Santa Fe

Santa Fe, NM
Today we visited the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. As you may recall Santa Fe was settled on about 1598 to 1600 and the Governor’s Palace was built in 1610 making it the oldest continuously operated State Government house in the nation. Santa Fe also has the distinction of having the oldest continuously operated church in the nation and the highest state capital in the country at 6900 ft in elevation.
This was the northernmost expansion of the Spanish empire in the west outside of California and at the end of El Camino Real or the King’s Road. As such it did not get much support from Spain (one wagon train every three years). So the new settlers had to be pretty much self reliant. They did bring with them many things to the new world. Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and donkeys in the way of farm animals. Wheat, barley, apple, cherry, and pear trees, and grapes. They had from the Indians corn, squash, potatoes and tomatoes.
Other than 13 years when the Pueblo Indians rebelled and threw them out from about 1782 to 1796 they occupied Santa Fe. In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain and New Mexico was now allowed to trade with the US. The Santa Fe Trail was started from St. Louis, MO to Santa Fe, NM and goods were traded with the American wagon trains bearing needed items such as cotton cloth, and farm goods.
This may have led to the US occupation of New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona in 1849 less than 30 years after independence from Spain.
All this time the Governor’s Mansion in Santa Fe was the capital of the New Mexico Territories. One of the US governors a Lewis Wallace Wrote “Ben Hur” while here in office.
At that time the Governor’s Palace was about 5 times its present size covering some 5 blocks long and 4 blocks with a large central courtyard. This was a building designed for defense and had a military garrison, stables, a hospital and all government offices in it. In front of it was the Central Plaza and on the right the Cathedral. All that happened in Santa Fe happed right here.
After our tour we strolled around the many artists studios here in Santa Fe. I think that every other building in the central core of this city and then some is an artists studio. You can not help but stumble onto bronzes, paintings, jewelry, and anything else an artist could conceivably create. It was a wonderful way to climax our stay here in the capital of New Mexico.
Tomorrow we head south for the Carlsbad Caverns. My understanding is that we are still in time to observe the bats leaving the caves there at sunset each evening. Hopefully this will only be a one day trip and we will be there. However, we do have to pass thru Roswell, NM and so if you see blue lights in the sky and a streak of something strange you will know that we may have been abducted by creatures from another world.
1 Courthouse
2 Street
3 Some artwork
5 Old home (military)