Encyclopedia
New Mexico is a
southwestern state in the
United States of America. Over its relatively long history it has also been occupied by
Native American populations and has been part of the
Spanish viceroyalty of
New Spain, a province of
Mexico and a U.S. territory. New Mexico has simultaneously the highest percentage of
Hispanic Americans of any state — some recent immigrants and others descendants of
Spanish colonists — and nearly the highest percentage of
Native Americans — of any continental United State second only to
Oklahoma . As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. Amerindian cultural influences.
Geography
The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W with
Oklahoma, and 3 miles west of 103° W with Texas. Texas also lies south of most of New Mexico, although the southwestern boot-heel borders the Mexican states of
Chihuahua and
Sonora. The western border with
Arizona runs along 109° W. The 37° N parallel forms the northern boundary with
Colorado. The states of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and
Utah come together at the Four Corners in the northwestern corner of New Mexico.
The
landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexico's arid image, heavily
forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state. Part of the
Rocky Mountains, the broken, north-south oriented Sangre de Cristo range flanks both sides of the
Rio Grande from the rugged, pastoral north through the center of the state.
Cacti,
yuccas, creosote bush, sagebrush, and desert grasses cover the broad, semiarid plains that cover the southern portion of the state.
The Federal government protects millions of acres of beautiful New Mexico as national forests including:
Other protected lands include the following national monuments:
Visitors also frequent the surviving native pueblos of New Mexico. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant monies to the state. Other areas of geographical and scenic interest include
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the
Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Gila Wilderness lies in the southwest of the state.
History
The first inhabitants of New Mexico were
Native Americans of the
Clovis culture. By the time of European contact in the 1500s the region was settled by the villages of the
Pueblo peoples.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540–1542 to explore and find the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola as described by Cabeza de Vaca who had just arrived from his eight-year ordeal traveling from Florida to Mexico. Coronado's men found several mud baked pueblos in 1541 but found no rich cities of gold. Further wide spread expeditions found no fabulous cities anywhere in the Southwest or Great Plains. A dispirited and now poor Coronado and his men began their journey back to Mexico leaving New Mexico behind.
Over 50 years after Coronado,
Juan de Oñate founded the San Juan colony on the Rio Grande in 1598, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico. Oñate pioneered the grandly named El Camino Real, "The Royal Road" as a 700 mile trail from the rest of
New Spain to his remote colony. Oñate was made the first governor of the new Province of New Mexico. The Native Americans at
Acoma revolted against this Spanish encroachment but faced severe suppression.
In 1609, Pedro de Peralta, a later governor of the Province of New Mexico, established the settlement of
Santa Fe at the foot of the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The city, along with most of the settled areas of the state, was abandoned by the Spanish for 12 years as a result of the successful
Pueblo Revolt. After the death of the Pueblo leader
Popé, Diego de Vargas restored the area to Spanish rule. While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, the returning settlers founded the old town of
Albuquerque in 1706, naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, the Duke of Alburquerque.
Mexican province
As a part of
New Spain, the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent
Mexico following the 1810-1821
Mexican War of Independence. During the brief 26 year period of nominal Mexican control, Mexican authority and investment in New Mexico were weak, as their often conflicted government had little time or interest in a New Mexico that had been poor since the Spanish settlements started. Some Mexican officials, saying they were wary of encroachments by the growing United States, and wanting to reward themselves and their friends, began issuing enormous land grants to groups of Mexican families as an incentive to populate the province.
Small trapping parties from the United States had previously reached and stayed in Santa Fe, but the Spanish authorities officially forbade them to trade. Trader William Becknell returned to the United States in November 1821 with news that independent Mexico now welcomed trade through Santa Fe.
William Becknell left
Independence, Missouri, for Santa Fe early in 1822 with the first party of traders. The
Santa Fe Trail trading company, headed by the brothers Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain, was one of the most successful in the West. They had their first trading post in the area in 1826, and by 1833 they had built their adobe fort and trading post called
Bent's Fort on the
Arkansas River. This fort and trading post, located about 200 miles east of
Taos, New Mexico, was the only place settled by whites along the Santa Fe trail before it hit Taos. The
Santa Fe National Historic Trail follows the route of the old trail, with many sites marked or restored.
The Spanish Trail from
Los Angeles, California to
Santa Fe, New Mexico was primarily used by Hispanics, white traders and ex-trappers living part of the year in or near Santa Fe. Started in about 1829, the trail was an arduous 2400 mile round trip pack train sojourn that extended into Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California and back, allowing only one hard round trip per year. The trade consisted primarily of blankets and some trade goods from Santa Fe being traded for horses in California.
The
Republic of Texas claimed the mostly vacant territory north and east of the
Rio Grande when it successfully seceded from Mexico in 1836. New Mexico authorities captured a group of Texans who embarked an
expedition to assert their claim to the province in 1841.
American territory
Following the
Mexican-American War and the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the
American Southwest and
California to the United States of America in exchange for an end to hostilities, the evacuation of Mexico City and many other areas under American control. Mexico also received $15 million cash, plus the assumption of slightly more than $3 million in outstanding Mexican debts.
The Congressional
Compromise of 1850 halted a bid for statehood under a proposed antislavery constitution. Texas transferred eastern New Mexico to the federal government, settling a lengthy boundary dispute. Under the compromise, the American government established the New Mexico Territory on September 9, 1850. The territory, which included all of
Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of
Colorado, officially established its capital at
Santa Fe in 1851.
The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and southern
Arizona below the Gila river in the mostly desert
Gadsden Purchase of 1853. This purchase was desired when it was found that a much easier route for a proposed transcontinental railroad was located slightly south of the Gila river. The Southern Pacific built the second transcontinental railroad though this purchased land in 1881.
During the
American Civil War, Confederate troops from Texas briefly occupied southern New Mexico. Union troops re-captured the territory in early 1862.
Arizona was split off as a separate territory in 1863.
The railway encouraged the great cattle boom of the 1880s and the development of accompanying cow towns. The cattle barons could not keep out sheepherders, and eventually homesteaders and squatters overwhelmed the cattlemen by fencing in and plowing under the "sea of grass" on which the cattle fed. Conflicting land claims led to bitter quarrels among the original Spanish inhabitants, cattle ranchers, and newer homesteaders. Despite destructive overgrazing, ranching survived and remains a mainstay of the New Mexican economy.
Centuries of continued conflict with the
Apache and the
Navajo plagued the territory. The
Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the
Long Walk to Bosque Redondo in 1864 harshly repressed the Navajo but did put an end to their raiding. The Navajo returned to most of their lands in 1868. Sporadic Apache raiding continued until Apache chief
Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886.
Albuquerque, on the upper Rio Grande, was incorporated in 1889.
Statehood
Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912. The admission of the neighboring State of
Arizona on February 14, 1912 completed the contiguous 48 states.
The United States government built the
Los Alamos Research Center in 1943 amid the
Second World War. Top-secret personnel there developed the
atomic bomb, first detonated at
Trinity site in the desert on the
White Sands Proving Grounds between
Socorro and
Alamogordo on July 16, 1945.
Albuquerque expanded rapidly after the war. High-altitude experiments near
Roswell in 1947 reputedly led to persistent claims by a few that the government captured and concealed extraterrestrial corpses and equipment. The state quickly emerged as a leader in nuclear, solar, and geothermal energy research and development. The
Sandia National Laboratories, founded in 1949, carried out nuclear research and special weapons development at Kirtland Air Force Base south of Albuquerque and at
Livermore, California.
Located in the remote Chihuahuan Desert the
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is located 26 miles southeast of
Carlsbad. Here nuclear wastes are buried deep in carved out salt formation disposal rooms mined 2,150 feet underground in a 2,000-foot thick salt formation that has been stable for more than 200 million years. WIPP began operations on March 26, 1999.
Demographics
| Historical populations |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|---|
|
| 1850 | 61,547 |
| 1860 | 87,034 |
| 1870 | 91,874 |
| 1880 | 119,565 |
| 1890 | 160,282 |
| 1900 | 195,310 |
| 1910 | 327,301 |
| 1920 | 360,350 |
| 1930 | 423,317 |
| 1940 | 531,818 |
| 1950 | 681,187 |
| 1960 | 951,023 |
| 1970 | 1,016,000 |
| 1980 | 1,302,894 |
| 1990 | 1,515,069 |
| 2000 | 1,819,046 |
As of 2005, New Mexico has an estimated population of 1,928,384, which is an increase of 25,378, or 1.3%, from the prior year and an increase of 109,338, or 6.0%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 74,397 people and an increase due to net migration of 37,501 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 27,974 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 9,527 people.
As of 2004, 10% of the residents of the state were foreign-born, and more than 2% of state residents were undocumented.
New Mexico has the highest percentage of people of
Hispanic ancestry of any state, some recent immigrants and others descendants of
Spanish colonists and Indians. The state also has a large
U.S. Amerindian population. A few Hispanos of colonial ancestry, thoroughly mixed with recent Mexican immigrants, are present in most of the state, especially northern, central, and northeastern New Mexico. Mexican immigrants, legal or illegal, are prominent in southern parts of the state. The northwestern corner of the state is primarily occupied by American Indians, of which Navajos and Pueblos are the largest tribes. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong American, Colonial Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. Amerindian cultural influences.
According to the Census the five largest ancestry groups in New Mexico are:
Spanish ,
Mexican ,
German ,
Native American , and English . Many are mixtures of all of these groups and more.
Note: The accuracy of these figures is disputed. for further information.7.2% of New Mexico's population was reported as under 5, 28% under 18, and 11.7% were 65 or older. Females make up approximately 50.8% of the population.
Languages
New Mexico is commonly thought to have
Spanish as an official language alongside
English, due to the widespread usage of Spanish in the state. Although the original state constitution of 1912 provided for a temporarily bilingual government, New Mexico has no official language. Nevertheless, the state government publishes election ballots and a driver's manual in both languages, and in 1995 New Mexico adopted a "State Bilingual Song", titled "New Mexico-Mi Lindo Nuevo México".
Religion
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Roman Catholics of any
Western state. Like many other states in the region, New Mexico has a higher-than-average percentage of people who claim no religion in comparison to other
U.S. states.
- Christian – 81%
- Roman Catholic – 41%
- Protestant – 35%
- LDS – 4%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 19%
Within the Catholic church, New Mexico belongs to the
Ecclesiastical Province of Santa Fe. New Mexico has three
dioceses, one of which is an
archdiocese:
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe
- Diocese of Gallup
- Diocese of Las Cruces
Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that New Mexico's total state product in 2003 was $57 billion. Per capital personal income in 2003 was $24,995, 48
th in the nation.
| New Mexico Industries by 2004 Taxable Gross Receipts |
|---|
| Retail Trade | 12,287,061 |
| Construction | 5,039,555 |
| Other Services | 4,939,187 |
| Professional, Scientific and Technology Services | 3,708,527 |
| Accommodation and Food Services | 2,438,460 |
| Wholesale Trade | 2,146,066 |
| Health Care and Social Assistance | 1,897,471 |
| Utilities | 1,654,483 |
| Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction | 1,238,211 |
| Manufacturing | 926,372 |
| Information and Cultural Industries | 849,902 |
| Unclassified Establishments | 725,405 |
| Real Estate and Rental and Leasing | 544,739 |
| Finance and Insurance | 254,223 |
| Transportation and Warehousing | 221,457 |
| Public Administration | 159,013 |
| Educational Services | 125,649 |
| Arts, Entertainment and Recreation | 124,017 |
| Admin & Support, Waste Management & Remediation | 73,062 |
| Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting | 71,853 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 48,714 |
|
| Totals | 39,473,429 |
| Source: State of New Mexico Department of Labor |
- Cattle and dairy products top the list of major animal products of New Mexico. Cattle, sheep, and other livestock graze most of the arable land of the state throughout the year.
- Limited but scientifically controlled dryland farming prospers alongside cattle ranching. Major crops include hay, nursery stock, pecans, and chile peppers. Hay and sorghum top the list of major dryland crops. Farmers also produce onions, potatoes, and dairy products. New Mexico specialty crops include piñon nuts, pinto beans, and chiles.
- The Carlsbad and Fort Sumner reclamation projects on the Pecos River and the nearby Tucumcari project provide adequate water for limited irrigation in those areas of the desert and semiarid portions of the state where scant rainfall evaporates rapidly, generally leaving insufficient water supplies for large-scale irrigation.. Located upstream of Las Cruces, the Elephant Butte Reservoir provides a major irrigation source for the extensive farming along the Rio Grande. Other irrigation projects use the Colorado River basin and the San Juan River.
