Create american-southwest.geojson

American Southwest

The first explorers and settlers of the Southwest were American Indians; they gave the vast area much of its distinctive culture and learned how to live in its climate and geography. Some of the earliest and most expansive attempts at colonizing were made by the Spanish. Acoma, San Xavier del Bac, Fort Apache, Mesa Verde, Santa Fe, Hubbell Trading Post, Hovenweep, Kit Carson House, Taos, Barrio Libre, Fort Bowie, Tuzigoot, El Santuario de Chimayo; the names of the American Southwest evoke a starkly beautiful land of deserts, mountains and fertile valleys which is both very old and very new. Arizona and New Mexico, admitted to the Union in 1912, are two of the youngest states in the nation; yet Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado contain venerable adobe communities and ancient, long-abandoned prehistoric ruins collectively representing thousands of years of human habitation.