Piñon is an unincorporated ranching community in Otero County in southern New Mexico, in the southwestern United States.

[6] The area was originally settled by the agricultural and hunter gatherer Jornada Mogollon people, circa 200 CE, whose suzerainty ended with the influx of the Apache and other plains raiders in approximately 1450.

[7] The community was named in 1907 by the local school teacher John W. Nations after the piñon pine trees in the area.

The Cloudcroft school board disliked the decision and in 1958 passed a motion stating that the district should not accept Pinon or Weed students even if their respective areas offered to pay tuition to Cloudcroft schools.

[14] In August 1959, Piñon residents filed an injunction against board members to stop the closure.