New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

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

Santa Fe has declared 2007 the Year of Georgia O’Keeffe, to celebrate the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s 10th anniversary. The museum, the largest depository of work of the Southwestern artist, is planning several events during the year, including lectures; a style show; a community celebration with food, entertainment, and hands-on art-making activities; and readings of O’Keeffe’s letters by celebrity actors.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—Los Alamos (pop. 11,909) residents are the best savers in the nation, according to the 2006 “Nest Egg Index” from the investment firm A.G. Edwards, based in St. Louis. The index rated 934 towns and cities on income, participation in retirement plans, home values and other financial factors, and declared Los Alamos at the top in saving money.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Visitors to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque can walk down digital memory lane in a new permanent exhibit about the birth of the personal computer. Funded by Microsoft Corp. founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the exhibit offers a hands-on look at the world of computing and its origins in the state. The two launched Microsoft in 1975 in Albuquerque.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

A three-year battle over an election for Edgewood (pop. 1,893) mayor ended in November with a simple game of cards, based on a New Mexico law that allows tied elections to be settled with a “game of chance.” Bob Stearley and Howard Calkins drew cards after the state Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the election had ended in a tie. Stearley pulled the seven of diamonds, but Calkins trumped him with a ten of hearts and was sworn into office.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—In 1969, John Muir wrote How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot while he was a mechanic in Taos (pop. 4,700). The manual became one of the nation’s most popular self-published books, selling more than 2 million copies and leading to the formation of John Muir Publications in Santa Fe. Volkswagen fans still buy the book based on Muir’s practical repair advice, philosophical musings and humor. Muir died in 1977 in Santa Fe.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—Hotel La Fonda in Taos (pop. 4,700) displays paintings by D.H. Lawrence, author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The early 20th-century British writer and poet spent time in New Mexico in the 1920s and was inspired to take up painting. After his death, the paintings known as the “Forbidden Art” collection were sold to the hotel’s owner.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

The San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos (pop. 2,390) is among the most photographed and painted in the Southwest. Artist Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Ansel Adams were inspired by its buttressed walls and its sculptural form of adobe and wood. Built between 1772 and 1816, the church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—Springer (pop. 1,285) was named for Frank Springer, who in 1873 arrived in New Mexico as a young attorney for the Maxwell Land Grant Co. He became a business leader, education advocate, scientist and patron of the arts. His Supreme Court victory establishing title to the 1.7 million-acre Maxwell grant earned him a reputation as a brilliant attorney and the land on which the town of Springer now rests.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

Taos’ Millicent Rogers Museum opened in 1956 to display the Southwestern art collected by Millicent Rogers, an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune who settled in Taos (pop. 4,700) in 1947. The collections, housed in a traditional adobe home with views of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, include Hispanic arts & crafts, baskets, blankets, American Indian jewelry and kachina dolls.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—Taos (pop. 4,700) Art Museum is housed in an adobe home and studio built by Russian-born artist Nicolai Fechin for his family in the early 1900s. The museum features more than 300 artworks in its permanent collection, including paintings by Fechin.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—About 700 years ago, a peaceful people called the Mogollon sought refuge from marauding enemies and built 40 rooms in cliff caves in the heart of what is now the Gila National Forest. Archaeologists don’t know why the Mogollon left their homes 20 years later, but the Gila Cliff Dwellings, about 45 miles north of Silver City (pop. 10,545), give tourists an intimate glimpse of the Mogollon culture.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—The City of Rocks State Park near Faywood, between Deming (pop. 14,116) and Silver City (pop. 10,545), was named because of rock formations that resemble a city, complete with buildings, courtyards and streets. The boulders, some of which rise 40 feet, were formed during a volcanic eruption 34 million years ago and were sculpted by wind and water into rows of monolithic blocks. Mimbres Indians once roamed the park area.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—A giant roadrunner, sculpted entirely of landfill trash, perches at a rest stop along Interstate 10 about 10 miles west of Las Cruces (pop. 74,267). The bird, which stands about 20 feet tall, has a belly created mainly from castoff shoes and other body parts built from bits of computers, broken hairdryers, plastic plates, discarded toys and other assorted rubbish.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

Before Ross Savedra could propose to Ariana Ash, he had to rescue her from two aliens. The out-of-this-world proposal happened in July at Roswell’s (pop. 45,293) UFO Museum where Savedra staged the abduction and rescue with the help of friends and family. After the rescue, Savedra dropped to his knees and popped the question. The museum’s director announced Ariana’s answer over the sound system: “Yes!”

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—With schools like the University of Natural Medicine, the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts and Scherer Institute of Natural Healing, Santa Fe is a hub for alternative medicine. Santa Fe claims to have more acupuncturists, massage therapists, herbalists, colonic therapists, homeopaths and other assorted New Age, holistic practitioners per capita than just about any other city in the United States.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—Sugarite Canyon State Park, near Raton (pop. 7,282), was once a thriving coal mining town. As the need for domestic coal decreased in the 1940s, the mining operation closed. Today, artifacts from the town and historic photographs can be explored at the park’s visitor center and on the Coal Camp Interpretive Trail.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—The Old West spirit is alive during the End of Trail festival each June in Edgewood (pop. 1,893), where competitors in 1800s-era attire take a shot at the world championship of Cowboy Action Shooting. The festival also includes historical re-enactments, stagecoach and buggy rides, chuck wagon cooking and antique firearms displays.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

Despite her blindness, Elizabeth Garrett’s song, O Fair New Mexico, is filled with descriptive phrases about her home state. It was made the official state song in 1917. Garrett was born in 1885 in Little Creek Canyon north of Alto. Her father was Pat Garrett, the famous lawman who in 1881 tracked down and fatally shot outlaw Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner (pop. 1,249).Despite her blindness, Elizabeth Garrett’s song, O Fair New Mexico, is filled with descriptive phrases about her home state. It was made the official state song in 1917. Garrett was born in 1885 in Little Creek Canyon north of Alto. Her father was Pat Garrett, the famous lawman who in 1881 tracked down and fatally shot outlaw Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner (pop. 1,249).

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Raton (pop. 7,282), located in northeast New Mexico near the Colorado border, is home to the state’s first public high school, opened in 1884.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Rockhounds are welcome at the Harding Pegmatite Mine near Dixon. Owned and managed by the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, the mine contains strategic minerals used during World War II and now serves as a geology laboratory for students across the United States.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

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