Visit New Mexico history

The Santa Fe Fiesta, which had first taken place in 1712, was revived in 1919.

Interest in some sort of national recognition for the resource grew throughout the latter part of the 1920s.

Another loose coalition called the New Mexico Painters formed in 1923 included Gustave Baumann, Ernest Blumenschein, and B.J.O. Norfeldt; their purpose, according to Time Magazine, November, 1923, was to hold annual exhibitions in New York, Chicago, and other art centers.

In 1926 Route 66 wound its way through the state and car travel opened the floodgates—tourism expanded exponentially.

Blackwater Draw was first recognized in 1929 as one of the most well-known and significant sites in North American archaeology.

The 24,536-acre Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1937 to provide habitat for thousands of migrating sand hill cranes and waterfowl.

Los Alamos was established in 1942 as one of the focal points of the Manhattan Project.

Roswell's more recent history includes a mysterious crash of a supposed UFO that occurred north of the city in 1947.

In 1956 John Crosby built the Santa Fe Opera, which has developed into one of America's premier summer opera festivals, drawing 77,000 people to its open-air theater where the view is almost as exciting as the music.

The Blackwater Draw Museum first opened to the public in 1969 primarily to display artifacts describing and interpreting life at the site from Clovis times (over 13,000 years ago) through the recent historic period.

In a landmark decision in 1970, the United States government returned sacred Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo.