Santa Fe

Santa Fe, capital of New Mexico, U.S., and seat (1852) of Santa Fe county, in the north-central part of the state, on the Santa Fe River. It lies in the northern Rio Grande valley at 6,996 feet (2,132 metres) above sea level, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A dry, invigorating climate makes it a popular summer resort, while mountain skiing attracts winter visitors.

Founded in 1610 by Gov. Don Pedro de Peralta, it was named Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis (Spanish: “Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”) and developed around a central plaza. Evacuated in 1680 after the Pueblo Rebellion, it was retaken peacefully in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas, an event commemorated by an annual fiesta.

During the 18th century Santa Fe served as the administrative, military, and missionary headquarters of a vast, sparsely populated Spanish colonial frontier province. U.S. interest in the area was aroused by the report of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, who was imprisoned there during his exploration of the Southwest in 1806. After Mexican independence (1821), a brisk wagon-train commerce developed over the Santa Fe Trail. During the Mexican War the city was occupied (1846) by U.S. forces under Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, and an English-language newspaper was published there in 1847. After New Mexico was ceded to the United States (1848), Santa Fe became the capital in 1851 of the Territory of New Mexico and, in 1912, of the state. In 1862 the city was occupied for two weeks by Confederate forces under Gen. H.H. Sibley. The railroad arrived in 1880, and there were brief mining booms in the nearby mountains, but the city essentially remained a trading centre for ranchers, farmers, and Indians.

Construction in the early 1940s of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (later Los Alamos National Laboratory) for atomic research, 35 miles (56 km) northwest, brought new economic vitality to the area.

The Palace of the Governors (built by Peralta in 1610) was restored as a museum in 1914. A new group of spaciously landscaped state government buildings, including the capitol (completed in 1966), faces the river. Traditional Spanish-Pueblo Indian architecture has been protected since 1958 by zoning ordinance. The 17th-century Chapel of San Miguel, also known as Oldest Church (rebuilt 1710, restored 1955), and the Cathedral of St. Francis, built in 1869 by John B. Lamy, first bishop of Santa Fe, are architectural landmarks. A fictionalized account of the life of Lamy and his work in the Santa Fe region was the subject of Willa Cather’s remarkable novel Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

With a large Spanish-American population, the city is the cultural capital of the Southwest and is growing rapidly as a commercial and residential centre. It is built on the site of a prehistoric Tiwa pueblo, and archaeological research is conducted in the surrounding Indian territory. The Museum of New Mexico encompasses the Palace of the Governors (specializing in the history of the city, state, and region), the Museum of International Folk Art (with what purports to be the world’s largest collection of cross-cultural traditional folk art), the Museum of Fine Arts (with an emphasis on artists working in the Southwest), and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (the exhibition facility of the Laboratory of Anthropology), a repository of Indigenous art and material culture; the Museum of New Mexico was also a major supporter of Maria Martinez and her husband Julian, whose Pueblo pottery gained international attention. The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (formerly the Museum of Navaho Ceremonial Art), once part of the Laboratory of Anthropology, is privately endowed. The College of Santa Fe (formerly St. Michael’s) was founded in 1859, and St. John’s College in 1964. The Santa Fe Indian School (1932) and the New Mexico School for the Deaf (1887) are also in the city.

In 2022 Nina Otero-Warren--a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage in New Mexico, the first Hispanic woman to run (1922) for a seat in the U.S. Congress, and the first female superintendent of public schools (1917–29) in Santa Fe--was one of five women chosen for the American Women Quarters Program, which honours women who have made notable contributions to the country.

Santa Fe is a regional headquarters for the National Park Service and headquarters for the Santa Fe National Forest (immediately east). The region’s five state monuments are under the aegis of the Museum of New Mexico. Pop. (2000) 62,203; Santa Fe Metro Area, 129,292; (2010) 67,947; Santa Fe Metro Area, 144,170.