50 Fun Facts About Santa Fe

What does 'Santa Fe' mean in English?

The full original name was La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the United States, founded in which year?

That makes it older than Plymouth Colony and the earliest European settlement west of the Mississippi.

Santa Fe holds which distinction among US state capitals?

It sits at 6,998 feet in the foothills of the mountains east of town.

What is Santa Fe's elevation?

The thin, dry air gives the city a daily temperature swing of more than 25 °F in every month.

Which mountain range rises behind Santa Fe?

Their name, 'Blood of Christ', refers to the red glow of the peaks at sunset.

What was Santa Fe's population at the 2020 census?

It is only the fourth-most populous city in New Mexico, well behind Albuquerque.

Which Spanish governor founded Santa Fe and made it the provincial capital in 1610?

Oñate had colonized the region in 1598 but was banished for his cruelty toward the Pueblo peoples.

Who led the first Spanish colonization of the region in 1598?

His first capital was San Juan de los Caballeros near modern Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, north of Santa Fe.

In what year did the Pueblo Revolt drive the Spanish out of Santa Fe?

The Pueblo peoples governed from the Palace of the Governors for twelve years until the Spanish returned.

Who retook Santa Fe for Spain in 1692 in the so-called 'Bloodless Reconquest'?

The label was criticized as inaccurate even at the time; the Fiestas de Santa Fe commemorate the event.

The Palace of the Governors served as New Mexico's seat of government until what year?

Construction began under Peralta around 1610, making it the oldest capitol building in the US.

Beginning in the 1820s, the Santa Fe Trail linked the city to which US frontier state?

The route was pioneered in 1821, just as Mexico's independence opened trade with the United States.

Who pioneered the overland trail to Santa Fe in 1821?

He departed with Joseph R. Walker just as Mexico won independence and opened trade with the US.

The trail's eastern terminus was which town?

The route connected the American frontier with what was then a provincial capital of Mexico.

Which US general marched into Santa Fe in 1846 to claim New Mexico?

His Army of the West numbered about 1,700; the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made it official in 1848.

In which year did New Mexico become a state, with Santa Fe as capital?

It was the 47th state; the city then had roughly 5,000 residents and adopted a City Beautiful plan.

Which railroad bypassed the city, routing its main line through Lamy instead?

A branch line reached the city in 1880, but the snub triggered a long economic decline.

Which Confederate general flew his flag over Santa Fe for a few days in March 1862?

He withdrew after Union troops destroyed his supply trains at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.

Which French-born bishop built Santa Fe's St. Francis Cathedral?

He arrived in 1851 and shaped Catholicism across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado until 1888.

In what style was St. Francis Cathedral built, in contrast to the adobe around it?

It was built of yellow limestone by French architects and Italian masons starting in 1869.

The Loretto Chapel is famous for which feature?

The 'Miraculous Stair' makes two full turns to the choir loft with no central support; nuns credited Saint Joseph.

The Loretto Chapel's design was modeled on which Paris landmark?

Architect Projectus Mouly's Gothic Revival chapel used sandstone and stained glass imported via the Santa Fe Trail.

San Miguel Chapel, built around 1610, is often called the oldest what in the lower 48?

It was rebuilt twice, the second time in 1710 after the Pueblo Revolt.

New Mexico's State Capitol in Santa Fe is nicknamed what?

It is the only circular state capitol in the US and one of just eleven without a dome.

New Mexico's Roundhouse State Capitol in Santa Fe was built in which years?

Designed by W.C. Kruger, it was the newest state capitol after Hawaii's and Florida's when it opened.

A 1957 ordinance requires new buildings in historic districts to use which styles?

Many homes are stucco over concrete block, a look locals call 'faux-dobe'.

What are the exposed roof beams that poke through adobe walls called?

Canales are the rain spouts cut into parapet walls; both features were borrowed from old adobe homes and churches.

Which giant effigy, 'Old Man Gloom', is burned each year before the Fiestas de Santa Fe?

People stuff the 50-foot marionette with written 'glooms' to burn away the year's worries.

Which artist created the first Old Man Gloom effigy in his backyard in 1924?

He gave the rights to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe in 1964, which still builds and burns it at Fort Marcy Park.

Roughly how tall is the Old Man Gloom effigy?

The 2007 version was certified by Guinness as the world's largest marionette at 49 feet 10 inches.

The Fiestas de Santa Fe have been held since which year?

They commemorate the 1692 reconquest and were revamped as a history pageant in 1912.

Santa Fe Opera presents how many operas each summer season?

The founder opened it on July 3, 1957 with Madama Butterfly in a house seating nearly 500.

Who founded the Santa Fe Opera in 1956?

The New York conductor ran it until 2000, the longest general directorship in US opera history.

What is the name of Meow Wolf's flagship Santa Fe installation?

The 20,000-square-foot space opened in 2016 with early backing from a famous fantasy author.

Which fantasy author originally backed the Meow Wolf art collective?

The Game of Thrones writer lives in Santa Fe; Meow Wolf later opened in Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas and Houston.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum opened in which year?

It opened eleven years after the artist's death and also runs sites in Abiquiu.

In 2005 Santa Fe became the first US city admitted to which UNESCO program?

It was designated a Creative City in Crafts and Folk Art; the city counts more than 250 galleries.

Which occupation forms a bigger share of Santa Fe's workforce than in any other US city?

One-tenth of all employment in the city is tied to artistic and cultural industries.

Santa Fe's street with the densest concentration of art galleries is called what?

It runs east of the Plaza and draws international collectors.

The Santa Fe Indian Market draws roughly how many visitors each August?

About 1,000 Native American and First Nations artists show work at the SWAIA-run market.

The August art market began in 1922 under what name?

The Museum of New Mexico's director started it three years after launching the modern Fiesta.

Since 1943, Santa Fe has served as the gateway to which national laboratory?

The lab is a 45-minute drive away and its scientists later helped found the Santa Fe Institute.

The Santa Fe Institute, founded in 1984, studies what?

Founders included a Nobel-winning physicist and several scientists from the nearby national lab.

Which Nobel-winning physicist co-founded the Santa Fe Institute?

All the founders except Gell-Mann and David Pines were scientists at the nearby weapons lab.

How is Santa Fe's climate classified under the Köppen system?

Winters are cool and dry, summers hot, with monthly averages from 30 °F in December to 70 °F in July.

Which commuter train service connects Santa Fe to Albuquerque?

The Santa Fe extension opened December 17, 2008, using curvy Santa Fe Southern track from Lamy.

Which nickname is promoted by the state tourism department for Santa Fe?

The other three were 1800s nicknames, despite Coronado's expedition never reaching the area.

What did the Tewa people call the Santa Fe site, meaning 'white shell water place'?

The Navajo name Yootó means 'bead water place'; Tewa villagers lived near the Plaza site after 900 AD.

Which liberal arts school known for its Great Books program has a Santa Fe campus?

The city also hosts the Institute of American Indian Arts, a tribal college for Native American arts.

Which archaeologist founded the School of American Research in Santa Fe in 1907?

He also founded the Museum of New Mexico and revived the Fiesta in 1919.