Santa Fe, New Mexico - State Of Santa Fe

Santa Fe (/ˌsæntəˈfeɪ/; (Tewa: Ogha Po'oge, Navajo: Yootó) is the capital of the state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of Santa Fe County. Santa Fe, founded in 1610, is the oldest capital city in the United States and the oldest city in New Mexico. Santa Fe (meaning "holy faith" in Spanish) had a population of 69,204 in 2012. It is the principal city of a Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Santa Fe County and is part of the larger Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas Combined Statistical Area. The city's full name when founded was La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís ("The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi").

History

Spain and Mexico

Santa Fe settlers are "churlish types" who are "accustomed to live apart from each other, as neither fathers nor sons associate with each other."

The city of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo villages with founding dates between 1050 to 1150. One of the earliest known settlements in what today is downtown Santa Fe came sometime after 900. A Native American group built a cluster of homes that centered around the site of today's Plaza and spread for half a mile to the south and west; the village was called Ogapoge. The Santa Fe River provided water to people living there. The Santa Fe River is a seasonal waterway which was a year round stream until the 1700s. As of 2007, the river was recognized as the most endangered river in the United States, according to the conservation group American Rivers.

Don Juan de Oñate led the first effort to colonize the region in 1598, establishing Santa Fe de Nuevo México as a province of New Spain. Under Juan de Oñate and his son, the capital of the province was the settlement of San Juan de los Caballeros north of Santa Fe near modern Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. New Mexico's second Spanish governor, Don Pedro de Peralta, however, founded a new city at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in 1607, which he called La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1610, he made it the capital of the province, which it has almost constantly remained, making it the oldest state capital in the United States.

Except for the years 1680â€"1692, when, as a result of the Pueblo Revolt, the native Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the area known as New Mexico, later to be reconquered by Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's provincial seat until the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. In 1824 the city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution.

United States

The Republic of Texas had claimed Santa Fe as part of the western portion of Texas along the Rio Grande when it seceded from Mexico in 1836. In 1841, a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas, with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the force was poorly prepared and was easily captured by the Mexican army. In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, and Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny led the main body of his Army of the West of some 1,700 soldiers into the city to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 the U.S. officially gained New Mexico through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Colonel Alexander William Doniphan, under the command of Kearny, recovered ammunition from Santa Fe labeled "Spain 1776", showing both the quality of communication and military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule.

American visitors saw little promise in the remote town. One traveller in 1849 wrote:

I can hardly imagine how Santa Fe is supported. The country around it is barren. At the North stands a snow-capped mountain while the valley in which the town is situated is drab and sandy. The streets are narrow... A Mexican will walk about town all day to sell a bundle of grass worth about a dime. They are the poorest looking people I ever saw. They subsist principally on mutton, onions and red pepper.

In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy arrived; in 1853 he became bishop of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado and traveled to France, Rome, Tucson, Los Angeles, St. Louis, New Orleans and Mexico City. He built Saint Francis Cathedral and shaped Catholicism in the region until his death in 1888.

As part of the New Mexico Campaign of the Civil War the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe for a few days in March 1862. Sibley was forced to withdraw after Union troops destroyed his logistical trains following the Battle of Glorieta Pass. The Santa Fe National Cemetery was created after the war in 1870 to inter the Union soldiers who died fighting there.

On October 21, 1887, "The Padre of Isleta", Anton Docher went to New Mexico where he was ordained as a priest in the St Francis Cathedral of Santa Fe by Bishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe. After a few years spent in Santa Fe, Bernalillo and in Taos, he arrived in Isleta on December 28, 1891. He wrote an interesting ethnological article published in The Santa Fé Magazine in June 1913, in which he describes the early 20th century's life in the Pueblos.

Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. But as the tracks progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers decided that it was more practical to go through Lamy, a town in Santa Fe County to the south of Santa Fe. A branch line was completed from Lamy to Santa Fe in 1880 and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad extended the narrow gauge Chili Line from the nearby city of Española to Santa Fe in 1886, but the result of bypassing Santa Fe was a gradual economic decline. This was reversed in part through the creation of a number of resources for the arts and archaeology, notably the School of American Research, created in 1907 under the leadership of the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett. The first airplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by Rose Dugan, carrying Vera von Blumenthal as passenger. Together they started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry, a major contribution to the founding of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.

In 1912, New Mexico became the United States of America's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.

20th century

1912 Plan

In 1912, when the town's population was approximately 5,000 people, the city's civic leaders designed and enacted a sophisticated city plan that incorporated elements of the City Beautiful movement, the city planning movement, and the German historic preservation movement. It anticipated limited future growth, considered the scarcity of water, and recognized the future prospects of suburban development on the outskirts. The planners foresaw conflicts between preservationists and scientific planners. They set forth the principle that historic streets and structures be preserved and that new development must be harmonious with the city's character.

Artists and tourists

The mainline of the railroad bypassed Santa Fe, and it lost population. However artists and writers, as well as retirees, were attracted to the cultural richness of the area, the beauty of the landscapes and its dry climate. Local leaders began promoting the city as a tourist attraction. The city sponsored architectural restoration projects and erected new buildings according to traditional techniques and styles, thus creating the "Santa Fe style". Edgar L. Hewett, founder and first director of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, was a leading promoter. He began the Santa Fe Fiesta in 1919 and the Southwest Indian Fair in 1922 (now known as the Indian Market). When he tried to attract a summer program for Texas women, many artists rebelled saying the city should not promote artificial tourism at the expense of its artistic culture. The writers and artists formed the Old Santa Fe Association and defeated the plan.

Japanese American internment camp

During World War II, Santa Fe was the location of a Japanese American internment camp. Beginning in June 1942, the Department of Justice held 826 Japanese American men arrested after Pearl Harbor in a former Civilian Conservation Corps site that had been acquired and expanded for the purpose. Although there was a lack of evidence and no due process, the men were held on suspicion of fifth column activity. Security at Santa Fe was similar to a military prison, with twelve-foot barbed wire fences, guard towers equipped with searchlights, and guards carrying rifles, side arms and tear gas. By September, the internees had been transferred to other facilitiesâ€"523 to War Relocation Authority concentration camps, 302 to Army internment campsâ€"and the site was used to hold German and Italian nationals. In February 1943, these civilian detainees were transferred to D.O.J. custody and the camp was expanded to take in 2,100 men segregated from the general population of Japanese American inmates, mostly Nisei and Kibei who had renounced their U.S. citizenship and other "troublemakers" from the Tule Lake Segregation Center. In 1945, four internees were seriously injured when violence broke out between the internees and guards in an event known as the Santa Fe Riot. The camp remained open past the end of the war; the last detainees were released in mid 1946, and the facility was closed and sold as surplus soon after. The camp was located in what is now the Casa Solana neighborhood.

1980 New Mexico State Penitentiary prison riot - documentary

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 37.4 sq mi (96.9 km²), of which 37.3 sq mi (96.7 km²) is land and 0.077 sq mi (0.2 km²) (0.21%) is water.

Santa Fe is located at 7,199 feet (2,194 m) above sea level, making it the highest state capital in the United States.

Climate

Santa Fe experiences a semi-arid climate bordering on a Subtropical highland climate with continental influences (Köppen BSk/Cwb or Dwb), with chilly winters, and very warm summers. The 24-hour average temperature in the city ranges from 30.3 °F (âˆ'0.9 °C) in December to 70.1 °F (21.2 °C) in July. Due to the relative aridity and elevation, average diurnal temperature variation exceeds 25 °F (14 °C) in every month, and 30 °F (17 °C) much of the year. The city usually receives 6 to 8 snowfalls a year between November and April. Heaviest rainfall occurs in July and August, with the arrival of the North American Monsoon.

Santa Fe style and "The City Different"

This year we are making a studied conscious effort not to be studied or conscious. Santa Fe is now one of the most interesting art centers in the world and you, O Dude of the East, are privileged to behold the most sophisticated group in the country gamboling freely. ... And Santa Fe, making you welcome, will enjoy itself hugely watching the Dude as he gazes. Be sure as you stroll along looking for the quaint and picturesque that you are supplying your share of those very qualities to Santa Fe, the City Incongruous. ... Be yourself, even if it includes synthetic cowboy clothes, motor goggles and a camera.

The Spanish laid out the city according to the "Laws of the Indies", town planning rules and ordinances which had been established in 1573 by King Philip II. The fundamental principle was that the town be laid out around a central plaza. On its north side was the Palace of the Governors, while on the east was the church that later became the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

An important style implemented in planning the city was the radiating grid of streets centering from the central Plaza. Many were narrow and included small alley-ways, but each gradually merged into the more casual byways of the agricultural perimeter areas. As the city grew throughout the 19th century, the building styles evolved too, so that by statehood in 1912, the eclectic nature of the buildings caused it to look like "Anywhere USA". The city government realized that the economic decline, which had started more than twenty years before with the railway moving west and the federal government closing down Fort Marcy, might be reversed by the promotion of tourism.

To achieve that goal, the city created the idea of imposing a unified building style â€" the Spanish Pueblo Revival look, which was based on work done restoring the Palace of the Governors. The sources for this style came from the many defining features of local architecture: vigas (rough, exposed beams that extrude through supporting walls, and are thus visible outside as well as inside the building) and canales (rain spouts cut into short parapet walls around flat roofs), features borrowed from many old adobe homes and churches built many years before and found in the Pueblos, along with the earth-toned look (reproduced in stucco) of the old adobe exteriors.

After 1912 this style became official: all buildings were to be built using these elements. By 1930 there was a broadening to include the "Territorial", a style of the pre-statehood period which included the addition of portales (large, covered porches) and white-painted window and door pediments (and also sometimes terra cotta tiles on sloped roofs, but with flat roofs still dominating). The city had become "different". However, "in the rush to pueblofy" Santa Fe, the city lost a great deal of its architectural history and eclecticism. Among the architects most closely associated with this new style are T. Charles Gaastra and John Gaw Meem.

By an ordinance passed in 1957, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction. However, many contemporary houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces (sometimes referred to as "faux-dobe", pronounced as one word: "foe-dough-bee") reflecting the historic style.

In a September 2003 report by Angelou Economics, it was determined that Santa Fe should focus their economic development efforts in the following seven industries: Arts and Culture, Design, Hospitality, Conservation Technologies, Software Development, Publishing and New Media, and Outdoor Gear and Apparel. Three secondary targeted industries for Santa Fe to focus development in are health care, retiree services, and food & beverage. Angelou Economics recognized three economic signs that Santa Fe's economy was at risk of long term deterioration. These signs were; a lack of business diversity which tied the city too closely to fluctuations in tourism and the government sector; the beginnings of urban sprawl, as a result of Santa Fe County growing faster than the city, meaning people will move farther outside the city to find land and lower costs for housing; and an aging population coupled with a rapidly shrinking population of individuals under 45 years old, making Santa Fe less attractive to business recruits.

The seven industries recommended by the report "represent a good mix for short-, mid-, and long-term economic cultivation."

In 2005/2006, a consultant group from Portland, Oregon, prepared a "Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan" to examine the long-range needs for the "downtown" area, roughly bounded by the Paseo de Peralta on the north, south and east sides and by Guadalupe Street on the west. In consultation with members of community groups, who were encouraged to provide feedback, the consultants made a wide range of recommendations in the plan now published for public and city review.

Government

The city of Santa Fe is a charter city. It is governed by a mayor-council system. The city is divided into four electoral districts, each represented by two councilors. Councilors are elected to staggered four-year terms and one councilor from each district is elected every two years.

The municipal judgeship is an elected position and a requirement of the holder is that they be a member of the state bar. The judge is elected to four-year terms.

The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and is a member of the governing body. The mayor has numerous powers and duties, and while previously the mayor could only vote when there was a tie among the city council, the city charter was amended by referendum in 2014 to allow the mayor to vote on all matters in front of the council. Starting in 2018, the position of mayor will be a full-time professional paid position within city government. Day-to-day operations of the municipality are undertaken by the city manager's office.

Federal representation

The Joseph M. Montoya Federal Building and Post Office serves as an office for U.S. federal government operations. It also contains the primary United States Postal Service post office in the city. Other post offices in the Santa Fe city limits include Coronado, De Vargas Mall, and Santa Fe Place Mall. The U.S. Courthouse building, constructed in 1889, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Arts and culture

The city is well known as a center for arts that reflect the multicultural character of the city; it has been designated as a UNESCO Creative City in Design, Crafts and Folk Art. Each Wednesday the alternative weekly newspaper, The Santa Fe Reporter, publishes information on the arts and culture of Santa Fe; and each Friday, the daily Santa Fe New Mexican publishes Pasatiempo, its long-running calendar and commentary on arts and events.

In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by CBS Money Watch and U.S. News.

Visual art and galleries

The city and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists. They have come over the decades to capture the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the best known New Mexicoâ€"based artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe, but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 mi (80 km) away. The New Mexico Museum of Art and Georgia O'Keeffe Museum own several of her works. O'Keeffe's friend, western nature photographer Eliot Porter, died in Santa Fe.

Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for international collectors, tourists and locals. The Canyon Road galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary, Southwestern, indigenous American, and experimental art, in addition to Russian, Taos Masters, and Native American pieces.

Santa Fe also contains a lively contemporary art scene, with Meow Wolf as its main art collective. Backed by author George R. R. Martin, Meow Wolf is currently working on a massive interactive exhibit in an abandoned bowling alley.

Sculpture

There are many outdoor sculptures, including many statues of Francis of Assisi, and several other holy figures, such as Kateri Tekakwitha. The styles run the whole spectrum from Baroque to Post-modern. Notable sculptors connected with Santa Fe include John Connell, Luis Jiménez, Rebecca Tobey and Allan Houser.

Literature

Numerous authors followed the influx of specialists in the visual arts. Well-known writers like D. H. Lawrence, Cormac McCarthy, Kate Braverman, Douglas Adams, Roger Zelazny, Alice Corbin Henderson, Mary Austin, Witter Bynner, Dan Flores, Paul Horgan, Rudolfo Anaya, George R. R. Martin, Mitch Cullin, Evan S. Connell, Richard Bradford, John Masters, Jack Schaefer, Michael Tobias, Hampton Sides and Michael McGarrity are or were residents of Santa Fe. Walker Percy lived on a dude ranch outside of Santa Fe before returning to Louisiana to begin his literary career.

Music, dance, and opera

Performance Santa Fe, formerly the Santa Fe Concert Association, is the oldest presenting organization in Santa Fe. Founded in 1937, Performance Santa Fe brings celebrated and legendary musicians as well as some of the world's greatest dancers and actors to the city from August through May. The Santa Fe Opera's productions take place between late June and late August each year. The city also hosts the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival which is held at about the same time, mostly in the St. Francis Auditorium and in the Lensic Theater. Also in July and August, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale holds its summer festival. Santa Fe has its own professional ballet company, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, which performs in both cities and tours nationally and internationally. Santa Fe is also home to internationally acclaimed Flamenco dancer's Maria Benitez Institute for Spanish Arts which offers programs and performance in Flamenco, Spanish Guitar and similar arts year round. Other notable local figures include the National Dance Institute of New Mexico and German New Age musician Deuter.

Museums

Santa Fe has many museums located near the downtown Plaza:

• New Mexico Museum of Art â€" collections of Southwestern Arts.
• Institute of American Indian Arts Museum â€" Native American arts with political aspects.
• Georgia O'Keeffe Museum â€" devoted to the work of O'Keeffe and others whom she influenced.
• New Mexico History Museum â€" located behind the Palace of the Governors.
• Pablita Velarde Museum of Indian Women in the Arts â€" a museum dedicated to Native Women artists.
• Site Santa Fe â€" A contemporary art space.
• Santa Fe Children's Museum â€" a children's museum

Several other museums are located in the area known as Museum Hill:

• Museum of International Folk Art â€" folk arts from around the world.
• Museum of Indian Arts and Culture â€" exhibits Native American arts.
• Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian â€" Native American art and history.
• Museum of Spanish Colonial Art â€" Tradition arts from the Spanish-colonial era to contemporary times.

Sports

The New Mexico Style were an American Basketball Association franchise founded in 2005, but reformed in Texas for the 2007â€"8 season as the El Paso S'ol (which folded without playing an ABA game in their new city). The Santa Fe Roadrunners were a North American Hockey League team, but moved to Kansas to become the Topeka Roadrunners. Santa Fe's rodeo, the Rodeo De Santa Fe, is held annually the last week of June. In May 2012 Santa Fe became the home of the Santa Fe Fuego of the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs. They play their home games at Fort Marcy Park. Horse Racing events were held at The Downs at Santa Fe from 1971 until 1997.

Science and technology

Santa Fe has had an association with science and technology since 1943 when the town served as the gateway to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a 45-minute drive from the city. In 1984, the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) was founded to research complex systems in the physical, biological, economic, and political sciences. It hosts such Nobel laureates as Murray Gell-Mann (physics), Philip Warren Anderson (physics), and Kenneth Arrow (economics). The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) was founded in 1994 to focus on research at the intersection among bioscience, computing, and mathematics. In the 1990s and 2000s several technology companies formed to commercialize technologies from LANL, SFI, and NCGR. This community of companies has been dubbed the "Info Mesa".

Due to the presence of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and the Santa Fe Institute, and because of its attractiveness for visitors and an established tourist industry, Santa Fe routinely serves as a host to a variety of scientific meetings, summer schools, and public lectures, such as International q-bio Conference on Cellular Information Processing, Santa Fe Institute's Complex Systems Summer School, LANL's Center For Nonlinear Studies Annual Conference, and others.

Tourism

Touch the country [of New Mexico] and you will never be the same again.

After State government, tourism is a major element of the Santa Fe economy, with visitors attracted year-round by the climate and related outdoor activities (such as skiing in years of adequate snowfall; hiking in other seasons) plus cultural activities of the city and the region. Tourism information is provided by the convention and visitor bureau and the chamber of commerce.

Most tourist activity takes place in the historic downtown, especially on and around the Plaza, a one-block square adjacent to the Palace of the Governors, the original seat of New Mexico's territorial government since the time of Spanish colonization. Other areas include "Museum Hill", the site of the major art museums of the city as well as the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, which takes place each year during the second full weekend of July. The Canyon Road arts area with its galleries is also a major attraction for locals and visitors alike.

Some visitors find Santa Fe particularly attractive around the second week of September when the aspens in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains turn yellow and the skies are clear and blue. This is also the time of the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe, celebrating the "reconquering" of Santa Fe by Don Diego de Vargas, a highlight of which is the burning Zozobra ("Old Man Gloom"), a 50-foot (15 m) marionette.

Popular day-trips in the Santa Fe area include locations such as the town of Taos â€" about 70 mi (113 km) north of Santa Fe. The historic Bandelier National Monument and the Valles Caldera can be found about 30 mi (48 km) away. In addition, Santa Fe's ski area, Ski Santa Fe, is about 16 mi (26 km) north of the city. Chimayo is also nearby and many locals complete the annual pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayo. Locals also enjoy driving up to Chimayo for lunch or dinner at the Rancho de Chimayo.

Architectural highlights

• New Mexico State Capitol
• Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe
• Loretto Chapel
• Palace of the Governors
• San Miguel Mission and the rest of the Barrio De Analco Historic District
• Santuario de Guadalupe
• Oldest House in the USA

Districts

• Barrio De Analco Historic District
• Don Gaspar Historic District
• Santa Fe Historic District
• Santa Fe Railyard arts district

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, there were 67,947 people residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city residents was 78.9% White, 2.1% Native American; 1.4% Asian; and 3.7% from two or more races. A total of 48.7% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Non-Hispanic Whites were 46.2% of the population.

As of the census of 2000, there were 62,203 people, 27,569 households, and 14,969 families living in the city. The population density was 1,666.1 people per square mile (643.4/km²). There were 30,533 housing units at an average density of 817.8 per square mile (315.8/km²). According to the Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey, the racial makeup of the city was 75% White, 2.5% Native American, 1.9% Asian, 0.4% African American, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 16.9% from other races, and 3.1% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 44.5% of the population.

There were 27,569 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.7% were non-families. 36.4% of all households were made up of individuals living alone and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.90.

The age distribution was 20.3% under 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,392, and the median income for a family was $49,705. Males had a median income of $32,373 versus $27,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,454. About 9.5% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.

Twin towns â€" Sister cities

Santa Fe has ten sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:

• Bukhara, Uzbekistan
• Holguín, Cuba
• Icheon, Republic of Korea
• Livingstone, Zambia
• Parral, Mexico
• San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• Santa Fe, Spain
• Sorrento, Italy
• Tsuyama, Japan
• Zhang Jia Jie, China

Transportation

Air

Santa Fe is served by the Santa Fe Municipal Airport. Currently, American Eagle provides regional jet service to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which began on June 11, 2009. An additional flight to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was added on November 19, 2009 alongside a new flight to and from Los Angeles International Airport. Since December 2012, Great Lakes Airlines has offered twice daily flight service between Santa Fe, NM and Denver, CO. Many people fly into the Albuquerque International Sunport and connect by other means to Santa Fe.

Road

Santa Fe is located on I-25. In addition, U.S. Route 84 and U.S. Route 285 pass through the city along St. Francis Drive. NM-599 forms a limited-access road bypass around the northwestern part of the city.

In its earliest alignment (1926â€"1937) U.S. Route 66 ran through Santa Fe.

Public transportation

Santa Fe Trails operates a number of bus routes within the city and also provides connections to regional transit.

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express is a commuter rail service operating in Valencia, Bernalillo (including Albuquerque), Sandoval, and Santa Fe Counties. In Santa Fe County, the service uses 18 miles (29 km) of new right-of-way connecting the BNSF Railway's old transcontinental mainline to existing right-of-way in Santa Fe used by the Santa Fe Southern Railway. Santa Fe is currently served by three stations, Santa Fe Depot, South Capitol, and Santa Fe County/NM 599. A fourth station, Zia Road, is under construction and does not yet have a planned opening date.

New Mexico Park and Ride, a division of the New Mexico Department of Transportation, and the North Central Regional Transit District operate primarily weekday commuter coach/bus service to Santa Fe from Torrance, Rio Arriba, Taos, San Miguel and Los Alamos Counties in addition to shuttle services within Santa Fe connecting major government activity centers. Prior to the Rail Runner's extension to Santa Fe, Park and Ride operated commuter coach service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Rail

Along with the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, a commuter rail line serving the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the city or its environs are served by two other railroads. The Santa Fe Southern Railway, now mostly a tourist rail experience but also carrying freight, operates excursion services out of Santa Fe as far as Lamy, 15 miles (24 km) to the southeast. The Santa Fe Southern line is one of the United States' few rails with trails. Lamy is also served by Amtrak's daily Southwest Chief for train service to Chicago, Los Angeles, and intermediate points. Passengers transiting Lamy may use a special connecting coach/van service to reach Santa Fe.

Trails

Multi-use bicycle, pedestrian, and equestrian trails are increasingly popular in Santa Fe, for both recreation and commuting. These include the Dale Ball Trails, a 30-mile (48 km) network starting within two miles (3.2 km) of the Santa Fe Plaza; the long Santa Fe Rail Trail to Lamy; and the Santa Fe River Trail, which is in development. Santa Fe is the terminus of three National Historic Trails: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, and the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.

Education

Santa Fe has 3 major High Schools:

• Santa Fe High School (1,500 Students)
• Capital High School (1,300 Students)
• St. Michael's High School (750 Students)

The public schools in Santa Fe are operated by Santa Fe Public Schools. The city has three private liberal arts colleges: St. John's College, Santa Fe University of Art and Design (formerly the College of Santa Fe), and Southwestern College; plus Santa Fe Community College and the Institute of American Indian Arts.

The city has six private college preparatory high schools: Santa Fe Waldorf School, St. Michael's High School, Desert Academy, New Mexico School For The Deaf, Santa Fe Secondary School, and Santa Fe Preparatory School. Santa Fe is home to the Santa Fe Indian School, an off-reservation school for Native Americans. Santa Fe is also the location of the New Mexico School for the Arts, a public-private partnership, arts-focused, high school. There are also several charter schools, including Monte del Sol, the Academy for Technology and the Classics and Tierra Encantada Charter High School. The city has many private elementary schools as well, including Little Earth, Santa Fe International Elementary School, Rio Grande School, Desert Montessori School, La Mariposa Montessori, The Tara School, Fayette Street Academy, The Santa Fe Girls' School and The Academy for the Love of Learning located in southeastern Santa Fe.

Notable people

• David W. Alexander, 19th century Los Angeles politician and sheriff
• Antonio Armijo, explorer and merchant who lead the first commercial caravan between Santa Fe, Nuevo México and Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829â€"1830.
• William Berra, painter
• Florence Birdwell, musician, teacher
• Paul Burlin, modern and abstract expressionist painter
• Zach Condon, lead singer and songwriter of band Beirut
• Chris Eyre, actor, director
• Forrest Fenn, writer, philanthropist
• Gene Hackman, Oscar-winning actor
• Dorothy B. Hughes, novelist
• J. B. Jackson, landscape architect
• Ali MacGraw, actress
• Shirley MacLaine, actress
• George R. R. Martin, author and screenwriter, Game of Thrones
• Cormac McCarthy, author, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Arizona Muse, model
• Georgia O'Keeffe, artist, winner of National Medal of Arts
• Hib Sabin, indigenous-style sculptor
• Brad Sherwood, actor and comedian
• Wes Studi, actor and musician
• Sheri S. Tepper, writer
• Charlene Teters artist, activist
• Josh West, Olympic medalist rower