Valencia County Cemetery Offers Natural Burials, Using Yucca Plants as Headstones

Two miles down a dirt road in a remote stretch of Valencia County, near the western slopes of the Manzano Mountains, lies La Puerta Natural Burial Ground — a cemetery that looks nothing like the kind most New Mexicans grew up visiting. Native willows and yucca plants demarcate rustic gravesites that amount to little more than tidy mounds of earth across a sweeping high desert prairie.

The cemetery does only green, natural burials, which means no embalmed bodies, metal caskets, or concrete vaults underground. Some 315 people have already opted to make it their final resting place.

La Puerta opened in 2016 east of Belen to respond to demand in the state for more environmentally minded and affordable burial services. While some cemeteries in New Mexico offer natural burial as an option, it is the only gravesite in the state accredited by the Green Burial Council.

Co-owners Claire McFadyen and Bryan Beard took over the 40 acres of deeded cemetery in 2021 from its founders. It is a small operation, with just the two of them running it. Beard described the philosophy behind what they offer in plain terms. "We hear from people a lot, 'Just dig a hole, put me in a sheet and put me in the ground,'" he said. "And I'm just like, 'That's not far from what we do.' We try to be as dignified and graceful and respectful as possible."

The cemetery, located between the city of Rio Communities and the village of Mountainair off N.M. 47, has a general section where most people are buried, a train section for those who wish to be interred near the trains that pass almost constantly on tracks alongside the property, Jewish and Catholic sections with ground consecrated by religious clergy, and a pet section.

A burial plot at La Puerta is currently just under $1,000, according to its website. By comparison, conventional cemetery plots in New Mexico routinely run several times that figure when vault requirements, embalming, and casket costs are added.

Natural, indigenous plants or trees, and numerous varieties of yucca or sage may be placed on a grave as a marker. Graves are hand-dug, and over time the land remains undisturbed and wild.

The burial ground sits on 41 acres in Valencia County south of Albuquerque, bordering 14,000 acres of open space that will be preserved for generations. McFadyen and Beard see themselves as stewards in the death process and believe green burial will continue to grow in popularity. Studies have suggested that natural, ecologically conscious burial is becoming increasingly popular across the United States, and La Puerta sits at the center of that shift in New Mexico, one yucca-marked grave at a time.