Santa Fe ( ) is the capital of the state of New Mexico
. It is the
fourth-largest city in the
state and is the
seat of . Santa Fe
(literally 'holy faith' in
Spanish)
had a population of 62,203 at the
April 1, 2000 census; the
estimate for July 1, 2006, is 72,056. It is the principal city of
the Santa Fe, New Mexico
Metropolitan Statistical Area
which encompasses all of Santa Fe County and is part of the larger
Santa
Fe-Española Combined Statistical Area.
History
Spain and Mexico
The City of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of
Pueblo Indian villages with founding
dates between 1050 to 1150. The
Santa Fe River provided water to
people living there.
Santa Fe was the capital of
Nuevo México, a province
of
New Spain explored by
Francisco Vásquez de
Coronado and established in
1515. The
"Kingdom of New Mexico" was first claimed for the Spanish Crown in
1540, almost 70 years before the founding of Santa Fe.
Coronado
and his men also traveled to the Grand Canyon
and through the Great Plains
on their New Mexico expedition.
Spanish colonists first settled in northern New Mexico in 1598.
Don
Juan de Oñate became the first
Governor and Captain-General of New Mexico and established his
capital in 1598 near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo
(formerly known as San Juan Pueblo), north of Santa
Fe. The city of Santa Fe was founded by Don
Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico's third
governor. Peralta
gave the city its full name, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San
Francisco de Asís", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of
Saint Francis of Assisi."
The town was formally founded in 1608 and made a capital in
1610,making it the oldest capital city in what
is today the United States.
Jamestown, Virginia (1607) is of similar
vintage but not as a capital.
Santa Fe is at least the third oldest
surviving American city founded by European colonists, behind the
oldest St. Augustine,
Florida
(1565). (A few settlements
were founded prior to St. Augustine but all failed, including the
original Pensacola
colony in West Florida,
founded by Tristán de
Luna y Arellano in 1559, with the area
abandoned in 1561 due to hurricanes, famine and
warring tribes. Fort Caroline
, founded by the French
in 1564 in
what is today Jacksonville, Florida
only lasted a year before being obliterated by the
Spanish in 1565.)
Except for the years 1680-1692, when, as a result of the
Pueblo Revolt, the native
Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the
area known as New Mexico, later to be reconquered by Don
Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's
provincial seat until the outbreak of the
Mexican War of Independence in
1810. In 1824 the city's status as the capital of the Mexican
territory of Santa Fé de Nuevo México was formalized in the
1824 Constitution.
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Santa Fe, 1846-1847
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United States
In 1841, a
small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas
, with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the
Santa Fe Expedition the force was poorly
prepared and was easily repelled by the Mexican army. In 1846, the
United States declared war on Mexico, and Brigadier General
Stephen W. Kearny led the main body of his Army of
the West of some 1,700 soldiers into the city to claim it and the
whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 the U.S.
officially gained New Mexico through the
Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo.
Colonel
Alexander
William Doniphan
under the command of Kearny recovered ammunition
from Santa Fe labeled "Spain 1776" showing both the quality of
communication and military support New Mexico received under
Mexican rule, or that it was a peaceful city until Anglo-Americans
arrived.
In 1851,
Jean Baptiste Lamy
arrived in Santa Fe and began construction of Saint Francis
Cathedral. For a few days in March 1862, the Confederate flag of
General
Henry Sibley flew over Santa
Fe, until he was defeated by Union troops.
Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the
Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway.
But as the tracks progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers
decided that it was more practical to go through Lamy
, a town in
Santa Fe
County
to the south of Santa Fe. The result was a
gradual economic decline. This was reversed in part through the
creation of a number of resources for the arts and
archaeology, notably the
School of American Research,
created in 1907 under the leadership of the prominent archaeologist
Edgar Lee Hewett. The first
airplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by
Rose Dugan, carrying
Vera von Blumenthal as passenger.
Together they started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery
industry, a major contribution to the founding of the annual
Santa Fe Indian Market.
In 1912, New Mexico became the United States of America's 47th
state, with Santa Fe as its capital.
Geography
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
37.4
square miles
(96.9
km2), of which,
37.3 square miles (96.7 km
2) of it is land and
0.1 square miles (0.2 km
2) of it (0.21%) is
water.
Santa Fe is located at 7,000 feet (2134 m) above sea
level, making it the highest state capital in the United States.
The highest state capitals are:
- Santa Fe, New Mexico – 7,199 ft
(2134 m) right through the center of the Capitol building
- Cheyenne, Wyoming
– 6,062 ft (1,848 m)
- Denver, Colorado
– 5,280 ft (1,609.3 m)
- Carson City, Nevada
– 4,802 ft (1,463 m)
- Salt Lake City, Utah
– 4,226 ft (1,288 m)
- Helena, Montana
– 4,058 ft (1,237 m)
Climate
Santa Fe is characterized by cool winters and warm summers. The
average temperature in Santa Fe ranges from a low of 14°F (-10°C)
to a high of 40°F (4°C) in winter, low of 55°F (13°C) to a high of
86°F (30°C) in summer. Santa Fe receives 2-3 inches
(50-75 mm) of rain per month in summer and about 5 inches
(13 cm) of snow per month in winter.
At 7,000 feet above sea level, Santa Fe's has warm days and cool
evenings during Spring, Summer and Fall, and a jacket or sweater is
advisable, even during the summer. Day temperatures reach an
average low of during the winter months, and an average high of
during the summer.
Nights are cool year-round in this high desert city. Santa Fe
usually receives 6 to 8 snowfalls a year between November and
April. Heaviest rainfall occurs in July and August. Santa Fe has
300+ days of sunshine a year an average relative humidity of
50%.
Santa Fe style and “The City Different”
Capitol Building
The Spanish laid out the city according to the “
Laws of the Indies”, town planning rules
and ordinances which had been established in
1573 by
King Philip
II. The fundamental principle was that the town be laid out
around a central plaza.
On its north side was the Palace of
the Governors
, while on the East was the church that later became
the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of
Assisi
.
An important style implemented in planning the city was the
radiating grid of streets centering from the central Plaza. Many
were narrow and included small alley-ways, but each gradually
merged into the more casual byways of the agricultural perimeter
areas. As the city grew throughout the 19th century, the building
styles evolved too, so that by Statehood in 1912, the eclectic
nature of the buildings caused it to look like “Anywhere USA”. The
city government realized that the economic decline, which had
started more than twenty years before with the railway moving west
and the Federal government closing down Fort Marcy, might be
reversed by the promotion of tourism.
To achieve that goal, the city created the idea of imposing a
unified building style – the
Spanish Pueblo Revival
look, which was based on work done restoring the Palace of the
Governors. The sources for this style came from the many defining
features of local architecture:
vigas and canales from many old adobe
homes, churches built many years before and found in the Pueblos,
and the earth-toned, adobe-colored look of the exteriors.
After 1912 this style became official: all buildings were to be
built using these elements. By 1930 there was a broadening to
include the “Territorial”, a style of the pre-statehood period
which included the addition of portals and white-painted window and
door pediments. The City had become “Different”.However, “in the
rush to pueblofy” Santa Fe, the city lost a great deal of its
architectural history and eclecticism”. Among the architects most
closely associated with this “new” style is
John Gaw Meem.
By an ordinance passed in 1958, new and rebuilt buildings,
especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a
Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat
roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional
adobe construction. However, many contemporary
houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and
other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces
(sometimes referred to as "faux-dobe", pronounced as one word:
"foe-dough-bee") reflecting the historic style.
In
2005/2006, a consultant group from Portland, Oregon
, prepared a “Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan” to
examine the long-range needs for the “downtown” area, roughly
bounded by the Paseo de Peralta on the north, south and east sides
and by Guadalupe Street on the west. In consultation with
members of community groups, who were encouraged to provide
feedback, the consultants made a wide range of recommendations in
the plan now published for public and City review.
Government
City hall
The City of Santa Fe is a
charter city.
It is governed by a
mayor-council system. The city is
divided into four
electoral
districts, each represented by two councilors. Councilors are
elected to staggered four-year terms and one councilor from each
district is elected every two years.
The municipal judgeship is an elected position and a requirement of
the holder is that they be a member of the state
bar. The judge is elected to
four-year terms.
The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and is a
member of the governing body. The mayor has numerous powers and
duties, but does not vote with the councilors except to break ties.
Day-to-day operations of the municipality are undertaken by the
city manager's office.
Federal representation
Joseph M.
Montoya Federal Building and Post Office
The Joseph M. Montoya Federal Building and Post Office serves as an
office for U.S. federal government operations. It also contains the
primary
United States
Postal Service post office in the city. Other post offices in
the Santa Fe city limits include Coronado, De Vargas Mall, and
Santa Fe Place Mall.
Arts and culture
The city is well-known as a center for arts that reflect the
multicultural character of the city; and has been designated as a
UNESCO Creative City.
Each Wednesday the
alternative
weekly newspaper,
The Santa Fe
Reporter, publishes information on the arts and culture of
Santa Fe; and each Friday, the daily
Santa Fe New Mexican publishes
Pasatiempo, its long-running calendar and commentary on
arts and events.
Visual art and galleries
The town and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of
artists. They have come over the decades to capture on canvas and
in other media the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and
the fauna.
One of the most well-known New Mexico-based
artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who
lived for a time in Santa Fe, but primarily in Abiquiu
, a small village about 50 miles (80 km)
away. The
Georgia
O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe is devoted to exhibitions of her
work and associated artists or related themes. As of early 2006, it
holds over one thousand of her works in all media.
Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of
art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for
international collectors, tourists and locals.
Santa Fe's art market
is one of the largest in the United States, and the Canyon Road
galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary, Southwestern, indigenous American,
and experimental art, in addition to Russian
, Taos Masters, and
Native
American pieces.
Sculpture
There are many outdoor sculptures, including many statues of
Francis of Assisi, and several
other holy figures, such as
Kateri
Tekakwitha. Given that Francis of Assisi was known for his love
of animals it is not surprising that there are great numbers of
representations of crows, bulls, elephants, livestock and other
beasts, all over town. The styles run the whole spectrum from
Baroque to
Post-modern. Notable sculptors connected with
Santa Fe include
John Connell,
Luis Jiménez, and
Allan Houser.
Literature
Numerous authors followed the influx of specialists in the
visual arts. Well-known writers like
D.H. Lawrence,
Cormac McCarthy,
Douglas Adams,
Roger
Zelazny,
Alice Corbin
Henderson,
Mary Austin,
Witter Bynner,
Paul
Horgan,
George R. R. Martin,
Mitch
Cullin,
Evan S. Connell,
Richard
Bradford,
Jack Schaefer,
Hampton Sides and
Michael McGarrity are or were residents of
Santa Fe.
Walker Percy lived on a dude
ranch outside of Santa Fe before returning to Louisiana to begin
his literary career.
Dayton Lummis,
Jr., son of actor
Dayton Lummis
and himself a travel writer, resides in Santa Fe.
Music, dance, and opera
Music and opera are well represented in Santa Fe with the annual
Santa Fe Opera productions, which
take place between late June and late August each year, the
Santa Fe Desert Chorale and
the
Santa Fe Chamber
Music Festival which is also held at the same time, mostly in
the recently refurbished movie theatre, the
Lensic Theater, now a major performing arts
venue. Santa Fe has its own professional ballet company, Aspen
Santa Fe Ballet, which performs in both cities and tours nationally
and internationally. The Santa Fe Jazz and International Music
Festival was also held at the Lensic Theater for several years.
Santa Fe New Music is a leading national presenter of new
post-classical music and presents events year-round in many venues.
GiG, a small performing arts center in Santa Fe, showcases jazz and
world artists from all over the world year-round. The city's dance
scene is quite varied, including the
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the
National Dance Institute
of New Mexico,
Moving
People Dance Theatre, and many other small ensembles. Many
well-known national dance companies, including the
Pacific Northwest Ballet,
San Francisco Ballet,
Complexions, and the
New York City Ballet, have also
performed at the Lensic regularly while on tour.
Museums
Santa Fe has many world-class museums. Many are located around the
historic downtown Plaza or close by:
Others are located on Museum Hill
Sports
The
New Mexico Style were an American
Basketball Association franchise founded in 2005, but reformed
in Texas
for the
2007-8 season as the El Paso S'ol (which folded without playing an
ABA game in their new city). The Santa
Fe Roadrunners were a North American Hockey League
team, but moved to Kansas
to become
the Topeka Roadrunners.
Rodeo De Santa Fe is held annually
the last week of June. It is one of top 100 rodeos in the
nation.
Science and technology
Santa Fe
has had an association with science and technology since 1943 when
the town served as the gateway to Los Alamos
National Laboratory
(LANL), a 45 minute drive from the city. In
1984, the
Santa Fe Institute
(SFI) was founded to research
complex
systems in the physical, biological, economic, and political
sciences. It hosts such Nobel laureates as
Murray Gell-Mann (physics),
Philip Warren Anderson (physics), and
Kenneth Arrow (economics). The
National Center for
Genome Resources (NCGR) was founded in 1994 to focus on
research at the intersection among
bioscience, computing, and mathematics. In the
1990s and 2000s several technology companies formed to
commercialize technologies from LANL, SFI, and NCGR. This community
of companies has been dubbed the "
Info
Mesa."
Due to
the presence of LANL
and SFI, and because of its attractiveness
for visitors and an established tourist industry, Santa Fe
routinely serves as a host to a variety of scientific meetings,
summer schools, and public lectures, such as
International q-bio Conference on Cellular Information
Processing, Complex Systems Summer School, LANL's Center For
Nonlinear Studies Annual Conference, and others.
Tourism
After State government, tourism is a major element of the Santa Fe
economy, with visitors attracted year-round by the climate and
related outdoor activities (such as skiing in years of adequate
snowfall; hiking in other seasons) plus cultural activities of the
city and the region. Tourism information is provided by the
convention and visitor
bureau and the
chamber of
commerce.
Most
tourist activity takes place in the historic downtown, especially on and around the Plaza, a one-block square adjacent to the Palace of
the Governors, the original seat of New Mexico's territorial
government since the time of Spanish
colonization.
Other areas include “Museum Hill”, the site of the major art
museums of the city as well as the
Santa Fe International
Folk Art Market, which takes place each year during the second
full weekend of July. The Canyon Road arts area with its galleries
is also a major attraction for locals and visitors alike.
Some visitors find Santa Fe particularly attractive around the
second week of September when the
aspens in
the
Sangre de Cristo
Mountains turn yellow and the skies are clear and blue. This is
also the time of the annual
Fiestas
de Santa Fe, celebrating the "reconquering" of Santa Fe by
Don Diego de Vargas, a highlight of
which is the burning
Zozobra ("Old Man
Gloom"), a
marionette.
Within
easy striking distance for day-trips is the town of Taos
, about North and the historic Bandelier
National Monument
about away. Santa Fe's
ski area, Ski Santa Fe, is about north of the
city.
Architectural highlights
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of
Assisi, 1869
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 62,203
people, 27,569 households, and 14,969 families living in the city.
The
population density was
1,666.1 people per square mile (643.4/km
2). There were
30,533 housing units at an average density of 817.8/sq mi
(315.8/km
2). According to the Census Bureau's 2006
American Community Survey, the racial makeup of the city was 75%
White, 2.5%
Native American, 1.9%
Asian, 0.4%
African American, 0.3%
Pacific Islander,
16.9% from
other races,
and 3.1% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 44.5% of the
population.
There were 27,569 households out of which 24.1% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were
married couples living together, 12.1% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 45.7% were non-families.
36.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The
average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was
2.90.
In the city the population was spread out with 20.3% under the age
of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to
64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median
age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 91.7 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $40,392, and the
median income for a family was $49,705. Males had a median income
of $32,373 versus $27,431 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$25,454. About 9.5% of families and 12.3% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 17.2%
of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.
Sister cities
Transportation
Air
Santa Fe
is served by the Santa Fe Municipal Airport
. Currently, American Eagle provides regional jet
service to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport
, which began on June 11, 2009. An additional flight
to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was added on
November 19, 2009 alongside a new flight to and from Los Angeles
International Airport
. Many people fly into the Albuquerque
International Sunport
and connect by other means to Santa
Fe.
Road
Santa Fe is located on
I-25. In
addition,
U.S. Route 84 and
U.S.
Route 285 pass through the city along St.
Francis Drive.
NM-599
forms an
expressway bypass around the
northwestern part of the city.
In its earliest alignment (1926 - 1937)
U.S. Route 66 ran
through Santa Fe .
Public transportation
Santa Fe Trails operates a number of
bus routes within the city and also provides
connections to regional transit.
The
New Mexico Rail Runner
Express is a commuter rail service
operating in Valencia
, Bernalillo
(including Albuquerque
), Sandoval
, and Santa Fe Countie
. In Santa Fe County, the service uses 18
miles of new right-of-way connecting the
BNSF Railway's old transcontinental mainline to
existing right-of-way in Santa Fe used by the
Santa Fe Southern Railway.
Santa Fe
is currently served by three stations, Santa Fe
Depot
, South Capitol
, and Santa Fe County/NM
599. A fourth station,
Zia Road, is under
construction and does not yet have a planned opening date.
New
Mexico Park and Ride, a division of the New Mexico Department of
Transportation, and the North Central Regional Transit District
operate primarily weekday commuter coach/bus service to Santa Fe from Torrance
, Rio Arriba
, Taos
, San Miguel
and Los Alamos Countie
in addition to shuttle services within Santa Fe
connecting major government activity centers. Prior to the
Rail Runner's extension to Santa Fe, New Mexico Park and Ride
operated commuter coach service between Albuquerque and Santa
Fe.
Rail
Along with the
New Mexico
Rail Runner Express, a commuter rail line serving the
metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the city or its
environs are served by two other railroads.
The Santa Fe Southern Railway, now
mostly a tourist rail experience but also carrying freight,
operates excursion services out of Santa Fe as far as Lamy, to the southeast. The Santa Fe Southern
right-of-way is one of the United States' few
rails with trails.
Lamy is also served
by Amtrak's daily Southwest Chief for train service to
Chicago
, Los
Angeles
, and intermediate points. Passengers
transiting Lamy may use a special connecting coach/van service to
reach Santa Fe.
Trails
Multi-use bicycle, pedestrian, and equestrian trails are
increasingly popular in Santa Fe, for both recreation and
commuting.
These include the Dale Ball Trails, a 30
mile network starting within two miles of the Santa Fe Plaza; the
long Santa Fe Rail Trail to
Lamy
; and the
Santa Fe River Trail, which is
in development. Santa Fe is the terminus of three
National Historic Trails:
El
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, the
Old Spanish National
Historic Trail, and the
Santa Fe National Historic
Trail.
Education
Santa Fe Public Library
The public schools in Santa Fe are operated by
Santa Fe Public Schools, with two
major high schools,
Santa Fe High School and
Capital High
School. The city has two private
liberal arts colleges:
St. John's College and the
College of Santa Fe and a
community college,
Santa Fe Community College. Santa
Fe is home to the
Institute of American Indian
Arts, which has expanded to a four-year college in recent
years.
The city has six private college preparatory
high schools: Santa Fe Waldorf School, St.
Michael's High School
, Desert Academy,
New Mexico School For The
Deaf, Santa Fe Secondary School, and Santa Fe
Preparatory School
. It is also home to
Santa Fe Indian School, an off the
reservation school for Native Americans. There are also several
charter schools, including Monte Del Sol, the
Academy for Technology
and the Classics and Charter School 37. The city boasts
numerous private elementary schools as well, including Rio Grande
School, Desert Montessori School, La Mariposa Montessori, Santa Fe
School for the Arts, and The Tara School.
Notes
Dinosaur family sculpture, south of
I-25 off Cerrillos Road, 2008.
- Garrard, Lewis H., Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail,
Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955 (originally
published in 1850)
- United States Geological Survey
- Average Weather for Santa Fe, NM - Temperature and
Precipitation
- Hammett, p.14
- Hammett, p.15. "They ripped off the cast-iron storefronts, tore
down the gingerbread trim, took off the Victorian brackets and
dentils…"
- Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan, March 2007 (Approved
draft by City of Santa Fe Steering Committee) Several
sections
- " Post Office™ Location - SANTA FE MAIN."
United States Postal Service.
Retrieved on July 5, 2009.
- " Post Office™ Location - CORONADO."
United States Postal Service.
Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
- " Post Office™ Location - DE VARGAS MALL."
United States Postal Service.
Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
- " Post Office™ Location - SANTA FE PLACE MALL."
United States Postal Service.
Retrieved on June 6, 2009.
- Santa Fe Creative Tourism Experiences in New
Mexico
- Santa Fe
New Music
- GiG
- Museum
Hill
- Museum of Spanish Colonial Art
- Santa
Fe Rodeo - RODEO! de Santa Fe
- National Center
for Genome Resources
- Complex Systems Summer School
- Center For
Nonlinear Studies
- Santa
Fe.org
- Santa
Fe Chamber of Commerce
- " Southwest Airlines Cities," Southwest
Airlines
-
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=53a96a46-6131-4f4f-9ee4-5b05d42647ca
Airline Service For New Mexico Capital In Limbo,
aero-news.net website, 13 Nov 2007
- Dale Ball Trails and Connecting Trails and Biking
Trails
- Santa
Fe Waldorf School K-12
- Desert Montessori School
Further reading
- Acuna, Rodolfo, Occupied America: A History of
Chicanos, New York: Harper Collins, 1987 ISBN 006040163X
- Hammett, Kingsley, Santa Fe: A Walk Through Time,
Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2004 ISBN 1-58685-102-0
- Larson, Jonathan, "Santa Fe", RENT, 1996
- Wilson, Chris, The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern
Regional Tradition, Albuquerque, NM: UNM Press, 1997 ISBN
0826317464
External links
– collections of Southwestern Arts.
– A contemporary art space, located at 1606 Paseo
De Peralta. Known as the forefront for contemporary art
presentation in the Southwest.
– Native American art and history.
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, Mexico
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, Italy
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