NMPedia

Nickname for the town of Santa Rosa, due to its having numerous artesian lakes including the Blue Hole. Other nicknames include "The City of Natural Lakes" and "The Scuba Capital of the Southwest."

AKA: Karen F. Ochoa. Abiquiu. Film writer, co-producer, assistant director, director, documentary producer. Founder of New Mexico Women in Film. Credits on a wide range of television and film projects including The Milagro Beanfield War and Georgia O'Keeffe. In 2020 inducted into the New Mexico Film and Television Hall of Fame.

New Mexico state song, officially selected in 1917. The song was written by Elizabeth Garrett, and was written as a tango. John Philip Sousa made an arrangement of it in 1928. The official Spanish language state song is Así Es Nuevo Méjico; the official bilingual state song is Mi Lindo Nuevo Mexico.

Created in 1824 as a division of the U.S. War Department, transferred in 1849 to the Dept. of the Interior, renamed to Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947. The Office was responsible for licensing trade with Native Americans, designating Indian Territories, abjudicating sovereignty issues, and later instituted boarding schools where tribal children were raised away from their cultures.

See Warm Springs Reservation

Formed in 1926 to preserve Santa Fe's history and identity, and to help guide the growth and development of the city. One of the founders was novelist Ruth Laughlin.

(1841-1881) AKA: The Big Indian. Robert A. Olinger (occasionally, Ollenger). Player in the Lincoln County War, famously killed by Billy the Kid. Like many "gunslingers" of the day, Olinger worked both sides of the law, sometimes serving as marshal.

(1928-1987) Educator and civil rights activist. First woman and first Latina to graduate from the law school at Notre Dame; an annual award is presented there in her name. Served as director of UNM's Institute for Social Research and Development and professor of law at UNM's Law School. Served as director of planning for the State of New Mexico. In 1977, nominated by President Jimmy Carter to be director of the Community Services Administration. Created Channel 41 in Albuquerque, the first Spanish-language television station in the U.S.

(1550-1626) Ordered by King Philip II to colonize in New Spain, in 1598 claimed the area including New Mexico for Spain. Founded the province of Santa Fé de Nuevo México and served as Governor-General. Noted for his firm rule of the area including harsh treatment of Native Americans, most famously his suppression of Acoma Pueblo unrest by enslaving the population and having the left foot of every man over 25 amputated. Led several expeditions to explore the Southwest.
State Historian webpage on Juan de Oñate

Long-running column in New Mexico magazine collecting reports that New Mexico is sometimes not recognized as one of the United States. Common elements include shippers designating parcels to New Mexico as requiring international postage, major NM tourist attractions being identified as being in other states, and location apps identifying NM addresses as "outside of area".

See Paula Angel

American military operation to bring German scientists to the United States after World War II. Many of those scientists, involved with rocket and aviation research, were brought (with their families) to Holloman Air Force Base and the nearby White Sands Proving Ground where tests and development continued on captured German rocket techology including the V-2. The majority of these expatriate Germans, who had worked with Werner von Braun, moved to Huntsville Alabama in the late 1950s to become part of the NASA program there.

AKA: Project Plowshare, Plowshare Program. US government program, 1958-1975, to test the use of nuclear weapons for peaceful constructive purposes ranging from large-scale excavation to underground hydraulic fracturing. Of the 27 detonations due to the program, two occurred in New Mexico: Project GNOME (1961), the first test in the program, near Carlsbad, to test the production of underground steam for energy generation; and Project Gasbuggy (1967) near Farmington, to test if underground detonations could fracture rock to facilitate natural gas extraction.

(1904-1967) Julius Robert Oppenheimer. Physicist; scientific head of the laboratory at Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer oversaw the selection and recruitment of top scientists for the Project, and was a primary in the selection of Los Alamos as the site for the laboratory. (Though on the faculty of Cal Tech, Oppenheimer also had a ranch in New Mexico not far from Los Alamos.) Subject of the 2023 biopic, Oppenheimer.
State Historian webpage on J. Robert Oppenheimer

Lamy; a Harvey House and Lunchroom at the AT&SF stop there. Architect Louis Curtiss with interiors by Mary Jane Colter; an example of the Pueblo Revival style. Famous guests include William Jennings Bryan and Buffalo Bill Cody. Built in 1910, closed in 1938, demolished 1943.

(1926-2005) Frank Valencia Ortiz y Barbero. Born in Santa Fe, of a many-generation NM family. Graduated from Santa Fe High School, taught at UNM. Served variously as US Ambassador to Barbados, Guatemala, Peru, and Argentina. Retired to Santa Fe, where he worked with the New Mexico History Museum and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Autobiography: Ambassador Ortiz : lessons from a life of service.

Spanish Governor of New Mexico during the Pueblo Revolt, serving from 1678 to 1682.
State Historian webpage on Antonio de Otermín

(1859-1944) Served as Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1897 to 1906. Supported statehood. Author of several works, including My life on the frontier, 1864-1882 and The real Billy the Kid : with new light on the Lincoln County War.

(AKA: Nina Otero, born María Adelina Isabel Emilia Otero.) (1881-1965) Born in La Costancia near Los Lunas; longtime resident around Santa Fe including upon a ranch she homesteaded. Student at St. Vincent's Academy in Albuquerque; eventually served as Superintendent for Public Schools in Santa Fe County. Noted figure in the Suffragist movement in New Mexico. Chair of the New Mexico Republican State Committee’s women’s division and as chair of the Legislative Committee of the New Mexico Federation of Women’s Clubs. First Hispanic woman to run for Congress. Honored in 2022 by being featured on a US quarter. Author of Old Spain in our Southwest, featuring stories from her childhood in Los Lunas.

1943 Western famously starring Jane Russell; scenes shot around Socorro. The story involves Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, and Pat Garrett.

See Kearny Code