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.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
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

Click on the photo to view the album. To
submit your photo, please contact danbh59@yahoo.com
and include Freeper Photo Album in subject line.

[MEG33]

I was holding my breath there for a moment til I realized what you were conveying.I am sad for your friend,tho and know this is a trying time for all who love him.Prayers for a miracle.Your son must have been terribly distressed.

[Mama_Bear]

That has to be difficult, and we appreciate what you evoke - participation and interaction by persons who lived there or visited or who have researched interesting things. U Make History Phun !!

Thank you, LadyX. You say the sweetest things. :-)

Go easy on 'er, Thin Man - do not become 'overbearing' in pointing out her tiny boo-boos....why, we might even be magnanimous and refer to Meekie's adorable pencil-stirring coffeemaker as Carslbad Caveman..:))

LOL! Now THAT is an excellent idea. How very sensitive you are, Maggie.

(((((((((((((Maggie)))))))))))))))

[LadyX]

"Saw a rain dance in New Mexico a few decades ago.

It was nothing like the Hollywood version. It was slow, graceful, dignified, with no exaggerated movements. Done in a circle, with soft chanting. It was one of the most beautiful, moving things I have ever seen."

It has been my privilege to attend gathering of Indians in Florida and North Carolina, and they are awesome! It is something every person should experience with reverence for the centuries of development of expressions of beauty and grace found in one's surroundings.

Calpernia, I'm enjoying all your illustrations and articles and sounds, as usual, and thank you for your many contributions to the Finest threads.

By the way, we need rain here - perhaps it is time for - - ..:))
an after dark rain dance on the back lawn...wanna help there in NJ?

[ST.LOUIE1]

Mighty purty post today, Fuzzy. : )

Got a hot tamale on ya? LOL

[MEG33]

Thanks for the roadrunner call.There were two roadrunners roaming the neighborhood one day soon after moving back to Texas.I was all excited but the neighbors were not surprised.I also had a wild turkey and a chick wander by my back door!

[ST.LOUIE1]

One day, after .45MAN and I hit the Lotto,
we plan to visit each state in our new Greyhound Bus Camper! :-)

Come to St.Louis!!!

Errrr....if you don't bring .45....you may stay over at my pad. LOL

Now you know wolfie is just kiddin', .45Man....right?

Dansy!! Tell .45 to put that gun down! : (

[Mama_Bear]

Hi wolfie!

Mighty purty post today, Fuzzy. : )

Why, thank you, sir wolf.

Got a hot tamale on ya? LOL

LOL, yep. I got your tamale right here and, if it's too hot for you, a margarita to cool you off. ;-)

(Looks like Fuzzy may have taken a few sips out of it.....but I didn't touch the tamale. LOL.)

[Mama_Bear]

Thank you, Meg. This was a fun state to present, but then, they all have been in their own way.

[ST.LOUIE1]

And for my fuzziest of brothahs:
[[[[[{{{{{(((((Louie_Wolfie_Man)))))}}}}}]]]]]

Just how many fuzzy brotha's do you have???? : )

wolfie((((((( dansy )))))))wolfie

[LadyX]

I saw a roadrunner once - - ...:))

[HiJinx]

Deming, New Mexico - Home of the Great American Duck Race - and gateway to Hatch, New Mexico, home of the world's best chile peppers!

(FReepmail me when you're ready to do Arizona!)

[ST.LOUIE1]

Hi wolfie! Mighty purty post today, Fuzzy. : )

Why, thank you, sir wolf.

You're welcome, cutiebear. : )

Got a hot tamale on ya? LOL

LOL, yep. I got your tamale right here and, if it's too hot for you, a margarita to cool you off. ;-)

I'd rather have a beer. : )

[Billie]

OMG! Duck racing! Hi, Jinx! You find the neatest things! But have you ever been to them? :)

Dog racing and horse racing, yes! Ducks? how funny!

[Mama_Bear]

I'd rather have a beer. : )

Well, yes, beer goes well with tamales too. :-)

(((((((((((woofie))))))))))))))

[ST.LOUIE1]

G'day, everyone!

G'day to you, speacial *Lady*. : )

[HiJinx]

Shucks, no, never been. We passed through once on our way to Germany via Alabama (Dad's home) and Charleston, SC. It was the day before the races began, but we couldn't afford to stop. Military units don't like it when you don't show up on time!!

Ruidoso is another place we've driven through on the way to somewhere else. I was taking my son, AZ Flyboy, back to school in Tulsa. As someone else said, it doesn't register at first that New Mexico is a varied land of desert, mountain, prairie, canyon, river valleys, mesas, and most anything else you can think of.

Remember Jody Foster's movie, Contact? The VLA (Very Large Array) antenna farm they use to search for extra-terrestrial life is in New Mexico, almost directly across I-25 from Ruidoso. I realize that's a coupla hundred miles, but to us Southwesterners that really isn't so far, is it?

Gotta go...see ya' round!

[LadyX]

Delighted to see you've arrived, Jinxie!
How much longer for The Waiting Game??

I raced across the upper corner of your state on my way from Fairbanks to South Florida and then up to South Carolina - - wish I'd had time to see more of it.

[ST.LOUIE1]

I'd rather have a beer. : )

Well, yes, beer goes well with tamales too. :-)

Actually....I don't drink when eating, unless it's a good wine. Wolfie is 'almost' a teetotaler. : )

Ooops....almost forgot. : )

[ST.LOUIE1]

Good afternoon, Cal. : )

[Mama_Bear]

Hi Jinx! Thanks for coming by and leaving that duck racing link. How funny!

I know I missed many interesting things to see and do in New Mexico, so I appreciate those of you who help spotlight the state by posting interesting tidbits and links. :-)