Its motto: It Grows as It Goes.

Its nicknames: Cactus State, Land of Enchantment, Spanish State.

A Blend of Three Cultures in the Vibrant Southwest

Before the Pilgrims stepped ashore in Massachusetts, European settlements were already thriving in what is now New Mexico. Spaniards following the Rio Grande north from Mexico had established missions and ranches in the river valley at the end of the 16th century. And in 1610 they founded the town of Santa Fe.

In the early 19th century, American settlers arrived in New Mexico and by 1850 the land was destined to become the 47th state. Despite Americanization, it is the original Spanish culture, blended with that of the Indians who occupied the land long before the Spaniards arrived, that gives New Mexico its special character.

The eastern third of the state, part of the Great Plains, is largely agricultural. From a high plateau in the north, mostly home for cattle ranches, the land slopes south to the wheat, barley, and cotton fields of the lower Pecos River valley. Herds of sheep share the valley with coyotes, badgers, and fleet-footed, antelope like pronghorns.

In the southernmost part of this region is one of the largest known caves in the world, now protected as a national park: Carlsbad Caverns. Southwest of the eastern plains lies a vast, arid region of stark, sun-blasted mountains and desert, split down the center by the Rio Grande. The muddy waters of the Rio Grande now bring life and industry to some isolated pockets of this desert. Huge, irrigated fields of chili peppers are grown around the tiny town of Hatch, groves of pecan trees shade the desert near Las Cruces.

 Sandwiched between the eastern plains and western deserts is the place where New Mexico's essential character resides - the mysteriously lovely Sangre de Cristo Mountains, jutting down from Colorado and named by the Spaniards after the blood-red color of the peaks at sunset. Two famous towns in the shadow of the mountains, Santa Fe and Taos, attract ever-growing numbers of visitors from around the world. Modern Taos traces its reputation as an artist's colony back to a group of New York painters and illustrators who began to move there just before the turn of the century. Since then, painters, sculptors, and writers have made the town their home. They are attracted by the special quality of the light, the isolation, the mix of cultures, and a terrain so dramatic that at times it seems almost unreal.

In 1912 New Mexico became the 47th state.

(”The USA Diversity of 50 States”)