New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 19

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

The few animals found in the 275 square-mile White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo (pop. 35,582) have adapted to their surroundings to survive. The Apache pocket mouse and bleached earless lizard are a bleached white, which hides them in the gypsum sand.

first appeared: 10/21/2001

The nation’s most famous caverns are actually the remains of a prehistoric reef. The Carlsbad Caverns near Carlsbad (pop. 25,625) formed when a vast ocean covered the area. For millions of years, acidic water seeped from the sea into limestone shelves, leading to cave-ins that created the gigantic chambers seen today.

first appeared: 10/14/2001

The FOOD Museum in Albuquerque features dozens of exhibits on food from around the world, as well as the role played by food in entertainment and in corporate logos, and the development of different foods and drinks.

first appeared: 10/7/2001

The 7.5-mile Zuni-Acoma Trail near Grants (pop. 8,806) links the Zuni and Acoma pueblos. The trail, which crosses a field of lava, is believed to be about 1,000 years old.

first appeared: 10/7/2001

Mountain man Christopher “Kit” Carson in 1843 bought a home for his bride, Maria Josefa Jaramillo, in Taos (pop. 4,700). The house, where they would live until their deaths in 1868, has been refurbished to look as it did during Carson’s life. The Kit Carson Home and Museum contains artifacts from his experiences as a mountain man, soldier, and guide.

first appeared: 9/30/2001

People started leaving their marks on “Inscription Rock” during the pre-Columbian era. The rock, now at the El Morro National Monument near Grants (pop. 8,806), is made of soft sandstone. It reaches 200 feet above the valley floor and is marked with ancient petroglyphs, as well as the signatures and messages of Spanish explorers dating back as far as 1605.

first appeared: 9/23/2001

The westernmost skirmish of the Civil War was fought near Santa Fe. The Battle of Glorieta Pass in March 1862 stopped Confederate forces from capturing the area around Santa Fe to use as a staging ground to claim control of California and Colorado gold fields. The Union victory led the Confederate Army later to give up its hold on parts of New Mexico.

first appeared: 9/16/2001

Farmers near Socorro (pop. 8,877) have worked out a unique deal with wildlife in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The farmers grow alfalfa and corn on the rich land—harvesting the alfalfa and leaving the corn—which feeds thousands of birds that winter at the refuge, including an estimated 12,000 sandhill cranes.

first appeared: 9/9/2001

The Martinez Hacienda, near Taos (pop. 4,700), is one of the few fully restored Spanish Colonial adobe haciendas remaining in the southwest. Craftsmen continually work to maintain the building, which was erected in 1804 as one end of the Camino Real, the road linking northern New Mexico and Mexico City.

first appeared: 9/2/2001

Each room at the Inn of the Animal Tracks in Santa Fe is decorated according to a different animal theme. The five rooms carry such names as the “Whimsical Rabbit,” “Gentle Deer,” and “Playful Otter.”

first appeared: 9/2/2001

One of the largest windmill collections in the country is on display in Portales (pop. 11,131). The Dalley Windmill Collection includes 75 windmills from around the globe.

first appeared: 8/26/2001

A museum dedicated to the history of nuclear science is located in Albuquerque, not far from the birthplace of the atomic bomb. The National Atomic Museum at Kirtland Air Force Base includes artifacts and displays on nuclear science in America, from the first experiments with nuclear power to the development of nuclear weapons and today’s nuclear medicine.

first appeared: 8/19/2001

When Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing pursued Pancho Villa from a small New Mexico town into Mexico after Villa’s 1916 raid into the United States, the U.S. Army used mechanized vehicles—automobiles, trucks, and even airplanes—for the first time in an operation.

first appeared: 8/19/2001

The chance discovery of uranium on a mountain near Grants (pop. 9,432) turned the New Mexico community into a boom town in the 1950s. The uranium mines and mills closed in 1983, but the town is still within one of the richest uranium deposits in the world—believed to contain about half of America’s uranium ore reserves.

first appeared: 8/12/2001

A natural resource provided the name for Artesia (pop. 10,988) in 1903. Artesian wells brought to the surface water that provided ample supplies for the area agriculture. Artesia was the town’s third name. It was first named for a railroad employee and then for the town’s postmistress.

first appeared: 8/12/2001

The Clovis Depot Model Train Museum displays miniature trains at work in an authentic railroad depot. The depot was built in Clovis (pop. 32,667) in 1907 by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and has been restored to look as it did in the 1950s and 1960s. The museum includes railroad memorabilia, historical displays, working model train layouts, and an operating telegraph station.

first appeared: 8/5/2001

The oldest representation of the Madonna in the United States is in the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. The wooden statue has been on display in the church for more than 300 years.

first appeared: 7/29/2001

An ancient and intricate highway system, irrigation canals, and the ruins of large buildings found near Bloomfield (pop. 5,214) are all that remain of what archaeologists believe was a center for the Anasazi civilization prior to the 13th century. The Chaco Culture National Historical Park protects the site, believed to date from about A.D. 900.

first appeared: 7/29/2001

The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe contains the world’s largest collection of folk art from different cultures. The museum has more than 125,000 pieces in its collection, including toys, textiles, folk art, and religious art from around the world.

first appeared: 7/22/2001

Just off the Santa Fe Trail in Colfax County is a 10,000-square-foot mansion built in 1880 by Stephen Dorsey, a former U.S. senator. Two years in the making, the mansion was at the center of Dorsey’s 60-mile cattle ranch. The exterior of the Dorsey Mansion is adorned with a number of gargoyles, along with carved faces depicting Dorsey, his wife, and his brother. The mansion boasts nine bedrooms, a 60-guest dining room, and a billiards room. Today, the mansion is a New Mexico State Monument.

first appeared: 7/15/2001

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