New Mexico Fun Facts and Trivia

NEW MEXICO LEGENDS

Fun Facts & Trivia

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The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe is the oldest government building in the nation. The Spanish built it as part of a fortress during the winter of 1609-1610. In 1909, it was converted to the Palace of the Governors History Museum which houses exhibits on Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization dating back to the late 1500’s.

The Rio Grande, New Mexico's longest river, running through the entire length of the state.

Las Cruces makes the world's largest enchilada the first weekend in October at the "Whole Enchilada Fiesta."

Santa Fe is the highest capital city in the United States at 7,000 feet above sea level.

Santa Fe Palace of Governors

The nation's oldest surviving well along the Santa Fe Trail is Hay Springs Well in Las Vegas.

Albuquerque hosts the world’s largest hot air balloon festival the first weekend in October.

In Carrizozo, it is forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public.

The leaves of the Yucca, New Mexico's state flower, can be used to make rope, baskets and sandals.

The World Shovel Race Championships take place every winter at Angel Fire Resort.

Albuquerque features the American International Rattlesnake Museum, where you will not only receive an education about these creepy critters, but also a number of live specimens, including a rare albino rattlesnake.

Elizabethtown, now a ghost town in Colfax County, was the first incorporated town in New Mexico.

Located in a collapsed lave tube, the Bandera Ice Cave’s temperature never rises above freezing. At the bottom of the 75 foot deep cave, the ice floor is 20 feet thick, believed to date back to 1100 B.C.

Las Vegas was the largest city in New Mexico at the turn of the 20th century. It was established long before its Nevada counterpart.

Blue Hole, an 81-foot deep natural artesian spring in Santa Rosa, is a favorite location for scuba divers. It's 4,600 feet above sea level, making the bottom an equivalent of nearly 100 feet of depth in the ocean.

In some isolated villages in New Mexico , such as Truchas, Chimayo', and Coyote in the north-central part of the state, some descendants of Spanish conquistadors still speak a form of 16th century Spanish used nowhere else in the world today.

White Sands, New Mexico

White Sands, New Mexico, courtesy New Mexico Film Office.

White Sands National Monument is a desert, not of sand, but of gleaming white gypsum crystals.

Northeast New Mexico has more than 1,000 buildings listed on the National Historic Register.

Doc Holliday operated a dental office and a saloon and gambling hall in Las Vegas before moving on to Tombstone.

The world's first Atomic Bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945 on the White Sands Testing Range near Alamogordo. Designed and manufactured in Los Alamos, the area of the first boming site is today known as the Trinity Site.

The first gold strike in the Old West was made by Jose Ortiz in 1832 south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in what would quickly become the boom town of Delores.

Hatch, New Mexico is known as the "Green Chile capital of the world".

Standing on the crest of 8,182-foot Capulin Volcano in Union County, you can see five states: New Mexico , Oklahoma , Texas , Colorado and Kansas!

More than 500, 100-million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been identified and preserved at Clayton Lake State Park.

More than 25,000 Ancient Puebloans sites have been identified in New Mexico by archeologists. The Ancient Puebloans, an amazing civilization who were the ancestors of the Pueblo, where around for 1300 years. Their great classical period lasted from 1100-1300 AD.

New Mexico has seven National Forests including the nation’s largest, 3.3 million acre Gila National Forest which includes the Gila Wilderness. Though many people picture New Mexico as desert terrain, ¼ of the state is actually filled with forests.

Las Vegas was New Mexico's first territorial capital (for one day).

Bob Wills cut hair in a barber shop in Roy, New Mexico in his pre- Texas Playboys music days.

In 1950 the little cub that became the National Fire Safety symbol, Smokey the Bear, was found trapped in a tree when his home in Lincoln National Forest was destroyed by fire.

There are 19 Pueblo groups in New Mexico , speaking four distinct languages. The Pueblo people of the southwest have lived in the same location longer than any other culture in the Nation.

The Navajo, are the United State’s largest Native American Group, with 78,000 members in New Mexico , and a reservation that covers 14 million Acres.

One out of three families in New Mexico speak Spanish at home.

Las Vegas, in San Miguel County, has 900 buildings in nine historic districts on the National Registry -- more than any city in the United States!

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