New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

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

Seven centuries of inscriptions can be found on the smooth, sandstone face of Inscription Rock at the base of El Morro National Monument near Grants (pop. 8,806). They were left by American Indians, Spaniards, and U.S. Cavalrymen who were drawn to the 200-foot-high bluffs and the hidden water hole at its base. El Morro was named America’s second national monument, months after Devil’s Tower in Wyoming became the first.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

One of the best examples of the melding of art deco and Southwestern architectural styles is the 1927 KiMo Theatre in Albuquerque. It features the style that would become known as “Pueblo Deco”—art deco with American Indian motifs. Large murals and war drum-shaped chandeliers adorn the interior.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Echo Amphitheater in Carson National Forest is a large opening carved into soft sandstone by years of erosion. It looks like a professional theater, with a recessed base and overhanging roof that reportedly provides excellent echoes.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Seven breeds of American horses are represented in Free Spirits at Noisy Waters, a sculpture in Ruidoso Downs (pop. 1,824). The sculpture features eight horses, all 1.5 times actual size, cavorting on the hills near the Hubbard Museum of the American West.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Slaughter Canyon Cave in southeastern New Mexico features one of the world’s tallest cave columns (measuring 89 feet and known as Monarch) and the “Christmas tree,” a rock formation that glitters in the light because of embedded calcite crystals. But bring a flashlight—there are no lights or paved trails inside the cave.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Echo Amphitheater, a large opening carved into soft sandstone by years of erosion, looks like a professional theater, with a recessed base and overhanging roof named for its echoes.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

The War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa (pop. 2,607) collects World War II and Korean War airplanes and restores them to flying condition. Twenty-two aircraft at the museum—including Russian planes—can be flown. Exhibits also include antique cars, biplanes, and military vehicles.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

The Historic Taos Inn is made up of several adobe houses, some of which were built in the 1800s. The houses once surrounded a plaza, which now serves as the hotel’s lobby in Taos (pop. 4,700).

first appeared: 8/4/2002

The El Rancho de las Golondrinas—Ranch of the Swallows—is now a 200-acre living history museum relating 300 years of Spanish colonial history. The ranch near Santa Fe was founded in the 1700s. Staff members dress in period costumes to tell how area residents lived when the region was still under the control of Mexico and Spain. Several of the ranch’s original colonial buildings are still standing.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

The American Indian sun symbol, or “zia,” that plays such a major part in New Mexico’s culture is even found at the state Capitol. The building in Santa Fe is shaped like a zia—round, with four “rays” extending from it. The building also resembles a Pueblo structure known as a kiva.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

Maria Martinez in 1910 developed a special method of firing pottery that turned her pots a shiny jet-black and her husband Julian’s designs on the pots a dull black. The black-on-black designs made the potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo one of the most famous American Indian potters. Many of her pots are now in museums.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

The Bisti Badlands contain some of New Mexico’s most dramatic landscapes—colorful mounds and unusual eroded rocks that cover about 4,000 acres in an area that once held an ancient lake. The water is gone now, but wind and rain have eroded rocks into strange twisting pillars, mushroom shapes, and bizarre spires.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

The town namesake of the vast Carlsbad Caverns is actually named for a mineral spring. Originally named “Eddy” when it was founded (for a ranching family), Carlsbad (pop. 25,625) came into being in 1899 when the community was re-named for the nearby Carlsbad Springs—not the caves 20 miles to the south.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

Gallup (pop. 20,209) takes its name from David Gallup—a paymaster for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad—who in 1880 built a small office for the company along the path the railroad would follow. Workers would “go to Gallup” to get their pay. The name stuck after a settlement sprang up in the area.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

Lawman Elfego Baca held off 80 cowboys intent on finishing him off after he took one of their friends into custody in the village that would later become Reserve (pop. 387). Baca took shelter in a small shack with a floor 18 inches below ground level, giving him a place to hide. As a result, he was unhurt in the 33-hour standoff in 1884, even though an estimated 4,000 shots were fired at the building.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

Richens Lacy “Uncle Dick’’ Wooten set up a toll booth back in 1886. Wooten (sometimes spelled Wootton) bought mountainous land near Raton (pop. 7,282) and cleared it, creating a pass for wagons traveling from New Mexico north into Colorado. Then he charged people to use the pass. Those who didn’t want to travel 100 miles out of their way to find the next trail had to pay. Eventually, Wooten sold his property to the railroad and it became known as Raton Pass.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

The JAL cattle brand that gave Jal (pop. 1,996) its name is still prominent in the community. A lake built in 1973 is fashioned after the brand. Four brothers from Texas established the JAL ranch six miles east of the present town in 1886. No one knows for sure where the name came from, but speculation includes the first initials of three of the brothers—James, Amos, and Liddon. Another theory is that the name came from a Texas cattleman named John A. Lynch.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

After the Mexican-American War in 1848, a treaty gave the United States a village that would later become Las Cruces. About 60 families who preferred the Mexican government moved across the Rio Grande into Mexico to create the town of Mesilla in 1850. But they couldn’t get away: Mesilla also became part of the United States in 1854 under the Gadsden Purchase, under which Mexico sold a 30,000 square-mile strip of land to the United States for $10 million.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

A church in Santa Fe is America’s largest adobe structure. The altarpiece alone at El Cristo Rey is 40 feet high and 18 feet wide.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

One of the largest lava fields in New Mexico is at El Malpais National Monument near Grants (pop. 8,806). The lava field, left by several volcanoes that erupted as recently as 800 years ago, is 60 miles by 35 miles.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

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