Images from New Mexico

Photographs of New Mexico scenes--old and new, side-by-side. Several views of Raton c. 1937, Raton Pass c. 1937, Downtown c. 1949.

Historical photographs of Santa Clara Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, the Espanola Valley, the Rio Arriba County Courthouse, the Espanola railroad depot, El Vado, the Spanish American Normal School, the Santa Cruz church, the Santuario de Chimayo, Santa Cruz Dam, Espanola, Abiquiu, Los Ojos, Tierra Amarilla, Dixon, the Ojo Caliente mineral springs, and Chama.

Roswell is perhaps most famous for its alleged intergalactic visitors that may or may not have crashed here via flying saucer in 1947. However, some very real famous people have traversed and lived in Roswell, including singer John Denver and actress Demi Moore. During the turbulent Wild West days, Roswell was the stomping grounds of cattle baron John Chisum, sheriff Pat Garrett, and even his arch-nemesis, Billy the Kid. Among others to call Roswell home were Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry; baseball player Joe Bauman, who hit 72 home runs in one season; pro-golfer Nancy Lopez; Western superstar Roy Rogers; rodeo champion Bob Crosby; and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach.

Best known as the site of an alleged flying saucer crash in 1947 and the "Roswell Incident," Roswell began as a humble trading post in the late 1860s along the Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail and eventually grew into a metropolis of southeastern New Mexico. Once a cow town and home to famous Western figures such as John Chisum, Pat Garrett, and Capt. Joseph C. Lea, Roswell is also the birthplace of the New Mexico Military Institute, the testing grounds for Robert H. Goddard's rockets in the 1930s, and the site of the Roswell Army Airfield and a German POW camp in the 1940s. Today Roswell is a popular tourist destination and home to more than 50,000 residents.

Historical and contemporary photographs from around New Mexico. Photograph of parade in Roswell, c. 1936.

Photographs of New Mexico scenes--old and new, side-by-side. Richardson Avenue c. 1908, Labor Day Parade 1908, Main Street c. 1909, Third Street c. 1920, Gilkeson Hotel c. 1910.

The Sacramento Mountains are an oasis of cool pine forests, alpine meadows, and fast-flowing streams. For more than a century, the area has been a summer haven for people living in the surrounding desert. The town of Ruidoso–a Spanish word meaning “noisy”–is named for the sound of water rushing over rocks as the Rio Ruidoso runs (and occasionally rampages) through the town. The town’'s first resident, Civil War veteran Paul Dowlin, built an adobe mill that harnessed the river’s power. Word of the area’s beauty soon spread. Traveling over primitive roads, first by horse and wagon and later by automobile, visitors escaped the summer heat in what became known as “The Playground of the Southwest.” Some came for horse racing or the gambling and night life offered by the town’s many bars; others came to hike, fish, and later ski on the slopes of Sierra Blanca, the mountain whose 12,000-foot peak provides a stunning backdrop for the town.

Historical photographs of the people and places involved in the Lincoln County War, John Chisum and his ranch, the town of Lincoln, Cloudcroft and the railway that served it, and the town of Ruidoso.

Ruidoso, New Mexico, has long offered a cool, verdant haven to the many visitors who come to escape the desert heat. Commercial development of the area was hampered by the sheer difficulty in getting there--"You just picked your way through the sand dunes, following someone else's tire tracks," an early visitor recalled. Eventually, the first private cabins in Ruidoso were built in 1915 and a few primitive lodging facilities were added in the 1920s and 1930s. The local economy slowed during the Great Depression, but visitors still came to the cool pines. World War II brought an influx of servicemen from nearby air bases, but it was during the period of postwar enthusiasm that the town really began to grow. Word spread about the little town in the tall pines, due in large part to the efforts of one of its newest residents--photographer Carmon Phillips.