A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....10-03-03....New Mexico ~ "The Land of Enchantment"

Mama_Bear

[Mama_Bear]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Mama_Bear, dansangel, dutchess, Aquamarine ~

Please join us for a cyber-tour of another great state in this Union of ours. As we discover and spotlight each of our 50 states we also salute the proud FReepers who call their state 'home'.

Over the coming months each "Finest" hostess will profile her own home state - I will be presenting all the other states in random order. Please FReepMail me if you would like to participate in spotlighting your state. I would love to have your input on what you would like to see highlighted.

These are the states that have been presented to date:

05-23-03 Alabama
06-27-03 Maryland
07-11-03 Vermont
07-25-03 Utah
08-05-03 Texas
08-22-03 Nevada
08-26-03 Washington DC
09-05-03 Tennessee
09-17-03 Florida
09-19-03 Minnesota

Today we shine our Finest spotlight on New Mexico and the 88 FReepers who hail from "The Land of Enchantment". Click on the graphic below to visit FreeRepublic's New Mexico message board.

The first observation newcomers make about New Mexico is its vast geographical openness. Whether on winding mountain roads, long stretching highways or out on the wide open plains, the blue skies reach into distant horizons. New Mexico is actually the fifth largest state in the United States with 121,335 square miles.

The vast tracts of land in New Mexico provide a wealth of natural resources for farming, ranching, and manufacturing.

New Mexico's economy is as diverse as its cultural roots. It includes hundreds of art galleries, challenging ski areas, a booming dairy industry, international trade with Mexico, and a proliferation of technological breakthroughs due to the presence of national laboratories in Albuquerque and Los Alamos to name but a few. New Mexico is also one of the largest energy producing states in the nation, ranking fourth in natural gas production in 1992.

New Mexico is a blend of ancient cultural traditions and striking environmental diversity. Its unique multi-cultural personality and character truly make it America's Land of Enchantment and a state worth further exploration.


A bit of history about Santa Fe,
the Capitol of New Mexico.

Thirteen years before Plymouth Colony was settled by the Mayflower Pilgrims, Santa Fe, New Mexico, was established with a small cluster of European type dwellings. It would soon become the seat of power for the Spanish Empire north of the Rio Grande. Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in North America and the oldest European community west of the Mississippi.

While Santa Fe was inhabited on a very small scale in 1607, it was truly settled by the conquistador Don Pedro de Peralta in 1609-1610. Santa Fe is the site of both the oldest public building in America, the Palace of the Governors and the nation's oldest community celebration, the Santa Fe Fiesta, established in 1712 to commemorate the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico in the summer of 1692. Peralta and his men laid out the plan for Santa Fe at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the site of the ancient Pueblo Indian ruin of Kaupoge, or "place of shell beads near the water."

The city has been the capital for the Spanish "Kingdom of New Mexico," the Mexican province of Nuevo Mejico, the American territory of New Mexico (which contained what is today Arizona and New Mexico) and since 1912 the state of New Mexico. Santa Fe, in fact, was the first foreign capital over taken by the United States, when in 1846 General Stephen Watts Kearny captured it during the Mexican-American War.


Read more about the history of New Mexico HERE.

A fact unrealized by many is that the great cowboy phenomena of the American West began in New Mexico more than four centuries ago when Spanish explorers and colonizers brought the first cattle and horses to the region in the late 1500s. The ensuing centuries saw the vaquero (cowboy) ranching lifestyle absorbed into the various Native American cultures and continued by Anglo settlers who came en masse after the American takeover in the mid-1800s.

The ethnic diversity of New Mexico's cowboy culture also included many African Americans who wholeheartedly adopted the lifestyle after the Civil War. The faces of the many authentic cowboys working in New Mexico today still strongly represent this historical mix of westerners.

It's been an obvious love affair between the cowboys and the land since the first cattle and horses were brought to New Mexico on Juan de Oñate's colonization expedition in 1598.

The state capitol building was dedicated on December 8, 1966. Its design is a New Mexico territorial style. This type of architecture is of Pueblo Indian adobe, an adaptation from the Greek revival period. The capitol building forms the shape of the Zia Indian Sun Symbol, which appears on the state flag below.

New Mexico's distinctive insignia is the Zia Sun Symbol which originated with the Indians of the Zia Pueblo in ancient times. Its design reflects their tribal philosophy, with its wealth of pantheistic spiritualism teaching the basic harmony of all things in the universe.

Four is the sacred number of the Zia, and the figure is composed of a circle from which four points radiate. These points, made of four straight lines of varying length, personify the number most often used by the giver of all good gifts.

To the Zia Indian, the sacred number is embodied in the earth with its four main directions: in the year, with its four seasons; in the day, with sunrise, noon, evening and night; in life, with its four divisions--childhood, youth, manhood and old age. Everything is bound together in a circle of life and love, without beginning, without end.

Points of Interest in New Mexico

If you are fortunate enough to be able to spend some
time in this beautiful state, be sure to visit...

• The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
  (but hurry, it starts tomorrow!) 
  
  
  
• White Sands National Monument.
   
• ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO: UFO Festival.
  
   
• New Mexico State Parks.
   
• Carslbad Caverns.
   
  
• New Mexico National Parks.
   
• Billy The Kid National Scenic Byway.
  Read more about Billy the Kid HERE. 
  

***********************

Thank you to the following websites
for information and graphics...

New Mexico Cowboys
Oldest U.S. Capitol
Origin Of The Flag Of New Mexico
New Mexico's Land and People

Thank you for joining us on our cyber trip to New Mexico. I am sure I have overlooked many interesting facts and points of interest, so please help us celebrate New Mexico by joining in and posting what you know and love about this Fine state.



Have a nice FRiday and a great weekend!

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 09-29-03 Military Monday 09-30-03 Hall of Fame #5 10-01-03 Muscle Car Mania! 10-02-03 John's Two Cents

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
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5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

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[Mama_Bear]

[Support Free Republic]

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

[Mama_Bear]

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Finest Ping List, FReepMail me.

[Pippin]

Good Morning (((Lori)))!

An Enchanting Thread today! :O)

[The Mayor]

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Mama.

[The Mayor]

I have to share this with you all.
Yesterday we received an e-mail from a friend. Her husband Russ had taken a bad fall from a roof and
he is in the hospital in real rough shape. He has brain damage and is paralysed from a spine fracture.
My wife told two of my oldest sons and my son Jacob who is 13 thought it was me.
The poor kid came here to FreeRepublic and some how figured out how to post an article.
This is the context of his post.

MAYOR IN TROUBLE!
One of the members of Free Rebublic named Rus Thompson
A.K.A. "The Mayor" is in alot of trouble... Rus fell off a roof last night in which he sufferd brain damage and broke some part of his spine. Rus has undergone brain surgery and must also undergo surgery on his spine but cant because of the complications in his brain and the surrounding areas. Rus is now on a "touch and go basis meaning he could die. Please keep Rus and his family in your prayers so he may possibly get better.

I thank God he didn't post it, I am fine and was on the road all day long. But when I got the call from my wife and she told me I almost cried, I can only imagine what was going thru my sons mind.

He knows where to go for Prayers doesn't he.... and he knows where my friends are.
Thank God for FreeRepublic..

[Mama_Bear]

Thank you Pippin!

I was just about to FReepMail you to tell you that I received your mail yesterday, but since I just now told you that I received it, I won't. LOL.

Good job! It should be fun. Not sure exactly when I will get your new idea for a thread created, but I will keep you updated. There are certain graphics that I have in mind to use and will have to see if I can locate them.

Have a great day Pip. :-)

[ladtx]

Good morning all. An update on Ashly Elise. She is doing better, her lungs remain inflated and they have been able to reduce the amount of oxygen they are giving her. Slow progress, but progress all the same.

You selected one of my favorite states. I was raised most of my life in New Mexico. Mrs ladtx and I met in Albuquerque and were married in Clayton in an adobe Catholic Church. Here is a picture of one of my favorite sites, the Santaurio de Chimayo in Chimayo, an out of the way community in northern New Mexico.

SCOUTS OUT!

[Aeronaut]

Thank God you are OK Mr. Mayor. My prayer is extended for your friend.

[Mama_Bear]

I thank God he didn't post it, I am fine and was on the road all day long. But when I got the call from my wife and she told me I almost cried, I can only imagine what was going thru my sons mind.

Oh no! I almost cried reading this. What a touching story - that your son would come here to ask for prayers for you. Poor kid.....how upset he must have been! And, how relieved he must to have been when he found out it was not his dad that had been injured!

Prayers going up for a complete recovery for your friend.

[The Mayor]

I know, it still chokes me up.

Thanks for your Prayers, I haven't gotten an update on him yet. He is in the Lords Hands and Prayers are needed.

[Mama_Bear]

An update on Ashly Elise. She is doing better, her lungs remain inflated and they have been able to reduce the amount of oxygen they are giving her. Slow progress, but progress all the same.

This is wonderful news! Your little granddaughter has been on my mind and in my prayers.

Re: New Mexico - I enjoyed profiling this state. I know I say that about ALL the states, but this state truly is one of my favorites. I guess it's because of New Mexico's history and her Spanish and Native American culture. There is something about the American southwest, it's hard to explain. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Good morning, Aeronaut. Happy FRiday to you!

[Mama_Bear]

If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie; Dansangel; Dutchess; Mama_Bear; Aquamarine; FreeTheHostages, and we will add their name to this list. As we pray for them, we pray also for all our nation’s leaders, military personnel, and their families and friends.

[xJones]

I love New Mexico. We visited Chaco National Historical Park about 15 years ago. It's located somewhat out of the way in northwest New Mexico, and at the time we had to drive in over about 20 miles of a "roughboard" dirt road, but it was really worth it! Chaco. Chaco, built by the mysterious Anasazi, the "old ones".

And you can freeze your tail off climbing up and down the paths in beautiful Carlsbad Cavern in southeastern New Mexico. That's the most beautiful cave I know of in the U.S., and I've taken the tour through several others.

And there's Los Alamos, atomic city, and the museum about the Manhattan Project is great.

And I could go on and on, because New Mexico is loaded with fascinating sights, and the New Mexican style of Mexican food beats all others, IMHO.

[Mama_Bear]

Thank you so much for this information about New Mexico. I went to the "Chaco" website...very interesting. I would love to go there. New Mexico has an allure that I can't explain. I guess "enchanted" says it best. :-)

I also want to go to the Carlsbad Caverns. I have been to the Luray Carverns in Virginia, but I've never been to Carlsbad.

Hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats, whirling counterclockwise, spill forth from a gigantic hole in the earth and are silhouetted against a colorful desert sky...this is the bat flight experience at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

[Mama_Bear]

Carlsbad Cavern's "Bashful Elephant"


This is one of the cave formations that almost everyone remembers years after a visit.

[GailA]

Good Morning FRiends..thought I'd put the Coffee's on before I scotted out the door to go get Rocky's haircut.

[Mama_Bear]

Mornin' Gail. How thoughtful of you to drop off coffee before leaving for Rocky's haircut. :-)

Hugs to you and pats to Rocky. Have a great FRiday.