Our Santa Fe bed & breakfast is located within walking distance to the Santa Fe Plaza, restaurants, museums, shops, art galleries and more!: for sale

Its ancient settlements and sites like the Georgia O’Keeffe museum and nearby Navajo markets embody the long-held mystique that sets this small city apart from all others.

The city of Santa Fe was formally founded and made capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in the United States. Previously it was home to Pueblo Indian villages with estimated founding dates as early as 1050.

The historic downtown plaza draws visitors to the New Mexico Art Museum and the New Mexico Museum of History.

During the summer, there are summer concerts in the evenings on the plaza and the big markets (Indian Market and Spanish Market) are set up in the plaza.

Increasingly known for its cuisine, Santa Fe has more than 200 restaurant choices ranging from local New Mexican flavors and Southwestern cuisine to authentic world cuisines.

The Canyon Road art galleries showcase a wide variety of art ranging from indigenous American and Southwestern to contemporary and experimental.

Canyon Road, just east of the Plaza, is home to dozens of art galleries and is a major destination for international collectors, tourists and locals.

The Santa Fe Opera is world-renowned and the opera house is absolutely stunning- it’s open-air with the Jemez Mountains as the backdrop of the stage. The opera season starts at the end of June and runs through the end of August.

At the base of the high canyons, situated at 7,500 feet about sea level, Santa Fe has the highest elevation for a city in the USA. Its semi-arid climate is varied and appealing during any of the four seasons.

In summer, it is always about ten degrees cooler than in Albuquerque 40 miles away, while the winter has skiing in the nearby Sangre de Cristos mountains.

In fall, when the aspens are all golden it is like being under a spotlight – it is so brilliant – and the springtime brings the blooming red and yellow colors of the cholla trees or the white flowers of the yucca, blooming in huge beautiful clusters along the hills and canyons.

Santa Fe is also the final destination of the historic Santa Fe Trail – a rugged footnote in our national history.

The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Spaniards at the end of the 18th century and used afterward by the Americans in the 19th century.

Although part of our Western lore, crossing the Santa Fe Trail in the late 1800s and early 1900s was risky business and not for the faint-hearted.

It is far easier to reach Santa Fe today, and for hikers and outdoorsmen and history buffs, nearby Bandelier National Park has both loads of hiking trails and archaeological sites.

Additionally, the Valles Caldera has hiking and archeology and the Jemez Mountains and the Sangre De Cristos both are known for their natural hot springs- many of which are open to the public.

To make the most of your visit, go to SantaFeSelection.com Travel Guide for the best of the authentic Santa Fe restaurants, unique shops, museums, galleries, activities and more!

Santa Fe

Sante Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in New Mexico with a population of 84,683 in 2019, the county seat of Santa Fe County, and its metropolitan area is part of the larger Albuquerque–Santa Fe–Las Vegas combined statistical area, with a population of 1,178,664 in 2018. The city was founded in 1610 as the capital of Nuevo México, after it replaced the capital San Juan de los Caballeros (near modern Española) at San Gabriel de Yungue-Ouinge, which makes it the oldest state capital in the United States. With an elevation of 7,199 feet (2,194 m), it is also the state capital with the highest elevation.

It is considered one of the world's great art cities, due to its many art galleries and installations, and is recognized by UNESCO's Creative Cities Network. Cultural highlights include Santa Fe Plaza and the Palace of the Governors, and the Fiesta de Santa Fe, as well as distinct New Mexican cuisine restaurants and New Mexico music performances. Among the numerous art galleries and installations are, for example, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, as is a gallery by cartoonist Chuck Jones, along with newer art collectives such as Meow Wolf.

The area surrounding Santa Fe was occupied for at least several thousand years by indigenous people who built villages several hundred years ago on the current site of the city. It was known by the Tewa inhabitants as Ogha Po'oge ('white shell water place'). The name of the city of Santa Fe means 'Holy Faith' in Spanish, and the city's full name as founded remains La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís ('The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi').

Etymology

Before European colonization of the Americas, the area Santa Fe occupied between 900 CE and the 1500s was known to the Tewa peoples as Oghá P'o'oge ('white shell water place') and by the Navajo people as Yootó ('bead' + 'water place'). In 1610, Juan de Oñate established the area as Santa Fe de Nuevo México, a province of New Spain. Formal Spanish settlements were developed leading the colonial governor Pedro de Peralta to rename the area La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís ('the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi'). The Spanish phrase Santa Fe is translated as 'holy faith' in English. Although more commonly known as Santa Fe, the city's full, legal name remains to this day as La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís. The full name of the city is in both the seal and the flag of the city, although, as pointed out by Associated Press in 2020, Assisi in Spanish is misspelled, reading Aśis instead of Asís.

The standard Spanish pronunciation of the city's name is SAHN-tah-FAY, as contextualized within the city's full Spanish name La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís. However, due to the large amounts of tourism and immigration into Santa Fe, an English pronunciation of SAN-tuh-FAY is also commonly used.

History

Spain and Mexico

The area of Santa Fe was originally occupied by indigenous Tanoan peoples, who lived in numerous Pueblo villages along the Rio Grande. One of the earliest known settlements in what today is downtown Santa Fe came sometime after 900 CE. A group of native Tewa 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 Oghá P'o'oge in Tewa. The Tanoans and other Pueblo peoples settled along the Santa Fe River for its water and transportation.

The river had a year-round flow until the 1700s. By the 20th century the Santa Fe River was a seasonal waterway. 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 Spanish 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. Juan de Oñate was banished and exiled from New Mexico by the Spanish, after his rule was deemed cruel towards the indigenous population. 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 designated it as the capital of the province, which it has almost constantly remained, making it the oldest state capital in the United States.

Lack of Native American representation within New Mexico's early government led to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, when groups of different Native Pueblo peoples were successful in driving the Spaniards out of New Mexico to El Paso, the Pueblo continued running New Mexico proper from the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe from 1680 to 1692. The territory was reconquered in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas through the war campaign called the "Bloodless Reconquest" which was criticized as violent even at the time, it was actually the following governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez that truly started to broker peace, such as the founding of Albuquerque, to guarantee better representation and trade access for Pueblos in New Mexico's government. Other governors of New Mexico, such as Tomás Vélez Cachupin, continued to be better known for their more forward-thinking work with the indigenous population of New Mexico. Santa Fe was Spain's provincial seat at outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. It was considered important to fur traders based in present-day Saint Louis, Missouri. When the area was still under Spanish rule, the Chouteau brothers of Saint Louis gained a monopoly on the fur trade, before the United States acquired Missouri under the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The fur trade contributed to the wealth of Saint Louis. The city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution after Mexico achieved independence from Spain.

United States

In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico. Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny led the main body of his Army of the West of some 1,700 soldiers into Santa Fe 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 lack of communications and quality of military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule.

After its annexation, Texas claimed Santa Fe along with other territories in eastern New Mexico. Texas Governor Peter H. Bell sent a letter to President Zachary Taylor, who died before he could read it, demanding that the U.S. Army stop defending New Mexico. In response, Taylor’s successor Millard Fillmore stationed additional troops to the area to halt any incursion by the Texas Militia. The territorial dispute was finally resolved by the Compromise of 1850, which designated the 103rd meridian west as Texas’s western border.

Some American visitors at first 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.

In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy arrived, becoming bishop of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado in 1853. During his leadership, he traveled to France, Rome, Tucson, Los Angeles, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Mexico City. He built the Santa Fe Saint Francis Cathedral and shaped Catholicism in the region until his death in 1888.

As part of the New Mexico Campaign of the Civil War, General Henry Sibley occupied the city, flying the Confederate flag over Santa Fe for a few days in March 1862. Sibley was forced to withdraw after Union troops destroyed his logistical trains following the Battle of Glorieta Pass. The Santa Fe National Cemetery was created by the federal government after the war in 1870 to inter the Union soldiers who died fighting there.

On October 21, 1887, Anton Docher, "The Padre of Isleta", 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 serving in Santa Fe, Bernalillo and Taos, he moved to Isleta on December 28, 1891. He wrote an ethnological article published in The Santa Fé Magazine in June 1913, in which he describes early 20th-century life in the Pueblos. 

As railroads were extended into the West, Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. But as the tracks were constructed 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.^[29] The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad extended the narrow gauge Chili Line from the nearby city of Española to Santa Fe in 1886.

Neither was sufficient to offset the negative effects of Santa Fe's having been bypassed by the main railroad route. It suffered gradual economic decline into the early 20th century. Activists created 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. In the early 20th century, Santa Fe became a base for numerous writers and artists. The first airplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by Rose Dugan, carrying Vera von Blumenthal as passenger. Together the two women started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry, helping native women to market their wares. They contributed to the founding of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.

In 1912, New Mexico was admitted as the United States of America's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.

20th century

1912 plan  In 1912, when the town's population was approximately 5,000 people, the city's civic leaders designed and enacted a sophisticated city plan that incorporated elements of the contemporary City Beautiful movement, city planning, and historic preservation. The latter was particularly influenced by similar movements in Germany. The plan anticipated limited future growth, considered the scarcity of water, and recognized the future prospects of suburban development on the outskirts. The planners foresaw that its development must be in harmony with the city's character.

Artists and tourists

After the main line of the railroad bypassed Santa Fe, 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 Hewett 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, the federal government ordered a Japanese American internment camp to be established. Beginning in June 1942, the Department of Justice arrested 826 Japanese-American men after the attack on Pearl Harbor; they held them near Santa Fe, 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, sidearms and tear gas. By September, the internees had been transferred to other facilities—523 to War Relocation Authority concentration camps in the interior of the West, and 302 to Army internment camps.

The Santa Fe site was used next to hold German and Italian nationals, who were considered enemy aliens after the outbreak of war.^[34] In February 1943, these civilian detainees were transferred to Department of Justice custody.

The camp was expanded at that time to take in 2,100 men segregated from the general population of Japanese American inmates. These were mostly Nisei and Kibei who had renounced their U.S. citizenship when asked to sign a loyalty oath that had confusing language, saying the person agreed to "give up loyalty to the Japanese emperor." Men born in America who had never identified with the emperor were insulted, especially as they were being asked to enroll in the armed forces while their Japanese-born parents were interned in camps. 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. The facility was closed and sold as surplus soon after. The camp was located in what is now the Casa Solana neighborhood.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 37.4 sq mi (96.9 km²), of which 37.3 sq mi (96.7 km²) is land and 0.077 sq mi (0.2 km²) (0.21%) is covered by water.

Santa Fe is located at 7,199 feet (2,194 m) above sea level, making it the highest state capital in the United States.

The Santa Fe River and the arroyos of Santa Fe drain the region.

Climate

Santa Fe's climate is characterized by cool, dry winters, hot summers, and relatively low precipitation. According to the Köppen climate classification, depending on which variant of the system is used, the city has either a subtropical highland climate (Cwb) or a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dwb), unusual but not uncommon at 35°N. With low precipitation, though, it is more similar to the climates of Turkey that fall into this category. The 24-hour average temperature in the city ranges from 30.3 °F (−0.9 °C) in December to 70.1 °F (21.2 °C) in July. Due to the relative aridity and elevation, average diurnal temperature variation exceeds 25 °F (14 °C) in every month, and 30 °F (17 °C) much of the year. The city usually receives six to eight snowfalls a year between November and April. The heaviest rainfall occurs in July and August, with the arrival of the North American Monsoon.

When the Republic of Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836, it attempted to claim Santa Fe and other parts of Nuevo México as part of the western portion of Texas along the Río Grande. In 1841, a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, intending to take control of the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the force was poorly prepared and was easily captured by the New Mexican military.

Government

The city of Santa Fe is a charter city. It is governed by a mayor-council system. The city is divided into four electoral districts, each represented by two councilors. Councilors are elected to staggered four-year terms and one councilor from each district is elected every two years.

The municipal judgeship is an elected position and a requirement of the holder is that they be a member of the state bar. The judge is elected to four-year terms.

The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and is a member of the governing body. The mayor has numerous powers and duties, and while previously the mayor could only vote when there was a tie among the city council, the city charter was amended by referendum in 2014 to allow the mayor to vote on all matters in front of the council. Starting in 2018, the position of mayor will be a full-time professional paid position within city government. Day-to-day operations of the municipality are undertaken by the city manager's office.