Things to do / Travel Guide
The earliest people to call this region home were the Pueblo and Anasazi Native Americans who arrived in the area nearly two millennia ago. Over the years, they built cliff dwellings and mud houses, created their own indigenous artworks, and laid the foundation for the rich, cultural mosaic that the region displays today.
The first Europeans to “discover” the region were the Spanish explorers led by Nunez Cabeza de Vaca who arrived in 1532. The ensuing rumors of cities of gold that made their way back to Spain inspired further explorers, who crisscrossed the region in the fruitless search for lost cities, where the people ate off of gilded plates and the streets were paved with gold.
In 1540, Spanish explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado arrived with cavalry and clashed with the local Zunis, the first engagement between Europeans and Native Americans in the region. In 1599, Spain commissioned an expedition that founded the first capital of the area, San Juan de los Caballeros (now the city of Santa Fe), on the site of a Tewa village. The founding of this capital is viewed as the beginning of New Mexico's 400-plus years as a political entity.
The area was connected to the Spanish in Mexico by way of the 2,000-mile El Camino Real, the road that ran between Santa Fe and Mexico City. In 1610, Santa Fe became the new capital of the territory, and began to thrive.
The Spanish introduced the Pueblos to the wheel and to iron-age technology, showing them how to make sophisticated weapons, tools, and art. Domestication of horses, cattle, and sheep came next, and the Native American residents quickly employed the imported European technology brought by the Spanish.
Originally the Native Americans and the Spanish coexisted peacefully. However, in 1680, after several decades of violent, religious coercion by the Spanish and several bloody battles between the two sides, the Pueblo Revolt broke out across the colony. In August of that year, the northern Pueblo tribes rose up and fought the Spanish, burning missions and crops, and killing priests, farmers, and entire families. The Pueblos took control of Santa Fe and laid siege to the city, even going so far as to occupy the Palace of the Governors. The Pueblo tribes held the town for nearly 10 years before internal discord led them to abandon the area in droves. The area was eventually retaken by a force led by the infamous Ponce de Leon, who, over the course of four years, fought from pueblo to pueblo to reestablish Spanish rule.
The first Europeans to inhabit southern Colorado were the Spaniards who accompanied Coronado on his famed and fruitless journey for the golden seven cities of Cibola. Later, the area was claimed for Spain in 1708 by Juan De Ulaterri. Over the years, the area remained mainly uninhabited and unsettled, until the late 19th century.
By the early 1800s, Spain was falling from world prominence and its grip on its New World colonies was rapidly fading. In September of 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain and began heavy trading with the United States. The Santa Fe Trail that formed the path from Missouri to Santa Fe was born. Santa Fe continued to thrive from this trade and its interaction with the United States.
The United States declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846, and began advancing on Santa Fe. In August they entered the capital, and two years later the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ceding most of Mexico's holdings north of the current border of Mexico to the United States.
In 1878, a train of pioneers set out from Fort Garland, Colorado, to found a new town on the Rio Grande River in the San Luis Valley. The found a tranquil area on the river full of cottonwood trees, and named the spot “Alamosa,” Spanish for cottonwood. From this point on, the valley was settled and agricultural production continued to increase.
Over the years, the San Luis Valley of Colorado remained a rural, frontier area, mainly dependent on agriculture for its subsistence. In time, the area blossomed from not only an important agricultural center of the state, to a tourist destination in its own right, due to the Blanca Peak, the Rio Grande River, and the many majestic mountainsides that surround the valley.
With the introduction of the railroad to the region in the late 19th century, this region became far more interconnected with the other parts of the U.S., and the pioneering, wagon train, and stagecoach lifestyle disappeared forever.
Statehood came to New Mexico only in the early 20th century and over the coming decades this region continued to grow and develop, while still remaining detached from the centers of political and economic power in the country. During WWII, the Los Alamos area was home to the Manhattan Project and the development of the United States' nuclear weapons program. This industry has contributed greatly to the economy and development of the state.
Since the middle of the century, the entire region has gone through a prolonged population boom. Artists, entrepreneurs, and lately, young movers and shakers looking for riches in the region's high-tech industry have flooded the area. A casual glance at the bustling and sprawling suburbs outside of any major town in the region makes it quite clear that this is (and will remain) a dynamic and developing region.
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