New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

Looking for New Mexico trivia? Try our list New Mexico little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The snow-white gypsum that pervades White Sands National Monument came from nearby mountains by way of an ancient lake. Lake Otero was formed by water draining off the San Andres Mountains, carrying gypsum stripped from the mountains. About 30,000 years ago, the cold, wet climate became warm and dry, evaporating the lake. The gypsum left behind was carried by the winds into what is now the 275-square-mile national monument.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

Actress Demi Moore was born in Roswell (pop. 45,293) on Nov. 11, 1962, and was raised amid alcoholism, poverty and divorce. She left school at age 16 to find work in Los Angeles where she became a model, and then was cast in the daytime series General Hospital.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

Santa Fe was originally made the capital of New Mexico by the Spanish in 1610. The palace of governors, which now houses the state history museum, was built the same year and remains standing. It took more than 300 years, however, before the territory became a state in 1912.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

In some isolated areas of north-central New Mexico, some descendants of Spanish conquistadors still speak a modified form of 16th-century Spanish used nowhere else in the world today.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

The largest cave chamber in North America is the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns. It is more than 1,000 feet long and about 22 stories high, covering 8.2 acres.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986), one of America’s most important and successful artists, lived in Abiquiu and loved New Mexico. Its stunning vistas and stark landscape inspired her work since 1929. She is known in great part for her large paintings of flowers.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

The word pueblo is used to describe a group of people, a town, or an architectural style. The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico are descended from the first people to enter the Americas, perhaps 20,000 years ago. They have lived in the same location longer than any other culture in America.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

The desert wood rat, common in northern New Mexico, also is known as the “pack rat” because the rodent brings various objects and bits of material into its nest. It has been known to fortify the entrance to its nest with cactus spines.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

The Great American Duck Race is held every August in Deming (pop. 14,116), where ducks in costume are urged down a 16-foot track.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico is called a cauldron of colliding ecosystems. The Chihuahuan Desert, the Sonoran Desert, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Mexican Plateau, the Great Basin, and Mexico’s Sierra Madre all converge there.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The Rio Grande runs through the state, north to south. Anglers can catch brown trout, cutthroats, rainbows, and northern pike in its waters. The state fish is the Rio Grande cutthroat.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

The “sand” at White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo (pop. 35,582) is actually gleaming white gypsum crystals.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

In 1881, blacksmith John Leavitt leased a mining claim in what is now the ghost town of Lake Valley. After two days and 10 feet of digging, he came upon the most wondrous cavern ever discovered in the history of mining: a vault the size of a living room that was virtually solid silver. The metal could be sawn off in blocks, instead of having to be dug out by traditional methods.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Before “Land of Enchantment” became the state slogan, New Mexico billed itself as The Sunshine State because every part of it gets at least 70 percent sunshine year-round. Florida and South Dakota also have called themselves sunshine states.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

The world’s largest camping facility is at Philmont Scout Ranch, southwest of Cimarron (pop. 917), where more than 18,000 Scouts come from all over the world each year to enjoy a variety of programs.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

Smokey the Bear, a bear cub burned and orphaned by fire in 1950, was buried in 1976 at the Smokey Bear Historical State Park in Capitan (pop. 1,443). His original nickname was Hotfoot Teddy, but that was changed to fit with the “Smokey Bear” campaign begun in 1944 by the U.S. Forest Service and Advertising Council.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park was known until 1986 as a small, fairly insignificant historic site in the park’s backcountry. But in the 1950s cavers heard wind roaring up from the rubble-choked floor of the cave, and a group in 1984 gained permission to dig. The breakthrough, into large open passages, occurred on May 26, 1986. Since then, explorers have mapped more than 100 miles of passages and put the cave’s depth at 1,567 feet, ranking it as the fifth longest cave in the world and the deepest limestone cave in the country.

first appeared: 1/11/2004

The state's flag colors (red and yellow) are those of Spain, and the ancient symbol of a circle with four rays extending in each of four directions came from Native Americans called the Zia. They stand for the four compass directions, four seasons, four times of day, and four stages of life.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

Gallup (pop. 20,209), located between the Navajo and Zuni reservations near the state’s western border, is the largest American Indian center in the Southwest and is considered the ceremonial capital of Native America. It also is a fountainhead for original, authentic Indian arts and crafts.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

The Cimmaron River in northeast New Mexico is considered an excellent dry fly fishing destination, with some 4,000 wild brown trout per mile. Most fish range in size from 10 to 14 inches, with an occasional lunker.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

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