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.

[dansangel]

((((((Cal)))))))

Hope you are over the *crud* once and for all. Have a fun-tastic FRiday!

:-)

[sauropod]

Ping!

[Calpernia]

I hope your friend Russ is ok. That was really sweet of Jacob!

[Calpernia]

Great news about Ashly! I know you will all be very happy when she is off the oxygen fully.

[Calpernia]

Click!

Tidbit:

The Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) is a medium sized bat. Their bodies are about 9 centimeters in length, and they weigh about 15 grams. Their ears are wide and set apart to help them find prey with echolocation. Its fur color varies from dark brown to gray.

Mexican free-tailed bats live in caves in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, central Chile and Argentina. Their colonies are the largest congregations of mammals in the world! The largest colony is found at Bracken Cave, north of San Antonio, Texas, with nearly 20 million bats. The bats of Bracken Cave can eat up to 250 tons of insects per night!

[Calpernia]

How are your hands today?

[Calpernia]

Have a safe trip Dutchess.

[Pippin]

Hi, (((CAL)))!

[firebrand]

Saw a rain dance in New Mexico a few decades ago. It did not start "on time." It started when one old Indian came out of his pueblo dwelling and went to visit another one. Then they gathered others, one by one. Then slowly, slowly, the Indians came down from the pueblo and assembled for the dance.

The older folks were in traditional clothes, some of the youngsters in modern dress but just as serious and undramatic about the dance as their elders.

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.

[Calpernia]

Thanks {{{Angel}}}!

I seem to be myself again; but I just came back from picking Frankie up from school early (he got sick). Guess we are going to play that "pass the germ" game.

Have a great weekend.

[Calpernia]

Morning to you Pips!

[Pippin]

I'm seeing a lot of threads here this week that are getting me very nervous and upset!

Reasons for my tag line.

There is some one else we should keep in our prayers as well. Even if you're not Catholic. Please pray for Pope John Paul II.

[Calpernia]

Rainmaker! Click!

[Calpernia]

I marked a couple of threads that had great news that were posted LATE last night.

I ping you to them. They will be encouraging.

Besides, what is there to be upset about? We are with the RIGHT crowd :)

[Pippin]

Thanks, Cal!

I need the BOOST into the RIGHT direction! :O)

[Mama_Bear]

Sorry I didn't get a chance to say hello before you set off on your Michigan trip. Hope you have a safe one and I am sure the fall foliage will be just beautiful.

I am looking forward to learning about Michigan when you profile that state. I have been there, but only on a quick drive through the southern part. I'm sure you will do your state proud. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Beautiful segment on New Mexico!

Thank you, Aqua. Yes, New Mexico looks like it is beautiful. I would love to visit, especially this time of year when they have their balloon festival in Albuquerque. My cousin has been to it several times and says it is an amazing sight to see hundreds of balloons lifting off the ground all at once. I'd love to go for a ride in one too. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Mornin' Meekie. Happy FRiday to you too. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Ruidoso sounds lovely. When I think of New Mexico, I think of desert and mesas and vastness, but I know it is more than that. I know there are forests and mountains, but still, when I discovered that the black bear was the state animal, I was surprised. I would have thought it would be the Gila Monster (a reptile, I know). Who would have thought that any kind of bears live in New Mexico? LOL

Mornin' ((((((BillieFRiend)))))). Wishing you a nice weekend. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Good morning...oh, I see it is afternoon in your neighborhood.

That roadrunner is a funny looking bird, looks like the poor thing could use a good meal. It has a distinctive call too, almost jungle-like.