New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 21

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

New Mexico’s largest lake is Elephant Butte Reservoir, a nearly 40-mile-long lake created when a dam was built on the Rio Grande in the early 1900s.

first appeared: 4/1/2001

The “Palace of the Governors” in Santa Fe is America’s oldest government building. Since 1610, it served as a governmental headquarters for Spain, Mexico, and then the United States. It is now a museum.

first appeared: 4/1/2001

The Tinkertown Museum in Sandia (pop. 6,742) features a miniature Western town and circus made entirely of hand-carved wood. It’s populated by mechanical people and moving vehicles.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

New Mexico’s state bird, the roadrunner, can burn the highway at speeds of up to 15 mph. The bird is clumsy in flight and tires quickly, so it usually prefers to run along roads or across sagebrush, chaparral, or mesquite flats.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

The five-story adobe structures that make up the Taos Pueblo (pop. 1,187) in northeastern New Mexico are still inhabited today—and remain virtually unchanged since they were seen by Spanish explorer Coronado more than 400 years ago. The 50 families living in the structures continue to forego modern conveniences such as electricity or running water, choosing to cook their food on outdoor ovens and get their water from a nearby stream.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

Every year, more than 300,000 people visit El Santuario de Chimayo, a small shrine in Chimayo (pop. 2,789) known by some as the “Lourdes of America” for the reported healing power of the dirt within the shrine. The shrine is built on the site where a Chimayo friar in 1810 is said to have found a golden crucifix buried in the dirt. Today, discarded crutches and braces fill the church’s side rooms in testament to the alleged healing power of the shrine.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

The leaves of the yucca, New Mexico’s state flower, can be used to make rope, baskets, and sandals.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

Deming is also known as “Ducktown USA” because it hosts the annual Great American Duck Race each August. Started in 1980, the races are held at the Luna County Courthouse Park, which is known as the “Duck Downs.” Ducks race down a 20-foot-long, enclosed track.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

The first designated wilderness area in the United States was southwestern New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness, established in 1924.

first appeared: 3/4/2001

Ansel Adams’ famous photograph Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, was shot at 4:05 p.m. on Halloween in 1942. The photo is one of the best-selling photographs of all time.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

Truth or Consequences, N.M., changed its name from Hot Springs when Ralph Edwards, the host of the popular radio game show of the same name, wanted a town called after the show as a publicity gimmick. The town voted 1,294 to 295 in favor of the name change. The change became official on March 31, 1950.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

White Sands National Monument consists of about 176,000 acres of pure white gypsum “sand” dunes. It was made a national monument in 1933.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

Hatch (pop. 1,136) is the self-proclaimed “Chile Capital of the World.” More than a dozen varieties of chile peppers are grown in the Hatch Valley.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

George McJunkin, born a slave on a ranch in Texas, spent the last 14 years of his life trying to interest scientists in the spear points he found near Folsom, N.M. Four years after McJunkin’s death in 1922, scientists recognized that the spear points McJunkin found embedded in enormous bones proved humans lived and hunted in the area more than 10,000 ago.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s 1916 guerilla raid on Columbus, N.M., was only the second time soldiers from a foreign country invaded the United States. The first was by the British during the War of 1812.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

Buddy Holly recorded his 1957 hit song, Peggy Sue, at The Norman Petty Studios in Clovis. Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs also recorded their No. 1 song, Sugar Shack, at the same studios in 1963.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

Carlsbad Caverns, near Carlsbad (pop. 26,535) contains more than 85 known caves, including Lechuguilla Cave, the country’s deepest limestone hole at 1,567 feet.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

—More than 25,000 Anasazi sites have been identified in New Mexico by archeologists. The Anasazi, the ancestors of the Pueblo, were around for 1,300 years.

first appeared: 1/28/2001

The Rio Grande is New Mexico’s longest river and runs the length of the state.

first appeared: 1/28/2001

The bear cub that would become the fire safety symbol, Smokey the Bear, was found in 1950, trapped in a tree when the Lincoln National Forest was destroyed by fire.

first appeared: 1/21/2001

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