45 Fun Facts About Santa Fe

What does 'Santa Fe' mean in English?

The full original name was La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the United States, founded in which year?

Santa Fe was founded in 1610 as capital of the Spanish province of Nuevo México, a decade before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620.

Santa Fe holds which distinction among US state capitals?

At roughly 7,000 feet above sea level, Santa Fe is the highest-altitude state capital in the United States, ahead of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Which famous highway ran through Santa Fe until a 1937 realignment bypassed the city?

Route 66 originally looped north through Santa Fe; in 1937 it was straightened to run directly from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque, cutting the city off the Mother Road.

Which mountain range rises behind Santa Fe?

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost range of the Rockies, rise directly east of Santa Fe; their name, 'Blood of Christ', evokes the red alpenglow on the peaks at sunset.

What was Santa Fe's population at the 2020 census?

The 2020 census counted 87,505 residents in Santa Fe, making it only the fourth-largest city in New Mexico after Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho.

Who led the first Spanish colonization of the region in 1598?

Juan de Oñate led some 500 colonists up the Rio Grande in 1598 and set his first capital at San Juan de los Caballeros, beside today's Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

In what year did the Pueblo Revolt drive the Spanish out of Santa Fe?

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, led by Popé of Ohkay Owingeh, drove the Spanish south to El Paso; Pueblo peoples held the Palace of the Governors for twelve years.

Who retook Santa Fe for Spain in 1692 in the so-called 'Bloodless Reconquest'?

Diego de Vargas re-entered Santa Fe in September 1692 without a battle, though hard fighting followed in 1693; the Fiestas de Santa Fe, held each September, commemorate his entrada.

Beginning in the 1820s, the Santa Fe Trail linked the city to which US frontier state?

The Santa Fe Trail ran from central Missouri, opened in 1821 by traders just as Mexico's independence legalized commerce with the United States.

Who pioneered the overland trail to Santa Fe in 1821?

He departed with Joseph R. Walker just as Mexico won independence and opened trade with the US.

Which US general marched into Santa Fe in 1846 to claim New Mexico?

Stephen W. Kearny led the roughly 1,700-man Army of the West into Santa Fe on August 18, 1846, taking New Mexico without a shot; the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo confirmed the transfer.

In which year did New Mexico become a state, with Santa Fe as capital?

New Mexico became the 47th state on January 6, 1912, after 62 years as a territory; Santa Fe, then a town of about 5,000, stayed on as capital.

Which Confederate general's forces occupied Santa Fe in March 1862?

Henry Hopkins Sibley's Texan brigade occupied Santa Fe in March 1862, but after Union troops burned his supply train at Glorieta Pass on March 28 he retreated down the Rio Grande to Texas.

Which French-born bishop built Santa Fe's St. Francis Cathedral?

Jean Baptiste Lamy, who reached Santa Fe in 1851 and became its first archbishop in 1875, began the cathedral in 1869; Willa Cather based 'Death Comes for the Archbishop' on him.

In what style was St. Francis Cathedral built, in contrast to the adobe around it?

St. Francis Cathedral is Romanesque Revival, with round arches, squat twin towers and a rose window, designed by French architects and raised by Italian stonemasons from local stone starting in 1869.

The Loretto Chapel is famous for which feature?

Its spiral staircase, the 'Miraculous Stair', makes two full turns up to the choir loft with no central support or nails; the Sisters of Loretto credited Saint Joseph.

The Loretto Chapel's design was modeled on which Paris landmark?

Projectus Mouly modeled the Gothic Revival chapel on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; its French stained glass traveled by ship to New Orleans and then by wagon over the Santa Fe Trail.

New Mexico's State Capitol in Santa Fe is nicknamed what?

Nicknamed the Roundhouse, New Mexico's capitol is the only round state capitol in the United States; from above its plan echoes the Zia sun symbol on the state flag.

New Mexico's Roundhouse State Capitol in Santa Fe was built in which years?

Built from 1964 to 1966 to a design by Santa Fe architect W. C. Kruger, the Roundhouse was dedicated in December 1966, replacing the 1900 territorial capitol that became the Bataan Memorial Building.

A 1957 ordinance requires new buildings in historic districts to use which styles?

The 1957 Historical Zoning Ordinance allows only Spanish Territorial or Pueblo styles in the historic districts, which is why many newer buildings are stucco over concrete block, a look locals call 'faux-dobe'.

What are the exposed roof beams that poke through adobe walls called?

Vigas are the round log beams that carry a flat adobe roof and protrude through the walls; canales are the rain spouts cut through the parapets above them.

Which giant effigy, 'Old Man Gloom', is burned each year before the Fiestas de Santa Fe?

Zozobra, 'Old Man Gloom', is a giant marionette stuffed with written 'glooms' and burned at Fort Marcy Park to open the Fiesta season, taking the year's worries with it.

Which artist created the first Old Man Gloom effigy in his backyard in 1924?

He gave the rights to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe in 1964, which still builds and burns it at Fort Marcy Park.

Roughly how tall is the Old Man Gloom effigy?

The 2007 version was certified by Guinness as the world's largest marionette at 49 feet 10 inches.

The Fiestas de Santa Fe have been held since which year?

The Fiestas were proclaimed in 1712 to give thanks for the 1692 reconquest, and are billed as the oldest community celebration in the United States.

Santa Fe Opera presents how many operas each summer season?

The company stages five operas in rotating repertory each summer; it opened on July 3, 1957, with Madama Butterfly in a house seating nearly 500.

Who founded the Santa Fe Opera in 1956?

John Crosby, a New York–trained conductor, founded the company in 1956, opened its first season in 1957 and remained general director until 2000.

What is the name of Meow Wolf's flagship Santa Fe installation?

House of Eternal Return opened in March 2016 inside a former bowling alley on Rufina Circle, a roughly 20,000-square-foot walk-through story about a Victorian house where something has gone wrong.

Which fantasy author originally backed the Meow Wolf art collective?

George R. R. Martin bought the defunct Silva Lanes bowling alley and leased it to the collective for its first permanent home in Santa Fe.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum opened in which year?

The museum opened in July 1997, eleven years after O'Keeffe's death in 1986, and also runs tours of her home and studio in Abiquiu.

In 2005 Santa Fe became the first US city admitted to which UNESCO program?

It was designated a Creative City in Crafts and Folk Art; the city counts more than 250 galleries.

Which Museum Hill museum was founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett?

Chicago heiress Florence Dibell Bartlett founded the Museum of International Folk Art in 1953; designer Alexander Girard's later gift of more than 100,000 objects made it the world's largest folk-art collection.

Santa Fe's street with the densest concentration of art galleries is called what?

Canyon Road, a half-mile stretch southeast of the Plaza, packs roughly 100 galleries and studios into old adobe homes.

The Santa Fe Indian Market draws roughly how many visitors each August?

The Santa Fe Indian Market draws roughly 150,000 visitors over its August weekend, with about 1,000 Native American artists selling at booths around the Plaza.

The August art market began in 1922 under what name?

The first Southwest Indian Fair was staged in 1922 by the Museum of New Mexico alongside the Fiesta; it grew into the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Since 1943, Santa Fe has served as the gateway to which national laboratory?

Los Alamos, about 35 miles northwest, was reached through a secret Manhattan Project office at 109 East Palace Avenue, where arriving scientists checked in with Dorothy McKibbin from 1943.

The Santa Fe Institute, founded in 1984, studies what?

The Santa Fe Institute, founded in 1984, is an independent research center devoted to complex systems, from economies and ecosystems to the evolution of languages.

Which Nobel-winning physicist co-founded the Santa Fe Institute?

All the founders except Gell-Mann and David Pines were scientists at the nearby weapons lab.

How is Santa Fe's climate classified under the Köppen system?

Santa Fe is cold semi-arid (Köppen BSk): about 14 inches of precipitation a year, cool dry winters and warm summers, with monthly means from about 30 °F in December to 70 °F in July.

Which commuter train service connects Santa Fe to Albuquerque?

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express reached Santa Fe on December 17, 2008, over a new line built beside I-25 that joins the old railroad branch for the last miles into the downtown depot.

What is Santa Fe's best-known nickname?

'The City Different' was coined in the early 20th century by boosters who sold Santa Fe's adobe architecture and Spanish-Pueblo heritage as unlike any other American city.

What did the Tewa people call the Santa Fe site, meaning 'white shell water place'?

Oghá P'o'oge, 'white shell water place', is the Tewa name for Santa Fe; the Navajo name Yootó means 'bead water place'. Pueblo villages stood on the site centuries before the Spanish arrived.

Which liberal arts school known for its Great Books program has a Santa Fe campus?

St. John's College opened its Santa Fe campus in 1964 as a twin to the Annapolis original; both follow the Great Books curriculum of seminar discussion of primary texts.

Which archaeologist founded the School of American Research in Santa Fe in 1907?

Edgar Lee Hewett founded the School of American Archaeology (later School of American Research) in 1907, became the first director of the Museum of New Mexico in 1909 and revived the Fiesta in 1919.