ABQPedia

18-foot statue on the grounds of the Federal Court building in Albuquerque. The statue is one of 12 in cities along the Santa Fe Trail, as memorials to the "Pioneer Mothers of the Covered Wagon Days". Originally offered to Santa Fe by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Old Trails Association in 1927. The statue, of a determined woman in a bonnet with a baby in arms and a young child at her side, proved controversial; opponents led by feminist author Mary Austin and artist Frank Applegate felt that it did not represent New Mexico's original pioneer women. The protest was voted down, and the statue was erected in Albuquerque.
State Historian webpage on the Madonna of the Trail statue

Coal-mining town to the East between Albuquerque and Santa Fe on HWY 14. At its peak in the 1930s Madrid was a thriving community; a "company town" with its own electrical power plant, the town featured amenities not present in most of New Mexico at the time, including electric streetlights and the first lighted baseball park West of the Mississippi. The town was also famed worldwide for extensive lighted Christmas displays. Madrid was almost unpopulated in the 1950s; in the 1960s "hippie squatters" moved into some of the dilapidated worker's homes and the town gained a reputation as a place to "drop out". Today, the remaining buildings have been renovated and the town has a reputation for arts & crafts and as a tourist destination. Home to the Madrid Old Coal Town Museum and the Mine Shaft Tavern. Films shot in Madrid include Easy Rider (1969), Convoy (1978), and Wild Hogs (2007).
Visit Madrid New Mexico website

A weekly/semi-weekly newspaper in Albuquerque, 1922-23. Continued as the New Mexico State Tribune until 1933, when the paper was merged with the Albuquerque Journal under control of the Albuquerque Publishing Company and renamed the Albuquerque Tribune.

AKA: Majestic-12, Majic-12, MJ-12. Purported secret committee, created by President Truman in 1947 and composed of top scientists and military men, to study the particulars of the Roswell UFO Crash. The main support for belief in the committee comes from copies of documents, the "MJ-12 Papers", received by UFO researchers in 1984; the package containing film of the documents was postmarked Albuquerque. Stylistic errors and anachronisms lead most researchers to believe that the Majic-12 papers are a hoax. Though highly controversial, the Majestic 12 papers and the committee they allege to describe have entered UFO, and Roswell, lore.

Albuquerque. Has worked as a teacher on the Navajo reservation, a public school administrator in Albuquerque, and as a commissioner in Bernalillo County. First African American elected to the New Mexico state legislature; first African American to earn a PhD in education from UNM. Author of Let's Roll This Train : my life in New Mexico education, business, and politics.

Originally Site Able, a weapons testing area in the foothills of the Manzano Mountains east of the Kirtland Air Force Base. Redesignated in 1952 as Manzano Base, and used for storage of weapons. Merged in 1971 with Kirtland and Sandia Bases.

Sometimes as Sandia Mountain Monkeys, Manzano Mountain Macaques. Five rhesus macaques that in August 1973 escaped from a research project at the Lovelace Foundation. The macaques established themselves in the Manzano Mountains near Tijeras, with reports that they were living in a small geological test pit now known locally as Monkey Cave. Sightings of the monkeys crossing NM14 and by hikers indicated that they had survived the winter, with some locals setting out food. Ownership of the macaques was transferred to UNM, and the last of the monkeys were recaptured in 1974.

AKA: Muertos Y Marigolds. Formal name, South Valley Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Marigold Parade. Day of the Dead celebration held since 1992 in Albuquerque's South Valley. The parade currently travels north along Isleta Boulevard to the Westside Community Center where music, altars, dancing and food vendors are featured. Anyone marching in the parade must be in "calavera" attire -- skullface makeup or mask -- and parade floats or groups must feature marigolds, the "flower of the dead". Many onlookers also dress in calavera, and the event has become popular with families and photographers.
Muertos Y Marigolds Parade website

Civil engineer from Ohio who in the 1880s surveyed the site for New Albuquerque after the arrival of the railroad, by direction of the New Mexico Town Company. Marmon was responsible for the naming of the streets, and developed the numerical designations for First through Sixteenth Streets north-south, and the mineral names (Gold, Silver, Lead, etc.) for the east-west. Several surviving street names, including Edith Blvd., were named for members of his family.

The "sand hills" area between the Rio Grande and the Sandia Mountains, outside of Old Town Albuquerque and settled by Don Manuel Martin around 1850. The location allowed better communal grazing on the grasslands to the east. The community, at first known as "Los Martines", existed as a separate community as Albuquerque grew around it until its annexation in 1898. The area is now bounded by Broadway, I-25, Martin Luther King Blvd., and Mountain Road, and is known as the Martineztown Neighborhood.

Founded in 1932 as the Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico, becoming the first public museum in Albuquerque. In 1972 it was renamed the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in honor of philanthropists Dorothy and Gilbert Maxwell. Mission statement: "to increase knowledge and understanding of the human cultural experience across space and time". Includes the Clark Field library of over 12,000 specialized anthropological volumes and journals.
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology website

(1894-1983) Architect based out of Santa Fe, a proponent of "architecture of place" and noted for his use of Pueblo Revival Style in his designs. In 1930 he entered and won a national competition to select a design for the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. He was selected in 1933 as the official architect for the University of New Mexico, which position he held until his retirement in 1956; his best-known structure on the UNM campus is the Zimmerman Library. He was also influential in Santa Fe, designing numerous buildings and heading the committee which wrote the 1957 Historical Zoning Ordinance controlling the style of buildings in the city's center. A number of Meem's works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and the library at St. John's College in Santa Fe is named for him.
State Historian webpage on John Gaw Meem

See Railroad Hospital

Established as a boarding school in 1884 by the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church, "...a faith-based, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in grades 6–12."
Menaul School website

Nickname for the 13 American women who underwent the same physiological tests performed upon the Project Mercury male astronaut candidates by William Lovelace at the Lovelace Medical Center beginning in 1959. The privately-funded program was not part of the official NASA program and the women tested never participated in the space program; however, the experiments provided valuable baseline information. The female participants in the testing were all pilots with extensive flying experience.

Formally, UNM Institute of Meteoritics Meteorite Museum. On UNM campus, free to the public. "Opened in 1974 and is a major educational resource for the university and New Mexico schools. The museum displays many fine samples of stony, stony iron, and iron meteorites from the institute’s collection. The museum is visited by thousands of people every year, including many elementary and high school students from Albuquerque and the surrounding area. The meteorites on display in the museum are only a small part of the research and teaching collection, which includes over 5000 specimens of over 650 samples. All the meteorites in the collection are available for study by researchers within the institute and throughout the world."
Meteorite Museum website

Albuquerque.

International computer / software corporation, founded in Albuquerque in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The company moved to Seattle in 1979.

(1943-2007) Lawyer, first female Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. On the faculty at UNM Law School. Numerous awards in her field, including the 1999 Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women. Both UNM and the State Bar present awards in her name.

(1934-) Navarre Scott Momaday. Author/poet/painter. Oklahoma-born Kiowa whose parents took teaching positions at Jemez Pueblo when he was 12. Earned Bachelors degree in Political Science at UNM, then Masters and Ph.D. at Stanford, where he also taught English. Visiting Professor at UNM. Received the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn (1968); other popular titles are The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) and The Ancient Child (1989). Painted the poster for the 1990 Santa Fe Indian Market. Received the Governor's Art Award in 1996 and the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

In Old Albuquerque, on Second Street. Noted for being the first business to adopt incandescent electric lighting, on Oct. 31 1883.

(1930-2021) Longtime weathercaster with KOAT-TV in Albuquerque. Noted for doing drawings for his TV sessions, and providing gardening tips for viewers. Author of Howard Morgan's Gardenlore which collected together his gardening advice for New Mexico gardeners, with illustrations.

Started in a house in 1898; brick church built in 1909 at 510 Lead Avenue. Continues today at 2401 University Boulevard S.E. in Albuquerque.

Tijeras. Volunteer 501 c 3 entity with no paid staff. Features informative displays, a library of books about military life, and a gift shop featuring books written by staff.