SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

'Santa Fe', more properly 'Santa Fé', (pronounced by natives, or by others) (Spanish, "Holy Faith"; full form: ''La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís'', English: Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi) is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico.
Santa Fe is the third largest city in the state of New Mexico and county seat of Santa Fe County. It had a population of 62,203 at the April 1, 2000 census (62,957 people were then living within the city's 2006 boundaries); the estimate for July 1, 2006, is 72,056. It is the principal city of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Santa Fe County and is part of the larger Santa Fe-Española Combined Statistical Area. The elevation of Santa Fe is nearly 7,000 feet (2,132 meters) above sea level compared with approximately 5,352 ft (1,631 m) for nearby Albuquerque. That makes Santa Fe the United States' highest state capital in elevation.

Contents

History

Santa Fe under Spain and Mexico

Santa Fe and the United States

Geography

Climate

Santa Fe style and “the City Different”

Arts and culture

Visual art and galleries

Sculpture

Literature

Music and opera

Museums

Sports

Tourism

Architectural highlights

Demographics

Sister cities

Transportation

Air

Road

Bus and rail transit

Education

Notes

Further reading

External links

History

Santa Fe under Spain and Mexico

Santa Fe was the capital of Nuevo México, a province of New Spain explored by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and established in 1515. The city was founded by
Don Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico's third governor. Peralta gave the city its full name, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asísi", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi".

Don Pedro de Peralta depicted in a statue of 1610

San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe is the oldest church structure in the US. The adobe walls were constructed around A.D. 1610

Palace of the Governors, 1609-10

Santa Fe, 1846-1847

The modern city of Santa Fe

Capitol Building

A settlement on the site that would become Santa Fe was first established by Juan Martinez de Montoya ''ca.'' 1607-8.
The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city and perhaps tied with Jamestown, Virginia (1607) for second oldest surviving American city founded by European colonists, behind St. Augustine, Florida (1565).
Except for the years 1680-1692, when, as a result of the Pueblo Revolt, the native Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the area known as New Mexico, later to be "reconquered" by Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's provincial seat until the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. In 1824 the city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fé de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution.

Santa Fe and the United States

In 1841 a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas, with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Santa Fe Expedition the force was poorly prepared and was easily repelled by the Mexican army. In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, and General Kearny led a troop of US Cavalry into the city to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 it officially gained New Mexico through The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Colonel Alexander William Doniphan under the command of Kearny recovered ammunition from Santa Fe labeled "Spain 1776" showing both the quality of communication and military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule. (Garrard, Lewis H., Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman Oklahoma, 1955, originally published in 1850)
In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy, arrived in Santa Fe and began construction of Saint Francis Cathedral. For a few days in March 1863, the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe, until he was defeated by Union troops.
Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. But as the tracks progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers decided that it was more practical to go through Lamy, a town in Santa Fe County to the south of Santa Fe. The result was a gradual economic decline. This was reversed in part through the creation of a number of resources for the arts and archaeology, notably the School of American Research, created in 1907 under the leadership of the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett. The first aeroplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by Rose Dugan, carrying Vera von Blumenthal as passenger. Together they started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry, a major contribution to the founding of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.
In 1912 New Mexico became the country's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.

Geography

Santa Fe is located at (35.667231, -105.964575).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 96.9 km² (37.4 mi²). 96.7 km² (37.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.21%) is water.
Santa Fe is located at 7,000 feet (2134 m) above sea level, making it the highest state capital in the United States. The highest state capitals are:
#'Santa Fe, New Mexico' - 7,000 ft (2134 m) right through the center of the Capitol building
#Cheyenne, Wyoming - 6,097 ft (1858 m)
#Denver, Colorado - 5,280 ft (1609 m)
#Carson City, Nevada - 4,687 ft (1429 m)
#Salt Lake City, Utah - 4,560 ft (1390 m)
#Helena, Montana - 4,125 ft (1257 m)
Source: ''The Encyclopedia of State Capitols'' 1999

Climate

Santa Fe is characterized by cool winters and warm summers. The average temperature in Santa Fe ranges from a low of 14°F (-10°C) to a high of 40°F (4°C) in winter, low of 55°F (13°C) to a high of 86°F (30°C) in summer. Santa Fe receives 2-3 inches (50-75 mm) of rain per month in summer and about 5 inches (13 cm) of snow per month in winter. [1]

Monthly Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Rec High °F/°C	90/32	75/24	78/26	87/31	94/34	100/38	98/37	95/35	95/35	86/30	82/28	72/22
Norm High °F/°C	47/8	50/10	56/13	63/17	72/22	83/28	85/29	82/28	76/24	67/19	54/12	48/9
Norm Low °F/°C	16/-9	20/-7	25/-4	31/-1	39/4	48/9	53/12	51/11	45/7	34/1	24/-4	17/-8
Rec Low °F/°C	-27/-33	-29/-34	-18/-28	6/-14	14/-10	11/-12	35/2	36/2	20/-7	6/-14	-23/-31	-19/-28
Precip in/mm	0.71/18	0.63/16	0.90/23	0.76/19	1.29/33	1.39/35	3.19/81	3.49/89	1.99/51	1.35/34	1.06/27	0.61/15
''Source: The Weather Channel [2]''

Santa Fe style and “the City Different”

The Spanish laid out the city according to the “Laws of the Indies”, town planning rules and ordinances which had been established in 1573 by King Phillip II. The fundamental principle was that the town be laid out around a central plaza. On its north side was the Palace of the Governors, while on the East was the church that later became the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
An important style implemented in planning the city was the radiating grid of streets centering from the central Plaza. Many were narrow and included small alley-ways, but each gradually merged into the more casual byways of the agricultural perimeter areas. As the city grew throughout the 19th century, the building styles evolved too, so that by Statehood in 1912, the eclectic nature of the buildings caused it to look like “Anywhere USA” ^[1]. The city government realized that the economic decline, which had started more than twenty years before with the railway moving west and the Federal government closing down Fort Marcy, might be reversed by the promotion of tourism.

To achieve that goal, the city created the idea of imposing a unified building style – the Spanish Pueblo Revival look, which was based on work done restoring the Palace of the Governors. The sources for this style came from the many defining features of local architecture: vigas and canales from many old adobe homes, churches built many years before and found in the Pueblos, and the earth-toned, adobe-colored look of the exteriors.
After 1912 this style became official: all buildings were to be built using these elements. By 1930 there was a broadening to include the “Territorial”, a style of the pre-statehood period which included the addition of portals and white-painted window and door pediments. The City had become “Different”.
However, “in the rush to pueblofy” ^[2] Santa Fe, the city lost a great deal of its architectural history and eclecticism”. Among the architects most closely associated with this “new” style is John Gaw Meem.
By an ordinance passed in 1958, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction. However, many contemporary houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces (sometimes referred to as "faux-dobe", pronounced as one word: "foe-dough-bee") reflecting the historic style.
In 2005/2006 a consultant group from Portland, Oregon has been preparing a “Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan” to examine the long-range needs for the “downtown” area, roughly bounded by the Paseo de Peralta on the north, south and east sides and by Guadalupe Street on the west. In consultation with members of community groups, who were encouraged to provide feedback, the consultants made a wide range of recommendations in the plan now published for public and City review.
^[3]

Arts and culture

The city is well-known as a center for arts that reflect the multi-cultural character of the city.

Visual art and galleries

The town and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists. They have come over the decades to capture on canvas and in other media the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the most well-known New Mexico-based artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 miles (80 km) away. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe is devoted to exhibitions of her work and associated artists or related themes. As of March 2006, it holds over one thousand of her works in all media.
Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for tourists and locals. Santa Fe's art market is the third largest in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles, and the Canyon Road galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary Southwestern, indigenous American, and experimental art, in addition to older Russian, Taos Masters, and Native American pieces.
Another notable gallery is the Chuck Jones Gallery in downtown Santa Fe near the plaza. It contains several posters, stills, and animation cells from Jones' Looney Tunes career.

Sculpture

There are many outdoor sculptures, including many statues of Saint Francis, and several other holy figures, such as Kateri Tekakwitha. Given that Saint Francis was known for his love of animals it is not surprising that there are great numbers of representations of crows, bulls, elephants, livestock and other beasts, all over town. The styles run the whole spectrum from Baroque to Post-modern.

Literature

Numerous authors followed the influx of specialists in the visual arts. Well-known writers like Cormac McCarthy, Roger Zelazny, Alice Corbin Henderson,George R. R. Martin, Mitch Cullin, Evan S. Connell, Richard Bradford, and Jack Schaefer have been residents of Santa Fe. Walker Percy lived on a dude ranch outside of Santa Fe before returning to Louisiana to begin his literary career.

Music and opera

Music and opera are well represented in Santa Fe with the annual Santa Fe Opera productions, which take place between late June and late August each year, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival which is also held at the same time, mostly in the recently-refurbished movie theatre, the Lensic Theater, now a major performing arts venue.

Museums

Santa Fe has many world-class museums. Many are located around the historic downtown Plaza or close by:

★ New Mexico Museum of Art - collections of Southwestern Arts.

★ Institute of American Indian Arts Museum - Native American arts with political aspects.

★ Georgia O'Keeffe Museum - devoted to the work of O'Keeffe and others whom she influenced.

★ The History Museum - currently located in the historic Palace of the Governors, showcasing the history of Santa Fe.
Others are located in the Museum Hill district:

★ Museum of International Folk Art - showcasing folk art and craftsmanship from around the world.

★ Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Laboratory of Anthropology - exhibits Native American arts.

★ Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian - Native American potteries.

★ Museum of Spanish Colonial Art - arts during Spanish-colonial era.

Sports

The New Mexico Style were an American Basketball Association franchise founded in 2005, but reformed in Texas beginning with the 2007-8 season as the El Paso S'ol. The Santa Fe Roadrunners were a North American Hockey League team, but are reforming for the 2007-8 season in Kansas as the Topeka Roadrunners.

Tourism

After State government, tourism is a major aspect of the Santa Fe economy, with visitors attracted year-round by the climate and related outdoor activities (such as skiing in years of adequate snowfall; hiking in other seasons) plus cultural activities of the city and the region. The city of Santa Fe provides information on tourism via Santa Fe.org and Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.
Most tourist activity takes place in the historic downtown, especially on and around the Plaza, a one-block square adjacent to the Palace of the Governors, the original seat of New Mexico's territorial government since the time of Spanish colonization. Other areas include “Museum Hill”, the site of the major art museums of the city, and the Canyon Road arts area with its galleries.
Some visitors find Santa Fe particularly attractive around the second week of September when the aspens in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains turn yellow and the skies are clear and blue. This is also the time of the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe, celebrating the "reconquering" of Santa Fe by Don Diego de Vargas, a highlight of which is the burning Zozobra, a fifty-foot marionette also called "Old Man Gloom".
Within easy striking distance for day-trips is the town of Taos, about 70 miles (113 km) North and the historic Bandelier National Monument about 30 miles (48 km) away. Santa Fe's ski area, Ski Santa Fe, is about 16 miles (26 km) north of the city.
Smokers should be aware that the City Council passed a strict anti-smoking ordinance in the summer of 2006 that bans smoking in all businesses and public places in the city. Bars are no longer allowed to set aside a smoking area.

Architectural highlights

★ New Mexico State Capitol

★ Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

★ Loretto Chapel

★ Palace of the Governors

★ San Miguel Mission

★ Santuario de Guadalupe

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 62,203 people, 27,569 households, and 14,969 families living in the city. The population density was 643.4/km² (1,666.1/mi²). There were 30,533 housing units at an average density of 315.8/km² (817.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 66.30% White, 2.21% Native American, 1.27% Asian, 0.66% African American, 13.08% Pacific Islander, 13.29% from other races, and 3.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 47.82% of the population.
There were 27,569 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.7% were non-families. 36.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the city the population was spread out with 20.3% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $40,392, and the median income for a family was $49,705. Males had a median income of $32,373 versus $27,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,454. About 9.5% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.
The minimum wage in the city of Santa Fe is $9.50 per hour, which makes it the highest in the nation. There are plans to increase this wage to $10.50 per hour in 2008.

Sister cities

Santa Fe has six sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):

★ Bukhara, Uzbekistan

★ Parral, Mexico

★ Santa Fe, Spain

★ Sorrento, Italy

★ Tsuyama, Japan

★ Holguín, Cuba

Transportation

Air

Santa Fe is served by Santa Fe Municipal Airport. However, due to the very limited air service, most people choose to fly into the Albuquerque International Sunport, about an hour's drive south of Santa Fe.

Road

Santa Fe is located on I-25. In addition, U.S. Route 84 and U.S. Route 285 pass through the city along St. Francis Drive.

Bus and rail transit

Santa Fe Trails operates a number of bus routes within the city while New Mexico Rail Runner Express is scheduled to begin commuter train service from Albuquerque to Santa Fe in 2008.
The Santa Fe Southern Railroad, now mostly a tourist rail experience, connects to Lamy, 15 miles to the southwest, to Amtrak's ''Southwest Chief'' for train service to Chicago or Los Angeles.

Education

The public schools in Santa Fe are operated by Santa Fe Public Schools, with two major high schools, Santa Fe High School and Capital High School. The city has two private liberal arts colleges: St. John's College, U.S. and the College of Santa Fe and a community college, Santa Fe Community College. The city has four private college preparatory high schools, St. Michael's High School, The New Mexico Academy for Science and Math, Desert Academy, New Mexico School For The Deaf, and Santa Fe Preparatory School. It is also home to Santa Fe Indian School, an off the reservation school for Native Americans. There are numerous private elementary schools, Rio Grande School, Desert Montessori School, La Mariposa Montessori, Santa Fe School for the Arts, and The Tara School.

Notes

1. Hammett, p.14
2. Hammett, p.15. "The ripped off the cast-iron storefronts, tore down the gingerbread trim, took off the Victorian brackets and dentils....."
3. Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan, March 2007 (Approved draft by City of Santa Fe Steering Committee) Several sections

Further reading

★ Acuna, Rodolfo, ''Occupied America: A History of Chicanos'', New York: Harper Collins, 1987 ISBN 006040163X

★ Hammett, Kingsley, ''Santa Fe: A Walk Through Time'', Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2004 ISBN 1-58685-102-0

★ Larson, Jonathan, "Santa Fe", RENT, 1996

★ Wilson, Chris, ''The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tradition'', Albuquerque, NM: UNM Press, 1997 ISBN 0826317464

External links

;Arts and cultural organizations

★ High Mayhem Experimental Arts Collaborative

★ Georgia O'Keeffe Museum official site

★ Santa Fe Opera official site

★ Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival official site

★ Lensic Performing Arts Center official site

★ Santa Fe Pro Musica official website

★ Santa Fe Arts And Culture web portal

★ Wise Fool New Mexico Community and Circus Arts
;City/County/State

★ City of Santa Fe official site

★ Santa Fe Convention & Visitors Bureau official tourism site

★ Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce

★
;History and current affairs

★ "Early Cities of the Americas": the history of Santa Fe

★ Santa Fe Living Wage Network

★ Somos Un Pueblo Unido
;Newspapers and publications

★ ''The New Mexican'' daily newspaper online

★ ''Journal Santa Fe'' daily newspaper online

★ ''Santa Fe Reporter'' weekly newspaper online

★ ''The Santa Fean Magazine'' monthly magazine
;Maps