New Mexico

 The State of New Mexico''' is a  in the  of the. Nothing good comes from New Mexico (except Brian Urlacher). Over its relatively long history it has been inhabited by s and has been part of the   of, part of , and a. Among s, New Mexico has simultaneously the highest percentage of Americans (comprised of both recent immigrants and descendants of Spanish s) and the second-highest percentage of  after  (mostly  and  peoples). As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Spanish, Mexican, and American Indian cultural influences. The climate of the state is highly arid and its territory is mostly covered by and. At a of 15 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth most sparsely inhabited U.S. State.

Geography




The state's total area is 121,66 square miles. The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W with the state of, and three miles (5 km) west of 103° W longitude with. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the states of  and  make up the western third, with Chihuahua making up about 90% of that. The western border with runs along the  longitude. The  parallel forms the northern boundary with. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and come together at the  in the northwestern corner of New Mexico. The fact that New Mexico, a large state has little water. It's srface water area is only about 250 Suqare miles. New Mexico's average precipitation rate is only 15 inches a year.

The ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken s to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexico's arid image, heavily ed mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, especially towards the north. The, the southernmost part of the , run roughly north-south along the east side of the in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexico's rivers are the, , , , and. The Rio Grande is the third longest river in the U.S. It's also the state's main river.

, s,, , and desert grasses cover the broad, semiarid plains that cover the southern portion of the state.

The Federal government protects millions of acres of New Mexico as s including:
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Other protected lands include the following national monuments:
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Visitors also frequent the surviving native pueblos of New Mexico. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant monies to the state. Other areas of geographical and scenic interest include and the. The lies in the southwest of the state.

History
The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the of. Indeed the culture is named for the New Mexico city where the first artifacts of this culture were discovered. Later inhabitants include s of the and the  cultures. By the time of European contact in the 1500s, the region was settled by the villages of the s and groups of, and.

assembled an enormous expedition at in 1540–1542 to explore and find the mystical  as described by  who had just arrived from his eight-year ordeal traveling from Florida to Mexico. Coronado's men found several mud baked pueblos in 1541, but found no rich cities of gold. Further widespread expeditions found no fabulous cities anywhere in the Southwest or Great Plains. A dispirited and now poor Coronado and his men began their journey back to Mexico leaving New Mexico behind.

Over 50 years after Coronado, founded the  colony on the Rio Grande in 1598, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico. Oñate pioneered the grandly named, "The Royal Road", as a 700 mile (1,100 km) trail from the rest of to his remote colony. Oñate was made the first governor of the new. The Native Americans at revolted against this Spanish encroachment but faced severe suppression. In 1609,, a later , established the settlement of at the foot of the. The city, along with most of the settled areas of the state, was abandoned by the Spanish for 12 years (1680-1692) as a result of the successful. After the death of the Pueblo leader, restored the area to Spanish rule. While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, the returning settlers founded the old town of in 1706, naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, the Duke of Alburquerque.

Mexican province
As a part of, the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent following the 1810-1821. During the brief 26 year period of nominal Mexican control, Mexican authority and investment in New Mexico were weak, as their often conflicted government had little time or interest in a New Mexico that had been poor since the Spanish settlements started. Some Mexican officials, saying they were wary of encroachments by the growing United States, and wanting to reward themselves and their friends, began issuing enormous s (usually free) to groups of Mexican families as an incentive to populate the province.

Small trapping parties from the United States had previously reached and stayed in Santa Fe, but the Spanish authorities officially forbade them to trade. Trader returned to the United States in November 1821 with news that independent Mexico now welcomed trade through Santa Fe.

left, for Santa Fe early in 1822 with the first party of traders. The trading company, headed by the brothers  and  and, was one of the most successful in the West. They had their first trading post in the area in 1826, and, by 1833, they had built their adobe fort and trading post called on the. This fort and trading post, located about 200 miles (322 km) east of, was the only place settled by whites along the Santa Fe trail before it hit Taos. The follows the route of the old trail, with many sites marked or restored. The from  to  was primarily used by Hispanics, white traders and ex-trappers living part of the year in or near Santa Fe. Started in about 1829, the trail was an arduous 2,400 (3862 km) mile round trip pack train sojourn that extended into Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California and back, allowing only one hard round trip per year. The trade consisted primarily of blankets and some trade goods from Santa Fe being traded for horses in California.

The claimed the mostly vacant territory north and east of the  when it successfully seceded from Mexico in 1836. New Mexico authorities captured a group of Texans who embarked an to assert their claim to the province in 1841.

American territory
Following the, from 1846-1848 and the in 1848, Mexico forcibly ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the  and  to the United States of America in exchange for an end to hostilities, the evacuation of Mexico City and many other areas under American control. Mexico also received $15 million cash, plus the assumption of slightly more than $3 million in outstanding Mexican debts.

The Congressional halted a bid for statehood under a proposed antislavery constitution. Texas transferred eastern New Mexico to the federal government, settling a lengthy boundary dispute. Under the compromise, the American government established the on,. The territory, which included most of the future states of, New Mexico, and parts of , officially established its capital at in 1851.

The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and southern below the  in the mostly desert  of 1853. This purchase was desired when it was found that a much easier route for a proposed transcontinental railroad was located slightly south of the Gila river. The Southern Pacific built the second transcontinental railroad though this purchased land in 1881.

During the, troops from  briefly occupied the Rio Grande valley as far north as Santa Fe. troops from the re-captured the territory in March  at the. The was split off as a separate territory on,.

There were centuries of between the, the  and Spanish-Mexican settlements in the territory. It took the federal government another 25 years after the Civil War to exert control over both the civilian and Native American populations of the territory. This started in 1864 when the Navajo were sent on to Bosque Redondo Reservation and then returned to most of their lands in 1868. The Apache were moved to various reservations and continued until  finally surrendered in 1886.

The railway encouraged the great cattle boom of the 1880s and the development of accompanying cow towns. The cattle barons could not keep out sheepherders, and eventually homesteaders and squatters overwhelmed the cattlemen by fencing in and plowing under the "sea of grass" on which the cattle fed. Conflicting land claims led to bitter quarrels among the original Spanish inhabitants, cattle ranchers, and newer homesteaders. Despite destructive overgrazing, ranching survived and remains a mainstay of the New Mexican economy.

Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico, on the middle Rio Grande, was incorporated in 1889.

Statehood
admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on,. The admission of the neighboring State of on,  completed the contiguous 48 states.

The United States government built the in 1943 amid the. Top-secret personnel there developed the, first detonated at in the desert on the  between  and  on ,.

Albuquerque expanded rapidly after the war. High-altitude experiments near in 1947 reputedly led to persistent but unproven suspicions that the government captured and concealed extraterrestrial corpses and equipment. The state quickly emerged as a leader in nuclear, solar, and geothermal energy research and development. The, founded in 1949, carried out nuclear research and special weapons development at south of Albuquerque and at.

Located in the remote the  (WIPP) is located 26 miles (42 km) southeast of. Here nuclear wastes are buried deep in carved out salt formation disposal rooms mined 2,150 feet (655 m) underground in a 2,000-foot (610 m) thick salt formation that has been stable for more than 200 million years. WIPP began operations on,.

Demographics
(See also and )  As of 2005, New Mexico has an estimated population of 1,928,384, which is an increase of 25,378, or 1.3%, from the prior year and an increase of 109,338, or 6.0%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 74,397 people (that is 143,617 births minus 69,220 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 37,501 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 27,974 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 9,527 people.

The of New Mexico is located in, in the town of.

As of 2004, 27% of the residents of the state were foreign-born, and more than 2% of state residents were illegal immigrants.

According to the Census Bureau, 1.5% of the population is Multiracial/Mixed-Race, a population larger than both the Asian and NHPI population groups. New Mexico has the highest percentage of people of ancestry of any state, some recent immigrants and others descendants of  s. The state also has a large  population, third behind  and. Hispanics of colonial ancestry, along with recent Mexican immigrants, are present in most of the state, especially northern, central, and northeastern New Mexico. Mexican immigrants, legal or illegal, are prominent in southern parts of the state. Descendants of settlers, mostly of Irish and English descent, from other parts of United States live in west, southwest, and southeast areas and main cities of the state. The northwestern corner of the state is primarily occupied by Native Americans, of which Navajos and Pueblos are the largest tribes. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong American, Colonial Spanish, Mexican, and Native American cultural influences.

Ancestry groups
According to the U.S. Census, the largest ancestry groups in New Mexico are:

Many are mixtures of all of these groups and others.

7.2% of New Mexico's population was reported as under 5 years of age, 28% under 18, and 11.7% were 65 or older. Females make up approximately 50.8% of the population.

Languages
According the, 28.76% of the population aged 5 and over speak at home, while 4.07% speak.

New Mexico is commonly thought to have Spanish as an official language alongside, due to the widespread usage of Spanish in the state. Although the original state constitution of 1912 provided for a temporarily bilingual government, New Mexico has no official language. Nevertheless, the state government publishes election ballots and a driver's manual in both languages.

January 6, 1912 Statehood Proclamation signed by President Taft

The constitution provided that, for the following twenty years, all laws passed by the legislature be published in both Spanish and English, and thereafter as the legislature should provide.

Prior to 1967, notices of statewide and county elections were required to be printed in English and "may be printed in Spanish." Additionally, many legal notices today are required to be published in both English and Spanish.

In 1995, New Mexico adopted a "State Bilingual Song," titled "."

Religion
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Catholics of any. In comparison to other s, and like many other states in the region, New Mexico has a higher-than-average percentage of people who claim no religion.
 * – 81%
 * – 41%
 * – 35%
 * – 10%
 * – 4%
 * – 3%
 * Other or general Protestant – 18%
 * – 4%
 * Other – 1%
 * Other – 1%
 * Non- – 19%

Within the hierarchy of the, New Mexico belongs to the  of Santa Fe. New Mexico has three s, one of which is an :

Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that New Mexico's total state product in 2003 was $57 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $24,995, 48th in the nation.


 * Cattle and dairy products top the list of major animal products of New Mexico. Cattle, sheep, and other livestock graze most of the arable land of the state throughout the year.
 * Limited, scientifically controlled dryland farming prospers alongside cattle ranching. Major crops include hay, nursery stock, pecans, and s. Hay and top the list of major dryland crops. Farmers also produce onions, potatoes, and dairy products. New Mexico specialty crops include s, s, and chiles.
 * The Carlsbad and Fort Sumner reclamation projects on the and the nearby Tucumcari project provide adequate water for limited irrigation in those areas of the desert and semiarid portions of the state where scant rainfall evaporates rapidly, generally leaving insufficient water supplies for large-scale irrigation.. Located upstream of, the  provides a major irrigation source for the extensive farming along the . Other irrigation projects use the  basin and the.
 * Lumber mills in process pinewood, the chief commercial wood of the rich timber economy of northern New Mexico.
 * Mineral extraction: New Mexicans derive much of their income from mineral extraction. Even before European exploration, Native Americans mined turquoise for making jewelry. After the Spanish introduced refined silver alloys they were incorporated into the Indian jewelry designs. New Mexico produces uranium ore, manganese ore, potash, salt, perlite, copper ore, beryllium, and tin concentrates. Natural gas, petroleum, and coal are also found in smaller quantities.
 * Industrial output, centered around Albuquerque, includes electric equipment; petroleum and coal products; food processing; printing and publishing; and stone, glass, and clay products. Defense-related industries include ordnance. Important high-technology industries include lasers, data processing, and solar energy.
 * Federal government spending is a major driver of the New Mexico economy. The federal government spends $2 on New Mexico for every dollar of tax revenue collected from the state. This rate of return is higher than any other state in the Union. .  The federal government also a major employer in New Mexico providing more than a quarter of the state's jobs.  Many of the federal jobs relate to the military; the state hosts three air force bases (,, and ); a testing range ; an army proving ground and maneuver range (Fort Bliss Military Reservation - McGregor Range);national observatories; and the technology labs of  (LANL) and  (SNL). SNL conducts electronic and industrial research on Kirtland AFB, on the southeast side of Albuquerque. These installations also include the missile and spacecraft proving grounds at . In addition to the military employers, other federal agencies such as the , the , and the  are a big part of the states rural employment base.
 * , the first company to develop commercial flights into space, has decided to put its world headquarters and mission control in  (25 miles (40 km) south of ); Virgin Galactic will have its inaugural launch of the  spaceship in, and will begin launching ordinary citizens in early.
 * Tourism provides many service jobs. For top attractions see:.
 * Private service economy in urban New Mexico, especially in Albuquerque, has boomed in recent decades. Since the end of, the city has gained an ever-growing number of retirees, especially among armed forces veterans and government workers. It is also increasingly gaining notice as a health conscious community, and contains many hospitals and a high per capita number of massage and alternative therapists. The warm, semiarid climate has contributed to the exploding population of Albuquerque, attracting new industries to New Mexico. By contrast, many heavily Native American and Hispanic rural communities remain economically underdeveloped.
 * Feature films have used New Mexico as a location since The Indian School in 1898. Financial incentives and construction of facilities (such as ) have created opportunities for locally based crew members with production reaching an all time high in 2007. As of the end of August 2007, 30 major projects have been filmed in the state, more than in any other calendar year in history.
 * Film and television post-production is also growing with companies such as establishing a permanent home in the state.

Taxes

 * Personal rates for New Mexico range from 1.7% to 5.3%, within 4 income brackets.
 * New Mexico does not have a . Instead, it has a 5% gross receipts tax. In almost every case, the business passes along the tax to the consumer, so that the gross receipts tax resembles a sales tax. The combined gross receipts tax rate varies throughout the state from 5.125% to 7.8125%. The total rate is a combination of all rates imposed by the state, counties and municipalities. Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, New Mexicans no longer pay taxes on most food purchases; however, there are exceptions to this program. Also beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the state eliminated the tax on certain medical services.
 * In general, taxes are not assessed on . Personal household effects, licensed vehicles, registered aircraft, certain personal property warehoused in the state and business personal property that is not depreciated for federal income tax purposes are exempt from the.
 * Property tax rates vary substantially and depend on the type of property and its location. The state does not assess tax on intangible personal property. There is no, but an inheritance may be reflected in a taxpayer's modified gross income and taxed that way.

Largest employers
(Not ranked by size)
 * Northern
 * (BLM)
 * Central
 * and PNM Electric & Gas Services
 * Presbyterian Health Plan
 * New Mexico State Government
 * Eastern
 * Supermarket
 * Navajo Refining Company
 * (NPS)
 * Allsup's Convenience Stores
 * Southwestern
 * (INS)
 * Lockheed Engineering and Sciences
 * Lovelace Healthcare
 * Bottling
 * Navajo Refining Company
 * (NPS)
 * Allsup's Convenience Stores
 * Southwestern
 * (INS)
 * Lockheed Engineering and Sciences
 * Lovelace Healthcare
 * Bottling
 * Lockheed Engineering and Sciences
 * Lovelace Healthcare
 * Bottling
 * Bottling


 * Source: Economic Research & Analysis Bureau New Mexico Department of Labor

Passenger trains
The is a  system serving the metropolitan area of. It began operation on July 14, 2006. The system is in Phase I of planned development, operating on an existing right of way from  to. Phase II, scheduled to open in 2008, will extend the line northward to.

Amtrak's passes through daily at stations in, , , , and , offering connections to , , , and. The only true transcontinental train in the United States, The makes stops three times a week in, and.

Law and government
The Constitution of 1912, as amended, dictates the form of government in the state.

Governor and Lieutenant Governor, both Democrats, won re-election in 2006. Their terms expire in January 2011. Governors serve a term of four years and may seek reelection. For a list of past governors, see.

Other Constitutional officers, all of whose terms also expire in January 2011, include Secretary of State, Attorney General , State Auditor , State Land Commissioner , and State Treasurer. Herrera, King, Balderos and Lewis are Democrats. Lyons is a Republican.

The is comprised of a 70-seat  and a 42-seat. The Democratic Party generally dominates state politics, and 50% of voters were registered Democrats, 33% were registered Republicans, and 17% did not affiliate with either of the two major parties.

New Mexico sent Democrat to the  until January 2013 and Republican  until January 2009. Republicans and  and Democrat  represent the state in the.

Politics
In national politics, New Mexico has given its to all but two Presidential election winners since statehood. In these exceptions, New Mexicans supported Republican President over Georgia Governor  in 1976, and Democratic Vice President  over Texas Governor  in 2000. No presidential candidate has won an absolute majority in New Mexico since in 1988, and no Democrat has done so since  in 1964. In the last four elections, New Mexico supported Democrats in 1992, 1996, and 2000. New Mexico was one of only two to support Al Gore in 2000 and George Bush in 2004 (the other state was ). In 2004, George W. Bush narrowly won the state's electoral votes by a margin of 0.8 percentage points with 49.8% of the vote. Democrat won in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, two northwestern counties, and by large margins in six counties of Northern New Mexico (Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Taos, Mora, San Miguel, and Guadalupe).

Major political parties in New Mexico include the Democratic and Republican Parties; minor qualified parties include the Green Party of New Mexico, the Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party.

Important cities and towns
New Mexico's largest cities are, , , , , and.

Military
In addition to the National Guard,New Mexico has a. It is also home to west of Clovis,  west of Alamogordo,  in Albuquerque, and  in Doña Ana and Otero counties.

State symbols
(*)The official state question refers to a question commonly heard at restaurants, where waiters will ask customers "red or green?" in reference to which kind of or "chile sauce" the customers wants served with their meal. This type of "chile" is usually distinct from, as the chile sauce is much finer and thicker and more commonly served with meals. Natives are more likely to refer to the chili sauce put on their meal as just plain "chile", and not as any form of "salsa" (which is usually reserved by natives in English for the salsa served with chips; everything else is just "chile"). If the diner wants both they can answer with, "Christmas" (or "Navidad" in ), in reference to the two traditional colors of &mdash;Red and Green.

(**)The second, SSN-779, is scheduled to be constructed.


 * In 1947, a craft of unknown origin crashed at or near . Allegedly, in 1949, another craft of unknown origin crashed near this city.
 * is known for a humming noise. See.

Culture
With a population of 134,000 in 1990, New Mexico still ranks as an important center of American Indian culture. Both the and  share  origin. The Apache and some live on federal reservations within the state. With 16 million acres (6,500,000 ), mostly in neighboring, the reservation of the ranks as the largest in the United States. The prehistorically agricultural live in pueblos scattered throughout the state, many older than any European settlement.

More than one-third of New Mexicans claim Hispanic origin, the vast majority of whom descend from the original Spanish colonists in the northern portion of the state. Most of the considerably fewer recent Mexican immigrants reside in the southern part of the state.

There are many New Mexicans who also speak a unique dialect of Spanish. has vocabulary often unknown to other Spanish speakers. Because of the historical isolation of New Mexico from other speakers of the Spanish language, the local dialect preserves some late medieval vocabulary considered archaic elsewhere, adopts numerous Native American words for local features, and contains much Anglicized vocabulary for American concepts and modern inventions.

The presence of various indigenous Native American communities, the long-established Spanish and Mexican influence, and the diversity of Anglo-American settlement in the region, ranging from pioneer farmers and ranchers in the territorial period to military families in later decades, make New Mexico a particularly heterogeneous state.

There are natural history and atomic museums in Albuquerque, which also hosts the famed.

A large artistic community thrives in. The capital city has museums of Spanish colonial, international folk, Navajo ceremonial, modern Native American, and other modern art. Another museum honors resident. Colonies for artists and writers thrive, and the small city teems with art galleries. In August, the city hosts the annual, which is the oldest and largest juried Native American art showcase in the world.

Performing arts include the renowned which presents five operas in repertory each July to August, the  held each summer, and the restored  a principal venue for many kinds of performances. The weekend after Labor Day boasts the burning of, a 50 ft (15 m) marionette, during.

Writer lived near  in the 1920s at the  where there is a shrine said to contain his ashes.

Tourism
New Mexico tourist attractions:
 * (Spanish Colonial living history museum)
 * art colony
 * , the, and ,
 * , formerly the grounds
 * , San Juan Basin
 * The Roswell UFO Festival, The First Weekend In July
 * Black Jack Ketchum in
 * Museum,
 * Historic, , and
 * Silver City was a mining town in the.
 * The is a  located near Silver City.
 * & Mission
 * & Mission
 * Socorro
 * El Camino Real Heritage Center
 * Mineralogical Museum
 * Quebradas Region
 * , formerly the grounds
 * , San Juan Basin
 * The Roswell UFO Festival, The First Weekend In July
 * Black Jack Ketchum in
 * Museum,
 * Historic, , and
 * Silver City was a mining town in the.
 * The is a  located near Silver City.
 * & Mission
 * & Mission
 * Socorro
 * El Camino Real Heritage Center
 * Mineralogical Museum
 * Quebradas Region
 * The Roswell UFO Festival, The First Weekend In July
 * Black Jack Ketchum in
 * Museum,
 * Historic, , and
 * Silver City was a mining town in the.
 * The is a  located near Silver City.
 * & Mission
 * & Mission
 * Socorro
 * El Camino Real Heritage Center
 * Mineralogical Museum
 * Quebradas Region
 * & Mission
 * Socorro
 * El Camino Real Heritage Center
 * Mineralogical Museum
 * Quebradas Region
 * El Camino Real Heritage Center
 * Mineralogical Museum
 * Quebradas Region
 * Quebradas Region

The state also has a number of s located on Native American Indian Reservations that attract thousands of visitors each year.

Notable New Mexicans
Many New Mexicans-those who were born, raised, or lived a significant period in New Mexico-have gained local, national, and international prominence. New Mexico Governor is currently one of the candidates for the 2008 United States presidential election. Notable businessmen include, founder of Amazon.com, and , founder of the Hilton Hotels Corporation. New Mexicans have also studied outer space, notably NASA astronauts and. Astronomer, a former New Mexico State University professor, discovered Pluto. Several New Mexicans have served roles in popular culture, including artist, animator , actor and actress , Pulitzer Prize winners  and , and rapper. Notorious criminals include outlaws and.