[5] In 1846, the British traveler George Frederick Ruxton passed through Doña Ana near the eastern bank of the Rio Grande River.

He said, "Doña Ana is a very recent settlement of ten or fifteen families, who, tempted by the richness of the soil, abandoned their farms in the valley of El Paso, and have here attempted to cultivate a small tract of land in the very midst of the Apaches, who have already paid them several visits and carried off or destroyed their stock of cattle.

The huts are built of log and mud, and situated on the top of a tabular bluff which looks down upon the river bottom"[6] Doña Ana is located near the center of Doña Ana County.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.66 square miles (1.7 km2), all land.

[4] Doña Ana is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area.