Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-09-05
r HISTORIC ALBUQUERQUE,
An Outsiders Opinion of the Ancient
Village of the Rio Grande and
the Present Modern
Metropolis.
Charming Street scenes-Some Descrip-
ton of the City-Its Location ana
the Adjacent Region.

the name perhaps survives OF Fray Juan
Bernal. This pious friar of the seven
tenth century, the father custodian OF
New Mexico, was murdered at Galisteo
by the Pueblo Indians in the great revolt
of 1880. East of the Glorieta range his
name is perpetuated in Bernal mountain,
with it's sloping sides and shaft-like
tabletop" surrounded by penitentes'
crosses-an elevation often known in
modern days as Starvation Peak. Ber-
nalillo county, the general dimensions OF
which are 1856 miles from east to west,
and rs miles from north to south, is dis
tinctively the sheep-raising district OF the
territory, and for centuries great fortunes
were made by the early ranch-owners
Vast arid tracks, worthless for cultivation
owing to lack of water, provide unfailing
pasturage for sheep and cattle summer
and winter, with no need OF care save
that of herding the ANIMALS.
The region is rich in minerals. Cop"
Der mines are extensively worked at Cop
Der City, and at the head waters OF the Rio
Puerco of the east. The Sandia noun
tains to the northeast, and the San Mateo
and the Jemez mountains to the north
west of Albuquerque abound in copper,
silver and coal. In Tijeras canon, east
of the Rio Grande, veins nine feet thick
of bituminous coal are worked, and ex-
tensiye coal fields are mined at Gallup,
on the Atlantic and Pacific railway, near
the Arizona line.
Albuquerque, the altitude OF which is
5,026 feet, is situated about seventy miles
south of Santa Fe, on the lett bank OF the
Rio Grande. With a population OF 81
600 inhabitants, it is the largest town in
New Mexico, slightly out-numberng
Santa Fe, the next in size. Until the
coming of railroads about ten years ago,
the old town of tiat-roofed adobe shops
and houses built on the river-bank was
wholly Mexican in aspect, and was char
acterized by many spacious houses, each
built about placlta or courtyard, ana
environed by gardens and vineyards.
Many Spanish-Americans OF wealth and
distinction resided hero, and it was the
trading-point of an extensive district, oc-
cupied, as now, by stock ranches and the
habtants of dozen Indian pueblos.
San Felipe Neri de Albuquerque, togve
its full and early title to the New Mexican
emporium of the Rio Grande valley, was
founded by Spanlards about the middle OF
the seventeenth century. 1t was named
in honor of Francisco Fernandez de la
Cueva, duke of Albuquerque, who was
viceroy of Mexico during the periods OF
1659.60 and 17O1-11. According to that
eminent authority, Prof. Adolf F. Banda
lier, the town during the seventeenth
century occupied different site from its
present one. 1t was small plaza among
the ranches scattered along this part OF
the river valley, which the proprietors
held by force of arms against predatory
sayages, while their Indian vassals titled
the alluvial bottom-lands and tended the
flocks and herds on the plains to the east
and west. The hidalgos lett the country in
haste in the perious time of the great
uprising of the Pueblo Indians in 1880
and on the return of white settlers to this
locality, after the Spanish reconquest Of
New Mexico dozen years later, the town
was located in its present place, which
had been the hacienda of the lieutenant
governor, AlonZo Garcia.
Through the century and half that
followed the reconquest, Albuquerque
was place of note among the Mexican
settlements strung along the Rio Grande
from Taos to Socorro, and after New Mex
leo became part of the United States
the town increased in importance. With
the extension OF the Atchison, Topeks
Santa Fe railway to this point in 1880
the part of Albuquerque known as the
"new town" was laid out about the rail
Way station, and at once became center
of business activity, with considerable
population. Unlike most western rail
road towns, it has never had a "boom, y
but in the place of that ephemeral excite
ment usually the prelude to collapse, il
has maintained steady and substantial
growth. The new district lies in greater
part to the west of the railway station
about mile east from the old town, with
which it is connected by street-car line
It is built of wood, brick and stone, and
modern and tasteful residences, surround
ed by grounds beautifed with trees,
flowers, and shrubbery, extend from its
business quarter southwark down the
valley, or westward along the avenue
leading to the old town. 1t has street
railways, gas works, electric light, water
works, telephones, two daily newspapers,
good public schools, and eleven churches.
The new town is built after the modern
fashion, it's main streets-Railroad and
Gold ayenues-with their substantial bust
ness blocks, presenting the usual appear
ance of a thriving young western CITY,
All the principal streets are graded and
provided with sidewalks. Many impor-
tant additions and Improvements have
been made during the past year, includ-
ing the expenditure of $4,000 by the city
government in beginning a complete
sewe. system for the town. In Albuquer-
que are held the sittings of the district
court of the second judicial district and
the United States court. The court house
in the old town, modern and handsome
building, contrasts oddly with the vista OF
ANTIQUE portals which front the street,
with a windmill in the background
The scenery about Albuquerque is
strange and picturesque. Eastward
mesa ten miles in width extends south
ernly, parallel with the river, between
the valley and the mountain bases. In the
northeast the lofty oblong submits OF the
Sandia lWatermelon) mountain rise above
this table land, their rocky, partly tim
ahaEed sides revealing in the afternoon sun
varied hues OF blue, brown, red, and
gray. South OF the Sandals lies a lower
range of mountains through which III
jeras, Coyote, and He'll canons afford
passage from the eastern plains down to
the valley and its city among the sands,
and to the southeast of these mountains
rise the far off crests of the Manzana
range. The western bank of the long
southwark stretch of river is marked by
low rolling bluffs, back of which rise from
the plain the peaks of the detached
mountain group, the Ladrones, rendez-
vous in former times for robbers. West