{"id":22220,"date":"2025-05-15T21:44:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mr-know-it-all-the-streets-dont-sync\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:12:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:12:38","slug":"mr-know-it-all-the-streets-dont-sync","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mr-know-it-all-the-streets-dont-sync\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Know It All: The streets don\u2019t sync"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The infamous (not so round) roundabout in downtown Farmington at the non-aligned intersection of Orchard Avenue & Main Street. Scott Michlin\/Special to Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear Mr. Know-It-All:<\/p>\n

Recently, as I was out and about driving in our community, I came to downtown Farmington And noticed something that I thought I would ask you about.<\/p>\n

No it\u2019s not the roundabouts at some downtown intersections, but the \u201cthing\u201d at Main and Orchard. What do we call that? An \u201coval-about?\u201d And \u201coblong-rotary?\u201d And why doesn\u2019t South Orchard meet up nicely with North Orchard?<\/p>\n

Signed,<\/p>\n

Round N. Round<\/p>\n

Dear Round,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for not beating around the bush with your question. The intersection in downtown Farmington at Orchard and Main is known as a roundabout, despite its, um, unique shape. Whatever you think about roundabouts, and believe me, Mr. Know-It-All has read all the social media comments, they are here to stay, including the less-than-round roundabout downtown at the intersection of Main Street and Orchard Avenue.<\/p>\n

\"The
The misaligned Orchard Avenue in downtown Farmington.(Screenshot from Google)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Meet the Millers<\/div>\n

You\u2019ll have to indulge Mr. Know-It-All in a short history lesson to answer your question. Mr. Know-It-All is a bit of a history buff who has been known to support our local museums and historical societies and even served on the board of the Farmington Museum for a few years (even spending a few years as board president).<\/p>\n

Two of the first non-native people to come to live in this part of northwest New Mexico were Alison Fournier Miller and his wife, Julia. They brought with them their three children. Mr. Miller was known to all as simply: A.F. Good call.<\/p>\n

In 1875, the Millers are noted in the book \u201cHomesteads to Boomtown\u201d by the late Marilu Waybourn, as opening the first store in the area that would eventually become Farmington. That store was located near the current intersection of Main Street and Court Avenue. The town of Farmington wouldn\u2019t be established until 1901, 25 years later. Even then, the Miller\u2019s property was not part of the original townsite of Farmington, which was only about 20 acres in size and included some streets laid out south and west of Main and Orchard. The Miller property was located east of the townsite and was the first parcel added after incorporation.<\/p>\n

\"The
The infamous (not so round) roundabout in downtown Farmington at the non-aligned intersection of Orchard Avenue & Main Street. Scott Michlin\/Special to Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
What happened?<\/div>\n

Now, we don\u2019t know much about the relationship between A.F. Miller and Julia Miller. They certainly seemed supportive of each other early on, when almost any item to stock in their store needed to be imported from Pueblo, Colorad, or farther. Their store was the go-to place for anyone moving into the area back in those early days, and it also served as the first post office. The town of Farmington was established in 1901, and nine years later in 1910, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the population of Farmington was only 785 residents. A far cry from Farmington\u2019s population of more than 46,237 people today.<\/p>\n

But as Farmington grew, it seemed the animosity between the Millers also grew.<\/p>\n

The divorce<\/div>\n

Eventually, the Millers divorced. Mr. Know-It-All doesn\u2019t think this was one of those nice, civil sitcom divorces, either. What happened after the divorce of A.F. and Julia Miller is what motorists deal with to this day: the misalignment of some Farmington streets.<\/p>\n

By the time their marriage was ending, Julia Miller was so mad at A.F. that as their property was divided between each of them along Farmington\u2019s main street, she vowed that the growing town\u2019s streets from A.F.\u2019s property would NEVER (emphasis added) align with streets on her side. Take a look at the streets: Orchard Avenue and Court Streets don\u2019t align, and the others: Wall Street, Miller Avenue and Hill Street, all begin (or end) at Main Street and don\u2019t align with anything else. Mrs. Miller\u2019s statement is mentioned in the planning documents for the Farmington Historic Downtown Commercial District which was written in October of 1990.<\/p>\n

It was later in 1902, after the misaligned streets were well established, that mercantile owner William Hunter and his wife Clara donated land on the NW corner of Main & Orchard with the stipulation that it be only used as a park, which it still is today.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s your answer, Round. And it\u2019s a lesson to all of us that, unfortunately, our world is littered with failed relationships, and some cause more impact than others. Drive (and fall in love) carefully!<\/p>\n

Mr. Know-It-All is Scott Michlin, the general manager of KSJE 90.9FM community-supported radio at San Juan College. If you have a question about something in San Juan County, drop him a line at SMichlin@tricityrecordnm.com<\/a>. If he doesn\u2019t know the answer, he knows someone who does and you\u2019ll read about it here in the pages of the Tri-City Record!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

infamous (not so round) roundabout in downtown Farmington at the non-aligned intersection of Orchard Avenue & Main Street. Scott Michlin\/Special to Tri-City Record) Dear Mr. Know-It-All: Recently, as I was out and about driving in our community, I came to downtown Farmington And noticed something that I thought I would ask you about. No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77624,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22220\/revisions\/77624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22220"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}