# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Santa Fé (New Mexico)

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​SANTA FÉ, the capital of New Mexico, U.S.A., and the county seat of Santa Fé county, about 20 m. E. of the Rio Grande, and 339 m. N. of El Paso, Texas. Pop. (1900) 5603, (256 ​foreign-born and 466 Indians); (1910) 5072. Santa Fé is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, the Denver & Rio Grande, and the New Mexico Central railways. The city lies about 7000 ft. above the sea, at the foot of the southern extremity of the Rocky Mountains, in the Sangre de Cristo range. Its climate is dry, equable and healthy; the mean annual temperature is 49° F., and the mean annual rainfall 14.2 in. The hills surrounding the city on all sides shelter it from the sandstorms which afflict some parts of New Mexico, and its pleasant climate, attractive mountain scenery and historical interest make it a favourite resort.
Santa Fé is built round a plaza or square. Crooked streets, bordered with low adobe houses, are characteristic of the older part of the city and give an impression of antiquity. Around the plaza and elsewhere in the city, however, the Mexican style of architecture has given way to the American. The plaza itself had been converted from a barren, sandy square into a well-shaded park, through the efforts of the Woman's Board of Trade, an unique institution, which also controls the public library, housed in a brick and stone building (1907) in the Mission style of architecture. Within the plaza are a monument to the soldiers who fell in New Mexico during the Civil War and the Indian wars, a stone marking the spot where the first American flag was raised by General Kearny in 1846, and a bronze drinking fountain erected as a memorial to John Baptist Lamy (1814-1888), the first Roman Catholic bishop (1853) and archbishop (1875) of Santa Fé. Facing the plaza is the old Governor's Palace, a low, spreading, adobe structure, erected early in the 17th century, but partially destroyed in the Pueblo revolt of 1680 and later restored. It was occupied continuously by the Spanish, Mexican and American governors of New Mexico until 1909, and houses the historical museum of the Historical Society of New Mexico (founded in 1859, incorporated in 1880), the School of American Archaeology and the New Mexico Museum of Archaeology. In this building General Lew Wallace (governor 1878-1881) wrote the concluding chapters to Ben Hur. San Miguel chapel was built probably in the middle of the 17th century, was destroyed in 1680, and was rebuilt in 1710, but has been greatly altered in recent times. The church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (modernized with a shingle roof and a wooden steeple) contains interesting paintings and antique wood-carvings. The cathedral of San Francisco, though not completed, has been used as a place of worship since about 1880. In its walls is incorporated part of a church erected, it is thought, in 1627. Also of interest are the Rosario chapel; the ruined earthworks of Fort Marcy, north of the city, constructed by General Kearny in 1846; the ruins of the Garita, an old Spanish fortification used as a custom house under the Mexican government; the so-called “oldest house,” a dilapidated adobe structure claimed to be the oldest building, continuously inhabited, in the United States; the state library; and the national cemetery, in which 1022 American soldiers are buried.
Among the public buildings and institutions are the state capitol, the executive mansion (1909), the Federal building (in front of which is a monument to Kit Carson), the county court house, a National Guard armoury, a Federal industrial boarding school for Indians (with 300 pupils in 1908) and Saint Catherine's Industrial School for Indians (Roman Catholic). About 7 m. east of the city is the Pecos Forest Reserve, across which the Territory undertook the building, with convict labour, of a “scenic highway” from Santa Fé to Las Vegas. In Pajarito Park, 20 m. west of Santa Fé, are many prehistoric cave, cliff and communal dwellings, and near the city are several prehistoric mounds.
The chief manufactures of Santa Fé are brick, pottery (made by Pueblo Indians), and filigree jewelry (made by Mexican artisans). The surrounding country is devoted to agriculture and mining, chiefly for coal.
Santa Fé is considered the oldest city save one (St Augustine, Florida) in the United States. A settlement, known as San Gabriel, was planted at the junction of the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande by Juan de Oñate in 1598, and about 1605, some 30 m. S.E., Santa Fé, officially the Villa Real de Santa Fé de San Francisco, was founded on the site of a deserted Indian pueblo and became the seat of the government of New Mexico. In 1630 it contained a population of 250 Spaniards, 700 Indians and about 50 half-breeds. In August 1680 the Pueblo Indians, embittered by the exactions of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, revolted (see New Mexico: History). Four hundred Spaniards were massacred, and the remainder took refuge in Santa Fé, where they were closely besieged. On the 21st of August, while the Indians were demoralized by a sortie from the garrison, the town was evacuated, and the inhabitants made a six weeks' journey down the Rio Grande to the mission of Guadalupe, near the modern El Paso, Texas. The Indians then took possession, destroyed the crops, churches and archives, and revived their pagan ceremonies. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to regain the town, but finally, in September 1692, Diego de Vargas quietly secured the fresh submission of the Indians. In December 1693 a new Spanish colony of about 800 persons arrived. There were two other Indian revolts, in 1694 and in 1696. During the 18th century a considerable trade in sheep, wool, wine and pelts developed, chiefly with Chihuahua and with the Indians of the plains. After the independence of Mexico, Santa Fé became the centre of a growing commerce with the United States, conducted at first by pack animals, and later by wagon trains over the old Santa Fé Trail leading south-west from Independence, Kansas City, and, in earlier years, other places in Missouri, to Santa Fé. On the 18th of August 1846, soon after the outbreak of the war between the United States and Mexico, Santa Fé was occupied by an American force under General S. W. Kearny. The Mexicans revolted a few months later, and the newly appointed governor, Charles Bent, and a number of American sympathizers were assassinated; but the rising was quickly suppressed. In 1847 the first English newspaper in New Mexico was established at Santa Fé, and an English school was founded in 1848. Santa Fé remained the capital when a Territorial government was inaugurated in 1851. The arrival of the first railway train, on the 9th of February 1880, marked a new epoch in the history of Santa Fé, which until then had remained essentially a Mexican town; but with the discontinuance of the wagon caravans over the old trail, it lost its importance as the entrepôt for the commerce of the South-west.
See the sketch by F. W. Hodge in Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901), edited by Lyman P. Powell; H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco, 1884); and Henry Inman, The Old Santa Fé Trail (New York, 1897).