New Mexico |
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| Entered the Union: January 6, 1912 (47) | Capital: Santa Fe | |
| Origin of Name: From Mexico, “place of Mexitli,” an Aztec god or leader | ||
| State Nickname: Land of Enchantment | State Bird: Roadrunner | |
| State Motto: Crescit eundo (It grows as it goes) | State Tree: Piñon | |
| State Gem: Turquoise | State Flower: Yucca | |
| State Song:“O Fair New Mexico" | State Animal: Black Bear | |
| National Parks: 3 • National Forests: 5 • State Parks: 35 | ||
| Famous for: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Gila Cliff Dwellings | ||
| Famous New Mexicans: William "Billy the Kid" Bonney (outlaw), Ralph Bunche (Nobel Peace Prize winner), Glen Campbell (singer), Kit Carson (army scout), John Chisum (cattle king), John Denver (singer), Bo Diddley (blues guitarist), Patrick Garrett (lawman), Sid Guitierrez (astronaut), William Hanna (animator), Conrad Hilton (hotel executive), Nancy Lopez (golfer), Demi Moore (actress), Al & Bobby Unser (auto racers) | ||
| Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | ||
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| Native Americans have been living in New Mexico for some twenty thousand years. The Pueblo, Apache, Comanche, Navajo, and Ute peoples were in the New Mexico region when Spanish settlers arrived. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Spain claimed the area in 1539. Soon settlers began migrating north from Mexico. Missionaries built missions to teach the Indians Spanish culture and Christianity. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In 1680, the Indians massacred hundreds of Spaniards and forced the rest back to Mexico. Spain returned and recaptured New Mexico in 1692. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and New Mexico came under Mexican control. This same year U.S. traders opened the Santa Fe Trail, connecting Missouri with Santa Fe. In 1848, the United States won the Mexican War and New Mexico became a U.S. territory. | |||||||||||||||||||
| White Sands National Monument is a desert, not of sand, but of gleaming white gypsum crystals. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each October Albuquerque hosts the world's largest international hot air balloon fiesta. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In 1969, Oryx were introduced onto New Mexico by the Game and Fish Department (also Ibex and Barbary Sheep). The current population of Oryx is now estimated at around 2,000. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The world's first Atomic Bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945 on the White Sands Testing Range near Alamogordo. The bomb was designed and manufactured in Los Alamos. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Since New Mexico's climate is so dry 3/4 of the roads are left unpaved. The roads don't wash away. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the United States, was founded in 1610. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Hatch is known as the "Green Chile capital of the world". | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe is the oldest government building in the nation. The Spanish built it as part of a fortress during the winter of 1609-1610. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Santa Fe is the highest capital city in the United States at 7,000 feet above sea level. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Santa Fe is the oldest state capitol in the nation. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Albuquerque hosts the world’s largest hot air balloon festival the first weekend in October. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The leaves of the Yucca, New Mexico's state flower, can be used to make rope, baskets and sandals. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Located in a collapsed lave tube, the Bandera Ice Cave’s temperature never rises above freezing. At the bottom of the 75 foot deep cave, the ice floor is 20 feet thick. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Blue Hole, an 81-foot deep natural artesian spring in Santa Rosa, is a favorite location for scuba divers. It's 4,600 feet above sea level, making the bottom an equivalent of nearly 100 feet of depth in the ocean. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In some isolated villages in New Mexico , such as Truchas, Chimayo', and Coyote in the north-central part of the state, some descendants of Spanish conquistadors still speak a form of 16th century Spanish used nowhere else in the world today. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Santo Domingo Mission between Albuquerque and Santa Fe was built fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Standing on the crest of 8,182-foot Capulin Volcano in Union County, you can see five states: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Kansas! | |||||||||||||||||||
| The first gold strike in the Old West was made by Jose Ortiz in 1832 south of Santa Fe, | |||||||||||||||||||
| More than 500, 100-million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been identified and preserved at Clayton Lake State Park. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In 1950 the little cub that became the National Fire Safety symbol, Smokey the Bear, was found trapped in a tree when his home in Lincoln National Forest was destroyed by fire. | |||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico has five National Forests including the state’s largest, 3.3 million acre Gila National Forest which includes the Gila Wilderness. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Tens of thousands of bats live in the Carlsbad Caverns. The largest chamber of Carlsbad Caverns is more than 10 football fields long and about 22 stories high. | |||||||||||||||||||
| About one in four families in New Mexico speak Spanish at home. | |||||||||||||||||||
| At Lake Valley, miners discovered silver in veins so pure that the metal could be sawn off in blocks, instead of having to be dug out by traditional methods. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The father of modern rocketry Massachusetts scientist Robert Goddard whom some called a crackpot, came to New Mexico in 1930 to test rocket-ship models. From those humble beginnings the aerospace industry became one of New Mexico's leading industries. | |||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico has two designated State Vegetables - Chile and frijoles. New Mexico also has an officially designated State Question -- "Red or green?" (referring to chile preference) | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Navajo, the Nation's largest Native American Group, have a reservation that covers 14 million Acres. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Many Navajo Indians from New Mexico fought in World War II. They used the Navajo language in code to send messages the Japanese could not understand. | |||||||||||||||||||
| After WWII Los Alamos and Albuquerque had many new laboratories. Hundreds of highly educated Scientists and Engineers moved in the state. New Mexico soon had a higher percentage of people with Ph.D.s than any other state. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Grants, New Mexico is known as the "Uranium capital of the world," having produced the bulk of the nation's uranium supply during the post-World War II and Cold War era. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Inscription Rock, also known as El Morro, is a great monolith of sandstone, southwest of Grants, on which everyone from Indians and conquistadors to missionaries and outlaws have carved their names. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Whitewater Canyon served as a sanctuary for what Indian Chief Geronimo and a hideout for Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. | |||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico's Ethnic Roots: Spanish 24%, Mexican 18.1%, German 9.9%, Native American 9.5%, English 7.6%. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Religion in New Mexico: 77% Christian (41% Catholic, 35% Protestant), 19% No Religion, 4% LDS, 1% Other Religions | |||||||||||||||||||
| Silver City is the boyhood home of William Bonney, who gained notoriety as Billy the Kid. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Taos Pueblo, two miles north of Taos, is one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in the United States. People still live in some of its 900 year old buildings. | |||||||||||||||||||
| When Lew Wallace served as territorial Governor, he wrote the popular historical novel Ben-Hur. First published in 1880, it was made into a movie in 1959. |
At a Glance
New Mexico Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | January 6, 1912 (47) |
|---|---|
| Capital | Santa Fe |
| Nickname | Land of Enchantment |
| State Bird | Roadrunner |
| State Flower | Yucca |
| State Tree | Piñon |
New for 2026
More New Mexico Facts & Photos
A thousand years ago, Chaco Canyon was the ceremonial heart of the ancestral Puebloan world. Its greatest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, rose four to five stories and held more than 600 rooms. Chaco Culture National Historical Park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
New Mexico adopted the little dinosaur Coelophysis as its state fossil in 1981. A single quarry at Ghost Ranch has yielded hundreds of skeletons of the slender predator, apparently buried together by a flash flood.
Shiprock rises nearly 1,583 feet above the desert plain of the Navajo Nation, the eroded throat of a volcano that solidified about 27 million years ago. The Navajo call it Tsé Bit'a'í, the "rock with wings."
In 2013, about 242,000 acres of the Taos Plateau became Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, where the Rio Grande runs through a basalt gorge 800 feet deep.
On the Plains of San Agustin, the 27 dish antennas of the Very Large Array, each 82 feet across, ride rails in a giant Y. Working together since 1980, they give radio astronomers the resolving power of a single antenna 22 miles wide.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, built in 1880 to serve Rocky Mountain mining camps, is America's highest and longest coal-fired narrow-gauge steam railroad. Jointly owned by New Mexico and Colorado since 1970, its trains still cross 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass.
New Mexico's flag, adopted in 1925, pairs the ancient red sun symbol of Zia Pueblo with the gold of old Spain. The four rays on each side stand for the four directions, the four seasons, the four times of day, and the four stages of life.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
John Adams
"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: 'It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
July 4, 1821
President
James Madison
"Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift [James 1:17] we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."
President
Charles Carroll
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."
Signer of Declaration of Independence
John F. Kennedy
"My fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
Jan. 20, 1961
President
Theodore Roosevelt
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight."
President
Benjamin Franklin
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."
Founding Father
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
Civil Rights Leader
George Washington
"It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his protection and favor."
President
Thomas Jefferson
"It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."
President
Last updated: July 2026