickett contacted me regarding his service project. He wanted to bring Vista Verde up to date.

I worked with him teaching him how to walk and log a cemetery. In October 2010, Logan with his large group of volunteers rewalked Vista Verde. He completed all the computer logging and proofing of names. Logan was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout in November and thanked publicly for his project. My group went back in November 2010 to verify information (just a brief check) and I proofed the spreadsheet.

- Cheryl Harris

Records Index:

Surnames A-B Surnames C-E Surnames F-H Surnames I-L Surnames M-O

Surnames P-R Surnames S-T Surnames U-Z Miscellaneous

New Mexico Genealogy Links