New Mexico

Santa Fe

Santa Fe is the oldest and highest-elevation (7,198 feet) state capital in the United States. It is also the second oldest city in the country behind St. Augustine, Florida (est. 1565). The first inhabitants of Santa Fe were the Tewa Peoples who built settlements in the downtown area as early as 1050. Santa Fe was formally founded in 1610 by Spanish conquistador General Don Pedro de Peralta who was appointed the colonial governor. The Spanish built the still-standing Palace of the Governors for colonial administration. The name, Santa Fe, is short for the La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, which translated means The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.

For the next seventy years, the Spanish inhabitants and Franciscan missionaries subjugated and converted the nearly 100,000 Native Peoples they called Pueblo (meaning town or village in Spanish). In 1680, the people of 46 Pueblos joined forces in revolt, driving the Spanish colonists south into present-day Mexico leaving much of Santa Fe burned to the ground. The Spanish returned in 1692 intent on maintaining its empire. In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and retained control of Santa Fe, designating it the capital of Nuevo Mexico. It was a year later that William Becknell pioneered the 1,000-mile-long Santa Fe Trail that established a trade route between St. Louis, Missouri and Mexico. It was during this time that Santa Fe prospered and grew into a popular destination for traders and trappers.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the United States government conquered Santa Fe and claimed the entire state. New Mexico became a territory of the United States through the Treaty of Hidalgo Guadalupe which was signed in 1848. On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47^th state of the United States. Modern Santa Fe is the fourth largest city in New Mexico. It is a popular tourist destination renowned for its Pueblo-style architecture, deep history, and a vibrant arts community. It also has an exciting food scene that celebrates a blend of traditional Mexican and Puebloan cuisines. The city boasts an impressive number of museums and galleries that celebrates the many cultures that make up this unique American city.

The historic district of downtown Santa Fe has over 400 years of history. San Miguel Chapel was built in 1610 by Spanish-allied Indigenous Tlascalans from Mexico and holds the distinction as the oldest church in the United States. It is located on the crossroads of the old Santa Fe Trail, El Camino Real, and the Old Spanish Trail. Although it was severely damaged during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, it was rebuilt on the original foundation where the present adobe dates from about 1710. Across the street from San Miguel Chapel, is a small adobe dwelling from about the same period that is said to be the oldest house in America.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of AssisiCompleted in 1878, the Gothic-Revival-styled Loretto Chapel was built for the Sisters of Loretto who established a school in Santa Fe in 1853. The beautiful chapel is famous for its mysterious spiral staircase, constructed between 1877 and 1881 with two 360-degree turns and no apparent means of support. It is a must see! Franciscan friars built the first church at the present site of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi at the time of the city’s founding in 1610. Following the Pueblo Revolt, it was rebuilt in 1714 and named in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Santa Fe. The church was elevated to the status of a basilica by Pope Benedict XVI on October 4, 2005.

The Santa Fe Plaza is a National Historic Landmark and follows the style of traditional Spanish-American colonial cities which included a plaza, or city square, at its center. Today, the Plaza is bounded by numerous shops, galleries, and restaurants as well as the Palace of the Governors which housed the Spanish colonial government. Not only did the Plaza mark the end of the Santa Fe Trail, but Route 66 (today E. San Francisco Street) also bordered it from 1926 to 1937, prior to the realignment. Few people know that Santa Fe also played a crucial role in ending World War II. During the Manhattan Project (1943–1945), Los Alamos personnel initially reported to 109 East Palace Avenue in Santa Fe, which is literally a block from the Plaza. This office, managed by Dorothy McKibbin, served as the secret, inconspicuous administrative gateway for staff and scientists to receive security passes, housing assignments, and transportation up to Los Alamos. 

Santa Fe has been the capital of New Mexico since 1821 when it was so designated by the Mexican government. The current State Capitol first opened in 1966 and was renovated in the early 1990s. It is built in New Mexico Territorial style, and the building forms the Zia sun symbol, the sacred emblem of the Zia Pueblo.

Los Alamos

In October 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt advising him of recently discoveries in nuclear fission and the potential for the Nazis to weaponize it. In response, Roosevelt formed the Advisory Committee on Uranium to investigate. Under the supervision of this committee, physicist Enrico Fermi and a team at the University of Chicago achieved the world’s first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942, in a makeshift lab under the stands of the football stadium. Their successful experiment proved the viability of atomic energy and set in motion the American effort to build a bomb.

The project was code named the Manhattan Project after the location of the offices of the Advisory Committee on Uranium. General Leslie Groves, who had just completed the construction of the Pentagon ahead of schedule and under budget, was selected by the military to oversee the Manhattan Project. For safety and security reasons, he decided to distribute the monumental task of building an atomic bomb across the country. Groves selected two sites to produce nuclear materials for the bomb: Oak Ridge, Tennessee was selected for uranium enrichment and Hanford, Washington was chosen for plutonium production. Next, General Groves needed a scientific director to oversee the development of the actual atomic bomb. He selected physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer from the University of California to head the effort.

A very remote location was needed for the development of the atomic bomb. During his conversations with Groves, it was Oppenheimer who suggest a remote location in New Mexico where he had vacationed numerous times just outside of Santa Fe. Upon visiting the site, Groves immediately selected Los Alamos as the location of the secret laboratory for its remote location was easy to secure and it already had some infrastructure. Since 1928, the site had been home to the Los Alamos Ranch School where Fuller Lodge had served as the dining hall. A former Rough Rider named Ashley Pond, Jr. was founder of the boarding school which catered to wealthy families of the eastern United States. The school soon received an eviction notice as the U.S. Army engineers soon arrived to construct housing, laboratories, and a security perimeter.

As the facilities at Los Alamos were being constructed, Oppenheimer went about the task of recruiting scientific and engineering talent for the project. Some scientists had misgivings about developing such a weapon, but most realized how critical it was for the United States to develop the atomic bomb before Germany. Oppenheimer was not sure if the United States would use such a weapon, but he was certain Germany would, and this was his motivation. Personnel with families were encouraged to bring them as this was going to be a multi-year endeavor with little contact with the outside world. As with other war endeavors, women played a critical role at Los Alamos with about 200 members of Women’s Army Corps arriving to fill such roles as clerical, nursing, teachers, lab assistants, and even a few scientists and explosive technicians. Everyone who was assigned to Los Alamos first reported to 109 East Palace Avenue in Santa Fe. This office, managed by Dorothy McKibbin, served as the secret, inconspicuous administrative gateway for staff and scientists to receive security passes, housing assignments, and transportation up to Los Alamos.

The staff at Los Alamos were in a race to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis and, therefore, they worked extremely long hours. They did have some time for recreation which might include horseback riding or skiing. One of the favorite activities were the live theater productions which they held at the dining hall, even Oppenheimer had roles in plays. While most personnel lived in dormitories or make-shift apartments, the senior scientists, including Oppenheimer, occupied homes that had been built for the Los Alamo Ranch School. These homes became known as Bathtub Row because they were the only homes in town with bathtubs due to World War II steel rationing.

Early in the development cycle it was determined that there would only be enough enriched uranium for a single weapon. The production of plutonium at Hanford was far more successful, but there was a serious problem with a plutonium device. The original gun-type design for the bomb called for an explosive charge to “ram” a mass of nuclear material into another setting off a chain reaction. Testing found that this design would not work with the more plentiful plutonium. An implosion-device, whereby the plutonium is forced into itself, was the leading theory but a lot of work was required to get this to work. Much of the work done at Los Alamos was related to designing an implosion device. While the scientists had high confidence in the physics behind the gun-type device, the complexity of a synchronized implosion had them less certain. A full-scale test of an implosion device was needed.

The Trinity Test Site was located about 200 miles southeast of Los Alamos. The Army constructed a 100-foot-tall tower atop which the bomb would be detonated to simulate an aerial bombing. The bomb, or “Gadget” as codenamed, was asphere of 32 explosive “lenses” hexagonal or pentagonal in shape made of two different types of high explosives surrounding a plutonium core. Following a night of thunderstorms, anxiety was high at the test site as the gadget was armed. At 5:30am on July 16, 1945, the device was detonated producing an explosive force equivalent to 18.6 kilotons of TNT. The world had entered the atomic age and would never be the same. The pre-determined message “Any news about the big fish?” was radioed back to Los Alamos where the news was met with jubilation and celebrations.

Following the successful test, the two operational devices that had been produced at Los Alamos were shipped to the West Coast and loaded aboard the destroyer USS Indianapolis. The bombs were delivered to the island of Tinian which was being used for B-29 bombing missions over Japan. On August 6, 1945, a uranium-core gun-device called “Little Boy” was loaded aboard the B-29 bomber Enola Gay and dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. When the Japanese refused to surrender, the plutonium-code implosion-type device (identical to the Trinity gadget) was loaded aboard the B-29 bomber Bockscar and dropped on Nagasaki three days later. Japan announced its official surrender on August 15, 1945, ending World War II.

Upon the end of the war, the work of Los Alamos was made public, and this unknown place atop a New Mexico mesa gained a spot in history. Most of the 8,000 people who lived and worked at Los Alamos at the end of the war returned to their lives throughout the country. Many of the leading scientists, including Oppenheimer, were very concerned with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and opposed the way the government was handling the technologies they had developed. Although the Los Alamos lab was scaled back, it never ceased as a new generation of scientists, including Nobel Prize winners Edwin McMillan and Hans Beth, worked to develop more powerful thermonuclear weapons during the Cold War. Today, Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by the Department of Energy, employs about 15,000 people and is a research institution focused on national security, primarily ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The Manhattan Project National Historic Park preserves some of the war era properties around Los Alamos which visitors can visit on a walking tour. Just a few blocks from the historic park, the Bradbury Science Museum has wonderful exhibits on the scientific work done at Los Alamos both past and present.

Pecos National Historic Park

Geological forces uplifted 290-million-year-old ocean deposits to form the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Glorieta Mesa. Later the rush of rivers created the Glorieta Pass, a natural gateway through the mountains and mesas which created a trade route between the people of the Rio Grande Valley farming to the west and the Plains people hunting to the east. It was here on this busy trade route atop a high ridge near abundant water supplies that Pecos Pueblo was established around 1350. It grew into one of the largest and most powerful pueblos, rising five stories high and home to 2,000 people. The Pecos people’s lives and traditions were deeply rooted in traditional Puebloan customs and religious beliefs. They constructed kivas (underground rooms) where they would connect to the spiritual world. The Pecos followed ancestral farming practices and set aside food for the winter in massive storerooms. With 500 warriors, Pecos was a dominant power, as newcomers to area were about to discover.

The Spanish arrived in 1541 with the goal of colonizing the land, converting area tribes to Catholicism, and creating citizens loyal to the crown. In 1610, Franciscan friars destroyed kivas, smashed statues, and banned Pueblo ceremonies. The Pecos people resented this interference and aggression towards their traditional ways. Things improved slightly when Fray Andrés Juárez arrived in 1621 and acknowledged the culture, language, and beliefs of the Pecos people, while trying to educate and convert them. Under his direction, the Pecos people built a large mission church, and relations between the Spanish and the Pecos people improved for a time. Some of the Pecos converted, but many just tolerated the Spanish colonists, paying required tributes and suffering cruel treatment when they did not comply. Resentment grew as they were forced to follow their traditional religious practices in secret.

By 1680, years of Spanish control, famine, and Apache raids had taken a toll on the Pecos and other Pueblo people. A religious leader named Po’ pay wanted to end Spanish domination and secretly united many of the separate Pueblos to rise up against the Spanish. On August 10, 1680, the Pueblos revolted, driving the Spanish colonists out of New Mexico. The mission church at Pecos was destroyed with one of the friars being killed. Following a decade of drought and raids from their enemies, the Spanish returned to the Pecos Pueblo in 1692. The Spanish took a more conciliatory approach with the Pueblo people and their traditions. In 1717, the Spanish colonists and Puebloans worked together to build a second smaller church on the site of the one that had been destroyed as well as a convento for the mission staff.

Years of drought, disease, migration, and Commanche raids took a toll on the Pecos. By the late 1700s the region’s population had decreased significantly. In 1838, the few remaining Pecos inhabitants moved south to the Jemez Pueblo ending nearly five hundred years of occupancy of the Pecos Pueblo. In the decades that followed, thousands of settlers traveled past the remains of the once-powerful Pecos Pueblo as the Santa Fe Trail passed nearby. During the American Civil War, a band of Confederates out of Texas came through the region on their way to seize riches in the goldfields of Colorado and California to help finance the Confederacy. In March 1862, Union troops defeated the Confederates in a two-day battle at Glorieta Pass and ended their ambitions to control New Mexico and beyond. First established as a national monument in 1965, Pecos National Historical Park was created in 1990 to include the acquisition of the Glorieta battlefield. The visitor center has a wonderful museum about the history of the Pecos people and the Spanish colonialists. The 1.25-mile Ancestral Sites Trail takes visitors past the ruins on the pueblo structures and kivas, as well as the sites of the 1625 church and the rebuilt 1717 church which is still partially standing today.

Albuquerque

Founded in 1706 as La Villa de Alburquerque by Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, it was named in honor of the Duke of Alburquerque, viceroy of New Spain. To this day, Albuquerque retains the nickname of the “Duke City”. The Spanish colonial outpost grew into a crucial trading stop along the El Camino Real with the San Felipe de Neri Church established in 1793 in Old Town, which remains a central landmark today. The arrival of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway in 1880 brought rapid growth to Albuquerque and established a new commercial district to the east of Old Town. The establishment of Route 66 in 1926 made Albuquerque a major crossroad in the Southwest. This helped fuel the growth of Albuquerque driven by military bases and atomic research during World War II. Today, modern Albuquerque is a blend of its historic adobe architecture in Old Town, the commercial Downtown, and modern technology centers like Sandia National Laboratories and University of New Mexico.

In recent years, Albuquerque has gained some world-wide notoriety due to the popular, 16-time Primetime Emmy winning TV series Breaking Bad. The show premiered on January 20, 2008, and follows the transition of high school chemistry teacher named Walter White into a criminal as a methamphetamine manufacturer upon learning of a terminal cancer diagnosis. The business associate for White was a drug kingpin with cartel ties named Gus Fring. He operated a chain of chicken restaurants called Los Pollos Hermanos as a front for his criminal empire. The show was completely filmed in Albuquerque and several filming locations around the area have become popular tourist attractions with fans from around the world. Unfortunately for the owners of a Piermont Drive residence, the filming location of Walter White’s house has become somewhat of a mecca for fans who show up to take photos. The filming location for Los Pollos Hermanos in Albuquerque was a burger and burrito restaurant on Isleta Boulevard named Twisters. It is still an active business, and fans can enjoy a meal while taking in some Breaking Bad memorabilia that the restaurant has on display.

The Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum

The city is probably best known for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta which is held annually in October. The first event was held on April 8, 1972, as a promotional event for a local radio station and featured 13 hot air balloons launching from a local mall parking lot. In 1973, the event expanded to host the First World Hot Air Balloon Championship at the State Fairgrounds, which featured more than 120 balloons. Organizers moved the event to October in 1975 to take advantage of better weather and ideal wind patterns known as the “Albuquerque Box”. As Albuquerque grew, landing spots became scarcer, leading officials to eventually cap the number of participating balloons at approximately 500 to 600 to ensure safety and quality.

Over five decades, the Fiesta introduced several signature traditions and moved through various venues before finally settling at its permanent 350-acre home, Balloon Fiesta Park, in the mid-1990s. Today, the nine-day festival attracts more than 800,000 visitors annually and generates over $200 million in economic impact for the region. Since its modest start, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has evolved into the largest hot air balloon festival in the world and the planet’s most photographed event.

 In 2005, the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum opened adjacent to Balloon Fiesta Park to preserve the history and culture of the sport. The museum is named in honor of two pioneering Albuquerque balloonists, Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo. Both men were internationally renowned for their groundbreaking achievements in long-distance helium balloon flight. The museum chronicles the history of ballooning from the first flight of Le Réveillon in France in 1783 to the first non-stop, around-the-world balloon flight in 1999 aboard the Breitling Orbiter 3.

Petroglyph National Monument

The Albuquerque area has been inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans and some of this ancient history is evident at Petroglyph National Monument. Around 200,000 years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions on the west side of present-day Albuquerque left behind basalt rocks on which the petroglyphs were etched upon. It is estimated that there are 20,000 images within the boundaries of the national monument. Most of the images were created between 400 and 700 years ago by the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people. Archeologists know some of the images were created after contact with Spanish explorers due to the presence of Christian crosses and domesticated animals like sheep and horses. There are several trails within the national monument to hike and view the petroglyphs. During my visit, I hiked in Rinconada Canyon which has a 2.2-mile loop with approximately 300 petroglyphs visible from the trail.

Note: I am not an expert on petroglyphs. My captions are merely suggestions on what the ancient images could be representing. Click on images to expand.

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

New Mexico and Albuquerque have played a major role in the United States’ development of nuclear technologies, both weapons and energy. Located in Albuquerque, Sandia National Laboratories continue to play a crucial role in the development of non-nuclear components of the nation’s nuclear deterrence and ensuring the safety of nuclear stockpiles. Los Alamos, where the secretive Manhattan Project developed the first atomic bomb during World War II, is only 100 miles from Albuquerque. So, it was fitting when Congress established the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (formerly named National Atomic Museum) in Albuquerque.

The original museum opened in 1969 and was located on Kirtland Air Force Base where it was managed by the Department of Energy. In 1992, the National Atomic Museum Foundation (NAMF) non-profit was created to remove the burden on taxpayers, and the museum became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. Following the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the museum was moved off the military base for security reasons and has occupied several locations in Albuquerque before making its home on a 12-acre site on Eubank Boulevard in 2009.

The galleries inside the museum chronicle the early nuclear research leading up to and including the Manhattan Project. They have a wonderful replica of a Los Alamos laboratory where the cores of the atomic bombs were assembled. On display are replicas of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan: “Little Boy” (a uranium-core gun-type device dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945) and “Fat Man” (a plutonium-core implosion-type device dropped on Nagasaki August 9, 1945). The Cold War Gallery has a huge collection of nuclear capable bombs, missiles, demolition devices, and artillery pieces. The outside grounds display a wide variety of artifacts including a model of the 100-foot Trinity Tower as well as an array of nuclear capable aircraft, missiles, and guided missiles. Addition galleries inside the museum display atomic themed toys from the 1950s, photos of Hiroshima (then & now), nuclear energy production, and technologies for disposing of nuclear material.

ABQ BioPark Zoo

The ABQ BioPark Zoo is part of the Albuquerque Biological Park which also includes an aquarium and botanical garden in the downtown district near the Rio Grande. Founded in 1927, the 64-acre zoo was originally known as the Rio Grande Zoo. The zoo features exhibit areas for the continents of Africa, Asia, and Australia as well as sections for carnivores, raptors, reptiles, and a penguin house.