Arenas Valley, New Mexico

Arenas Valley is a census-designated place in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 1,522 as of the 2010 census. Arenas Valley had a post office from January 1, 1946, to March 7, 1987; it still has its own ZIP code, 88022. It was named because it was near the Rio de Arenas, a normally dry arroyo or gully, but residents long referred to it as "Whiskey Creek," based on the local legend that a heavy rain in the nearby Piños Altos Mountains flooded an illegal still and whiskey barrels floated down the community's largest arroyo, that passes through the "built-up" area of Arenas Valley.