NMPedia

See Very Large Array

Popular tourist site, established as a National Monument in 2001. The Tent Rocks are a natural formation, cone-shaped structures formed by erosion of ancient deposits of white volcanic ash. ("Kasha-Katuwe" means "white cliffs" in the Keresan tongue of the adjacent Cochiti Pueblo.) The structures are often topped by balanced rocks, "hoodoos". The 4600-acre site offers day use and hiking along the Slot Canyon Trail.
Bureau of Land Management website on Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Formally, Organic Law of the Territory. Popular name for a legal code crafted in 1846, named for General Stephen W. Kearny, head of the forces occupying New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. Mexico ceded the area to the U.S. in 1848, and with the creation of New Mexico Territory by way of the Compromise of 1850 military control of the area ended, but the Kearny Code was still the basis for law in the Territory. One distinctive feature of the Code in the post-War culture was its Bill of Rights that guaranteed rights to "all persons" regardless of citizenship. Many of the provisions of the Code appear in New Mexico's current laws.

(1794-1848) Sometimes as "Kearney". Served in the War of 1812; helped organize cavalry in the West and instituted the practice of military escorts for emigrants headed westward. During the Mexican-American War led the Army of the West to occupy New Mexico. Organized a joint civil/military government there, then proceeded to California where his forces joined with those already contesting that area with Mexican forces. After Mexican capitulation, Kearny became military governor of California. While not solely his creation, the Kearny Code became the basis for many of the laws in the territories gained after the War.

(1895-1954) George Kelly, nicknamed "Machine Gun" for his fondness for the Thompson submachine gun. Nationally infamous outlaw / gangster / bootlegger who spent time in the New Mexico State Penitentiary in 1929 for smuggling alcohol onto the reservations.

(183?-1870) Owner of a roadhouse between Elizabethtown and Taos. Notorious for killing and robbing those who stayed the night, sometimes tossing their bodies in the cellar. His wife escaped and told of his crimes, leading to his arrest; while he was awaiting trial area residents including outlaws Clay Allison and Davy Crockett removed him from the jail and dragged him through the streets until dead.

(1863-1901) Sometimes as "Ketcham", "Ketchem"; AKA: Tom Ketchum. Thomas E. "Black Jack" Ketchum became infamous around New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas as an outlaw and the leader of a gang that robbed post offices and trains. His gang, which included his brother Sam Ketchum, sometimes swapped members with the Hole in the Wall Gang out of Wyoming. After his brother died due to injuries gained in a robbery attempt in 1899, Black Jack attempted to rob the same train in the same way a few weeks later and received injuries which resulted in his capture and the loss of an arm. He was hanged in Clayton New Mexico; due to the inexperience of his hangmen, his body was decapitated as it fell. (Note: Black Jack Ketchum's career and reputation sometimes gets blended with that of New Mexico outlaw Black Jack Christian.)

(1892-1964) Nicknamed "The Flying Paper Boy of the Guadalupes" for air-dropping newspapers and other materials to ranchers in the rugged Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. He died at age 71 in a crash. A monument to Kindel is along NM137 near the ghost town of Queen.

(1922- ) Born in Santa Rita, raised in California; baseball player mainly with the Pittsburgh Pirates. For seven years straight hit more home runs than any other player in the National League. Served as baseball broadcaster, especially for the New York Mets.

See Pat Coghlan

See Three King's Day

(1928- ) As an officer from Holloman Air Force Base set several high-altitude parachute records, first with Project Manhigh and then with Project Excelsior in 1960 jumping from an altitude of 102,800 feet, the highest such jump until 2012. Kittinger was also monitor pilot for John Stapp's rocket sled runs, and was involved with the Project Stargazer high-altitude balloon experiments. After retiring from the Air Force, worked with private corporations and NASA in other high-altitude development.

(1867-1937) AKA: Hastiin Klah. Born near Fort Wingate New Mexico. Noted Navajo artist, medicine man, singer, and weaver. Co-founder, with friend Mary Cabot Wheelwright, of the House of Navajo Religion, later the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art and eventually known as the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe. Worked with Wheelwright to record and preserve Navajo ceremonial practices and art. Considered controversial by some Navajo traditionalists for incorporating sand painting imagery into weavings. Author, as told to Wheelwright, of Navajo Creation Myth - the Story of the Emergence.

Large needle of tuff in southwestern New Mexico, overlooking the Chino Copper Mine. The pinnacle, which resembles in profile a nun kneeling in prayer, has been the subject of tourist postcards and there are several legends associated with it. Over the decades several pieces have tumbled from it, slightly altering the appearance. There was once an overlook along the nearby highway just to best view the Nun, but the expansion of the mine's open pit has shifted the course of the road (and completely devoured the town of Santa RIta, which grew up to house the mine's workers).

"Cave house" built into the side of a sandstone cliff in the Four Corners region, operated as a bed and breakfast. The accommodations, seventy feet below the top of the cliffs, are reached via ramps and steps cut into the rock and feature a full kitchen and bathroom and two porches. The distinctive bed & breakfast has been featured on national media and is sometimes booked up months in advance.

AKA: El Cucuy. New Mexico "boogeyman" which since 1992 has been burned in effigy on the last Sunday of October, in Albuquerque's South Valley. Similar to Zozobra, El Kookooee is blamed for the ills of the world, which are carried away when he is burned. The 30-foot-tall effigy is different every year and designed by schoolchildren, and decorated with large paper or cardboard leaves donated by participants. Notes of woes people wish to see burned away are added to the blaze.