Joan and Keith's Travels: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

A Visit To Sante Fe

Today Was Too Windy For The Balloons To Fly

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 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

The city of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo Indian 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 1680–1692, 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 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."

—letter from an American traveler, 1849

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.

For a few days in March 1862, the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe, until he was forced to withdraw by Union troops, who destroyed his logistical trains following the battle of Glorietta Pass.

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 on 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 had only 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 facilities — 523 to War Relocation Authority concentration camps, 302 to Army internment camps — 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.

Loretto Chapel

The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA is a former Roman Catholic church that is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase (the "Miraculous Stair"), that may have been created by French carpenter François-Jean "Frenchy" Rochas. The Sisters of Loretto credit St. Joseph with its construction.

It has been the subject of legend and rumor, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder are considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto and many visitors.

History of the staircase construction

In 1872 Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, commissioned the building of a convent chapel to be named Our Lady of Light Chapel, which would be in the care of the Sisters of Loretto. The chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly in the Gothic Revival style, complete with spires, buttresses, and stained glass windows imported from France. Although it was built on a much smaller scale, the chapel bears an obvious resemblance to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

The architect died suddenly and it was only after much of the chapel was constructed that the builders realized it was lacking any type of stairway to the choir loft. Due to the chapel's small size, a standard staircase would have been too large. Historians have also noted that earlier churches of the period had ladders rather than stairs to the choir loft, but the Sisters did not feel comfortable with that prospect because of the long habits that they wore.

The Sisters of Loretto relate the story as follows:

Needing a way to get up to the choir loft the nuns prayed for St. Joseph's intercession for nine straight days. On the day after their novena ended a shabby-looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. The identity of the carpenter is not known for as soon as the staircase was finally finished he was gone. Many witnesses, upon seeing the staircase, feel it was constructed by St. Joseph himself, as a miraculous occurrence.

The resulting staircase is an impressive work of carpentry. It ascends twenty feet, making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft without the use of nails or apparent center support. It has been surmised that the central spiral of the staircase is narrow enough to serve as a central beam. Nonetheless there was no attachment unto any wall or pole in the original stairway, although in 1887 -- 10 years after it was built -- a railing was added and the outer spiral was fastened to an adjacent pillar. Instead of metal nails, the staircase was constructed using dowels or wooden pegs.

The legend claims that the mystery had never been satisfactorily solved as to who the carpenter was or where he got his lumber, and that there were no reports of anyone seeing lumber delivered or even seeing the man come and go while the construction was being done. Since he left before the Mother Superior could pay him, the Sisters of Loretto offered a reward for the identity of the man, but it was never claimed.

Hypotheses for the mystery

The subject of rumor and legend for over a hundred years, the riddle of the carpenter's identity was claimed to have been solved in the late 1990s by Mary Jean Straw Cook, author of Loretto: The Sisters and Their Santa Fe Chapel (2002: Museum of New Mexico Press). At 43 years of age, her claimed French architect/builder, François-Jean Rochas, who was linked to a secretive guild of French craftsmen called "les compagnons", met with a violent death in December 1894. Unidentified attackers had shot him and left him to die alone in his small cottage and he was found dead in 1895. Cook found a January 5, 1895, death notice in The New Mexican which named Rochas as the builder of "the handsome staircase in the Loretto chapel". Frenchman Quintus Monier told of Rochas's death at Dog Canyon, near today's Alamogordo.

Johann Hadwiger, a German woodworker, was once credited with the design and construction of the stairs. The source of this claim, Johann's grandson Oscar Hadwiger, later admitted he had no proof.

Master carpenter Tim Carter explains that, "A simple staircase has two beams, called stringers, and the treads of the staircase rest on these beams or are connected to them...the weight of the staircase [is] transferred to where the two stringers touch the floor. The only difference with the staircase at the Loretto Chapel is these beams or stringers have been twisted into a helix." However, Carter does view the staircase as a magnificent work of art, and a feat to create using modern tools, let alone with crude hand tools and no electricity.

REALLY Cool Mailboxes

For Sale At Local Galleries!

They Were All Bronze

Norm, Cindy, Darlene, Jim & Joan

Downtown Santa Fe Architecture!

Joan & Jim

Jim - Are You Camera Shy?

Gotcha!

This Is Santa Fe Architecture!!

St. Francis Cathedral

St. Francis Cathedral (pictured right) is located just one block east of the historic Santa Fe Plaza at the end of San Francisco Street. Dedicated in 1886, the Cathedral is a blend of adobe, French-Romanesque and modern architectural styles. It is also one of the city’s most recognized, photographed and beloved landmarks.

The sixth church built on the site, it was designed by French architects, carved by Italian stonemasons, and built by local New Mexico residents. The Cathedral design is in sharp contrast to the adobe pueblo style architecture that so clearly defines Santa Fe and all of the Southwest.

The main structure is the Conquistadora Chapel, built of adobe in 1714, which houses La Conquistadora, Our Lady of Conquering Love, the country’s oldest Madonna, dating from 1625. The building was commissioned by Archbishop Lamy, whose crypt lies within the Cathedral.

In 1967, the Blessed Sacrament Chapel was added in the modern style. The many stunning stained glass windows were imported from France, and the stone for the building was brought in from 15 miles away, from what is now the small community of Lamy, New Mexico.

In July 2005, Pope Benedict XVI elevated the Cathedral to a basilica (meaning “royal hall”), calling it the “cradle of Catholicism” of the Southwest. As the first church in New Mexico history to receive this designation, it is now officially known as Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

Some Local Eateries

An interesting guy with fur hat sitting on the park bench!

So Many Talented Artists & Galleries!

This was a weathervane as the paper & scissors rotated.

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Santa Fe was near the end of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro which led south to Mexico. The Trail was used as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War.

The route crossed Comancheria, the territory of the Comanches, who demanded compensation for granting passage to the trail. Americans routinely assaulted the Comanches along the trail, finding it unacceptable that they had to pay a fee for passage to Santa Fe, and soon, all Comanches fled the area, opening up the area to American settlement.

After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest ending the Mexican–American War, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through the entire length of Kansas, the southeast corner of Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated as the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway.

Journey's End

Sculpture group portraying lead wagon of a Trail caravan as it makes its final approach into Santa Fe. Weary mules struggle to pull the wagon up a rise. A muleskinner helps a mule that has stumbled and an outrider looks back to see if he can help. Nearby, a Pueblo woman observes, while a Hispanic boy and his dog run to watch the excitement.
The Santa Fe Trail was a historic 19th century transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. First used in 1821 by William Becknell it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the arrival of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it served as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War.
The Old Santa Fe Trail is the city street that roughly follows the wagon path.
The sculpture depicts a Santa Fe Trail caravan as it nears Santa Fe.