HISTORY12 - Albuquerque

Pat and I are planning to attend the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico in October, so ahead of that visit, I wanted to know about the city’s history.  In this blog, I’m going to try to compare New Mexico and Albuquerque history with that of Arizona and Tucson - which I’ve been writing about for years.

Albuquerque is the most populous city in the state of New Mexico with an estimated population of 560,218 in 2018.  It is located in the north center of the state, at an (average) altitude of 5,312 feet, with the Sandia Mountains running along the eastern side and the Rio Grande River flowing through city, west of the downtown area.  The city was named after a Spanish town with a similar name, is known locally as Duke City, and abbreviated as ABQ.

Earliest Peoples

Paleo-Indians.  New Mexico’s first people were descendants of people who followed herds of large game animals from Siberia across a land bridge in the Bering Strait into Alaska between about 45,000 BC and 12,000 BC.  Subsequent generations of these Paleo-Indians (ancient ones) gradually spread southward to populate North America, reaching the American southwest by about 9,500 BC

Paleo-Indians hunted large animals like mammoths, bison, and sloths and lived near rivers, swamps, and marshes that had good fishing, and attracted birds and game animals.  Their small, extended family groups moved from place to place as resources were depleted.

The dominant Paleo Indian cultures in New Mexico were the Clovis culture, followed by the Folsom culture, both known for large, razor sharp, distinctively-grooved spear points. 

Archaic Indians.  The Paleo Indian tradition was followed by the Archaic Period which lasted from about 6,000 BC to AD 200.  The dominant culture in New Mexico during this period was the Desert Culture.  When the climate warmed at the end of the last glacial period, most large game animals died off, and the Southwest’s native peoples adapted by supplementing their diet with smaller game and a variety of edible wild plants.  Late in the Archaic Period, people started growing their own crops, including corn, beans, squash, and cotton.  This transition from a hunter-gatherer way of life to one centered on farming, led to permanent, if only seasonally occupied, small settlements.

A second archaic culture in New Mexico, the Basket Maker Culture, occupied the Colorado Plateau in the Four Corners area (1,500 BC to AD 500) and was known for masterful baskets and sandals.

Ancestral Pueblo.  The Ancestral Pueblo civilization arose out of the earlier Desert and Basket Maker cultures to dominate the Four Corners area between about AD 200 and AD 1450.  They occupied high mesas and deep canyons, extending to northeastern Arizona and northern New Mexico - to about 100 miles south of the future site of Albuquerque.

The Ancestral Pueblo civilization went through an amazing transition from hunters and foragers, to living in pithouses, then adopting agriculture and starting to build pueblos (communal adobe dwellings) on high mesas about AD 750, before apparently seeking protection from invaders by moving to multi-room adobe dwellings in cliff ledges about AD 1150. 

Well preserved ruins of Ancestral Pueblo structures remain today and have become symbols of prehistoric civilization in the southwest.  The largest and most famous of the pueblos is Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon (about 100 “crow-flies” miles northwest of Albuquerque).  This pueblo had five stories and 800 rooms, 37 kivas (underground ceremonial chambers) and housed perhaps a thousand people.  Examples of spectacular cliff dwellings can be found at Mesa Verde in Colorado, and Canyon de Chelly and Navajo National Monument in northeastern Arizona.

The Ancestral Pueblo used irrigation to increase their farm yields. They were master craftspeople, designing elaborate pottery (white or red with black designs), brightly colored cotton and feather clothing, and exquisite turquoise jewelry with intricate mosaic designs.

These prehistoric civilizations dominated in the southwest for over 1,000 years.  (Courtesy of Tom Bergin)

Native Americans

By about 1300, the Ancestral Pueblo people began abandoning their villages, with many of them migrating to the south, or reestablishing themselves in new pueblos in northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and the Rio Grande Valley.  When Spanish explorers first arrived in the American southwest in the 1500s, they encountered Native American descendants of the prehistoric Ancestral Pueblo civilization, including the Zuni, in several villages located about 150 miles due west of present day Albuquerque, near the current border of Arizona; the Hopi, in a handful of villages in Arizona, about 250 miles northwest of Albuquerque and 100 miles northwest of the Zuni villages; and pueblo tribes in the Rio Grande Valley, extending over 200 miles from north of Taos to south of Socorro.  Two of the Rio Grande Valley pueblos were located on the outskirts of present day Albuquerque - the Pueblo of Isleta and Sandia Pueblo - and have been continuously inhabited for centuries. 

The Spanish also encountered new immigrants to the region - the Apache and Navajo, who were late arrivals to the southwest, completing long immigration journeys from Alaska and western Canada sometime between 1200 and 1500.  The Apache were nomadic raiders.  The Navajo were originally raiders too, but eventually adopted a pastoral life style.

The Apache and Navajo peoples were likely to have set camps in the Albuquerque area, as there is evidence of trade and cultural exchange between the different Native American groups going back centuries before European conquest.

These Indian tribes were prominent in New Mexico when Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s.

Spanish Exploration and Early Colonization

In 1540-1542 Spanish Conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado made the first systematic exploration of the American southwest by a European.  With an army of 300 horseman and foot soldiers, Coronado entered present day Arizona from Mexico City, searching for the rumored “seven cities of gold.”  He started up the San Pedro River and headed northeast to the Zuni villages at Hawikuh in northwestern New Mexico, mistakenly thinking that these were his rich targets.  Disappointed at finding no gold, he sent a small party to the northwest that reached the Hopi pueblos and eventually the Grand Canyon.  Coronado then headed east, passing the Acoma Pueblo, to reach the Rio Grande Valley, where he established a winter camp at the pueblos at Tiquex, about 20 miles north of present day Albuquerque, and with smaller parties, explored up and down the river, where the Spaniards first set eyes on the future site of Albuquerque.  Finding no riches, Coronado continued east to the Pecos River and on into the Great Plains, reaching as far as Salina, Kansas, before returning to Mexico City on the same route.

This is the route of the Coronado Expedition.

Spanish colonization of Mexico began in 1519-1521 with the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Central Mexico.  By 1528 Spanish conquistadors had reached northward to today’s Mexican State of Chihuahua.  The conquest of the Chihuahua took nearly 100 years in the face of fierce resistance from the indigenous Concho Indians, but the Spanish Crown persisted to transform the region into a profitable mining center.  Chihuahua became the launching place for expeditions into New Mexico.  The Mexican State of Sonora (south of Arizona) developed much more slowly and there were no other Spanish explorer probes into the U.S. through southern Arizona.  The Spanish entrada into southern Arizona wouldn’t resume until 1691 with missionary work along the Santa Cruz River.

Forty years after Coronado’s expedition, in 1581-1582, Francisco Sanchez, called “El Chamuscado” and Fray Agustin Rodriguez left Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, a mining town at the northernmost outpost of New Spain, and headed north to seek Indian Christian converts and explore the country for valuable minerals.  The small expedition of nine soldiers and three Catholic clerics, including Rodriguez, traveled directly down the Conchos River to its junction with the Rio Grande and then up the Rio Grande, past the future site of Albuquerque, before exploring east to the Pecos River, and then west to Acoma and the Zuni pueblos. The Chamuscado and Rodriguez expedition revived Spanish interest in New Mexico.

The next significant Spanish expedition into New Mexico was accomplished in 1582-1583 by Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo.  His group of 14 soldiers and a priest headed north from Santa Barbara on the same path as The Chamuscado and Rodriguez expedition.  Espejo explored the Rio Grande Valley, also visited the Zuni and Hopi villages in present day Arizona, heard stories of silver mines further west, and continued in search of them, probably reaching the Verde Valley.  Espejo didn’t find impressive mining potential, but the expedition created interest in establishing a Spanish colony in New Mexico’s fertile Rio Grande Valley.

In 1598 Juan de Onate came north from Mexico with 500 settlers and soldiers to found the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico at San Juan Pueblo, about 10 miles north of Taos.  That same year, the Province of New Mexico was officially created by the King of Spain, with Juan de Onate named as Governor.  Onate pioneered the “Royal Road,” a 700-mile trail from Mexico City to his remote colony.  (San Juan proved to be vulnerable to Indian attacks - probably Navajo - and the settlement was soon moved to Santa Fe, which became New Mexico’s capital in 1610.)

Juan de Onate pioneered the "Royal Road" from Mexico City to his remote colony at San Juan Pueblo.

Franciscan missionaries accompanied Onate to New Mexico and began an 80-year period of mission building at over 20 native pueblos across northern New Mexico, plus three missions as far west as the Hopi pueblos in northeastern Arizona.  The Spanish objective was to convert the natives to Christianity while preparing them to become tribute-paying subjects of the Crown.  But, both the colonists and the Franciscans depended on Indian labor and competed with each other to control a decreasing Indian population (decreasing because of high mortality to European diseases).  They exploited Indian labor for transport, sold Indian slaves in New Spain, and sold goods produced by Indian slaves.  Moreover, the Franciscans tried to totally eliminate Indian religious practices - efforts that included imprisonment, execution, and destroying religious articles. 

Finally in 1680, the pueblo people accomplished a well-coordinated revolt, killing about 800 Spaniards and driving an additional 2,000 from northeastern Arizona and all but the southern portion of New Mexico.  Most of the missions were demolished or burned.  The Spanish set up a temporary capital in El Paso, while the Indians returned to their familiar ways.

Following their success, the different pueblo tribes, separated by hundreds of miles and six different languages, quarreled as to who would occupy Santa Fe and rule over the territory. These power struggles, combined with raids from nomadic Navajo and Apache tribes, and a seven-year drought, weakened the pueblo strength. In July 1692, Diego de Vargas led Spanish forces that surrounded Santa Fe, where he called on the Indians to surrender, promising clemency if they would swear allegiance to the King of Spain and return to the Christian faith. The Indian leaders gathered in Santa Fe, met with De Vargas, and agreed to peace.  The Spanish issued substantial land grants to each pueblo and appointed a public defender to protect the rights of Indians and argue their legal cases in the Spanish courts.

The San Esteban del Rey Mission at the Acoma Pueblo, completed in 1640, is one of the few missions to survive the Pueblo Revolt.

The Founding of Albuquerque

Spanish settlers first arrived at the site of Albuquerque in the mid-17^th century and established several Haciendas and farms.  After the Pueblo Revolt, settlers returned to Albuquerque and in 1706 the Spanish colonial town of Alburquerque was founded by Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, who was the governor of New Mexico at the time.  The town was named for Cuervo’s boss, the Viceroy of New Spain (1702-1711), the Duke of Alburquerque.  The first “r” was later dropped.

The original town of 19 founding families was just a scattering of farms along the Rio Grande rather than a centralized settlement.  Cuervo stationed a detachment of 10 soldiers (and their families) there to encourage new settlers to move in.  The total founding population was 129 residents.

Albuquerque became a strategically located Spanish outpost along the Royal Road, established years earlier by Juan de Onate.

As additional people settled in the area, like other Spanish colonial settlements, Albuquerque developed a central plaza surrounded by houses, government offices, and a church.  (The church, San Felipe de Neri, was established in 1706 and lasted until 1793, when it collapsed and was rebuilt, surviving today as one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque.)  For much of the 18th century, the homes around the Plaza were inhabited only on Sundays as the residents spent the rest of the week on their farms. It was not until the late 1700s that a permanent population was established at the Plaza. Throughout the 1700s and much of the 1800s, Albuquerque thrived as the sheep herding center of the West.

Albuquerque's San Felipe de Neri Church, rebuilt in 1793, as it appears today.

By 1776 Albuquerque had a population of 763 and was still a settlement of ranches and farms.  The land was watered from the Rio Grande River through very wide, deep irrigation ditches with “little beam bridges” to cross them.  Crops included grapes from vineyards, apricots, peaches, apples, pears, and watermelons.  Some people made wine. 

Frequent Apache and Navajo raids compelled the settlers to consolidate their scattered dwellings into six outlying plazas, upriver from the main plaza, which were easier to defend.  The Spanish census of 1790 recorded a total population of 1,136, with most residents involved in farming or sheep-herding, and a few specialized trades.  Albuquerque’s population grew to 2,625 in 1810 and 4,075 by 1816.

In contrast, the first Spanish presidio/settlement in Arizona was Tubac, established in 1752 along the Santa Cruz River, about 23 miles north of today’s Mexican border.  The Tubac presidio was moved north to Tucson in 1795.

Mexican Period

In 1821 Mexico gained its freedom from Spain, following the Mexican War of Independence. While change was slow to come to the remote province of New Mexico, one major effect was the opening of the region for the first time to American trade. Beginning in the 1820s, the Santa Fe Trail brought American goods and merchants to New Mexico from Missouri in ever-increasing numbers. Albuquerque's location on the Royal Road also made it a stopover for traders traveling south to the Mexican interior. The Mexican census of 1827 gave Albuquerque a population of 2,547, and showed a more diverse range of occupations than in 1790, including merchants, craftsmen, and a teacher.

U.S. Territorial Period

At the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico ceded vast southwestern lands, including much of the future states of Arizona and New Mexico, to the United States.  In 1850 the U.S. Congress established the New Mexico Territory, which at that time included Arizona.

Near the Plaza in Albuquerque, the U.S. placed an Army post which brought an influx of goods and people over the next 20 years.  In general, the townspeople welcomed the American military presence, which stimulated the local economy and helped put an end to decades of Navajo and Apache raiding. 

There were two significant Indian “troubles” in New Mexico.  The first occurred in 1847 during the Mexican-American War, when Taos Pueblo Indians rebelled against depredations of occupying U.S. troops by attacking Anglo-Americans, killing 20 people, including the first American New Mexico Territorial Governor.  U.S. forces put down the rebellion, killing 200 of the rebels and executing 15 of their leaders.  The second incident occurred in 1864 with Navajos living in northeastern Arizona.  Following 15 years of repeated Navajo conflicts, 8,000 Navajos were rounded up by the U.S. Army and in the dead of winter, marched 300 miles from Canyon de Chelly (through Albuquerque) on the “Long Walk”  to the Bosque Redondo reservation in eastern New Mexico for a four-year confinement, with as many as 2,000 dying of cold, disease and starvation. 

The pueblo land grants, including those for the Sandia and Isleta Pueblos (on the border of present day Albuquerque), issued by the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt (1680-1692) were confirmed by the U.S. Congress in the 1860s.  A reservation for the Navajo was first established in 1868 in northeastern Arizona, and expanded several times over the years to include four sites in New Mexico.  Two reservations for Apaches were established in New Mexico by Executive Order in the early 1870s.

The 1860 Census showed an Albuquerque population of 1,608, of which the army garrison made up about a third.  During the Civil War (1861-1865), as was Tucson, Albuquerque was occupied for a short time by Confederate troops.  Turned back in northern New Mexico by Union troops during their retreat into Texas, they made a stand at Albuquerque and fought the Battle of Albuquerque against a detachment of Union soldiers, resulting in few casualties.  In the middle of the Civil War, the U.S. Congress made Arizona a separate territory.  In general, the Civil War did not have much of an impact on the Albuquerque community.

In the early 1880s, Albuquerque became a critical node on an amazing railroad transportation network that connected the U.S. Midwest with the West Coast and Mexico.  The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reached Albuquerque from the Midwest in April, 1880 and continued south to Deming, New Mexico to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad’s southern transcontinental route in March 1881.  The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad then built southwest from Benson, Arizona, to Nogales on the Mexican border, where it connected with the Sonora Railway, which the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had built north from the Mexican port of Guaymas, thereby connecting Albuquerque with trading centers in Mexico.  In May, 1880 the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, began laying track westward from Albuquerque, across New Mexico and northern Arizona, and completed a second transcontinental rail route in August, 1883.

When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in Albuquerque in 1880, it bypassed the Plaza, locating the passenger depot and railyards about two miles east in what quickly became known as new Albuquerque or New Town.  Development of New Town began immediately. Unlike the original settlement, now called Old Town, with its long-established, primarily Hispanic population, New Town was dominated by recently arrived Anglo-Americans and European immigrants, and New Town reflected their tastes and attitudes including a town lay out that created an orderly grid with numbered streets like those in the Midwest.  Stores, hotels, and saloons sprang up, operating out of flimsy wooden buildings or even tents at first, then more substantial brick structures. A mule-drawn street railway was built to ferry passengers between Old Town and New Town along Railroad Avenue (now Central Avenue).  Albuquerque (New Town) was incorporated as a town in 1885 and as a city in 1891, while Old Town remained a separate community.

Santiago Street in Old Town Albuquerque, circa 1880.

First Avenue in New Town Albuquerque, circa 1880s.

The 1890 Census reported a population of 3,785.  By 1900, Albuquerque boasted of about 7,500 inhabitants and all the modern amenities, including an electric street railway connecting Old Town, New Town, and the recently established (1889) University of New Mexico, that today encompasses over 600 urban acres with over 26,000 students in the Fall of 2017.  In 1902 the famous Alvarado Hotel was built (by Fred Harvey, notable railroad hotel and restaurant entrepreneur) adjacent to the railroad passenger depot and it remained a symbol of the city until it was razed in 1970 to make room for a parking lot.

Albuquerque's Alvarado Hotel opened in 1902.

By 1910 Albuquerque had a population of 11,020.  The city’s largest employers were the American Lumber Company sawmill, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and the Southwestern Brewery and Ice Company.

New Mexico (as did Arizona) had a long and difficult road to statehood.  For almost half a century, members of the U.S. Congress considered that there were too few people in the Southwestern desert, that the people were uneducated and poor, and were further bothered by the proportionally large numbers of Mexicans and Native Americans.

Finally things began to move in the early 1900s.  After considerable discussion of “jointure,” the idea of admitting New Mexico and Arizona to the Union as a single state, Congress finally passed legislation to admit the territories as separate states.  President William Howard Taft signed New Mexico into statehood as the 47^th state on January 6, 1912, and signed for Arizona, the 48^th state, less than five weeks later, on February 14, 1912.

U.S Statehood Period

New Mexico’s dry climate brought many tuberculosis patients to the city in search of a cure during the early 20^th century. Several sanitariums and major hospital sprang up (The same thing was happening in Tucson.).

By 1920 Albuquerque had a population of 15,157, and housing subdivisions began to extend eastward along Central Avenue.  In 1922 the city saw the construction of its first skyscraper, the nine-story First National Bank building.  Automobile use was increasing, streets started to be paved, and the streetcar system was replaced by buses in 1928.  Also in 1928, the first airport was constructed, just east of today’s international airport, and began scheduled service.

The first travelers on the cross country automobile road, Route 66, appeared in Albuquerque in 1926, and before long, dozens of motels, restaurants, and gift shops were built along the roadside to serve them.  Albuquerque’s tourism boom had started.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Albuquerque benefited from a wide variety of public works projects, including new fairgrounds, a new municipal airport, and a number of schools, community centers, and other public buildings.  The city continued to grow, reaching a population of 35,499 in 1940.

World War II brought a great deal of activity to Albuquerque. In 1941 the Army took over the old Albuquerque Airport and converted it into Albuquerque Army Air Base (now Kirtland Air Force Base). Concurrently, the top-secret Manhattan Project put New Mexico at the center of nuclear weapons research. After the war, this research continued at Sandia Base, now Sandia National Laboratories. With the combined effect of these large government employers, an influx of retired military personnel and their families, and a broader population shift toward the west, Albuquerque's population exploded. From 1940 to 1950, the population nearly tripled to 96,815, and then doubled again to 201,189 by 1960.

Old Town Albuquerque, which had remained a separate town since the arrival of the railroad, was finally absorbed into the city in 1949. The original community had struggled during the early 20th century as most of its businesses and institutions moved to New Town: the county courthouse was moved in 1926, and by the 1930s, barely any businesses were still operating around the Plaza.  Things began to improve in the 1940s as Albuquerque citizens started to take note of Old Town's historic value, and the Old Albuquerque Historical Society was established in 1946.  Subsequently, Old Town gradually developed into a popular tourist attraction, with most of the adobe houses re-purposed into shops, restaurants, and galleries.

Construction of the north-south Pan American Freeway (Interstate 25) and east-west Coronado Freeway (Interstate 40) began in the late 1950s.  The last link in the project, the Big 1 Interchange, was first completed in 1966, but because of increasingly heavy traffic, had to be rebuilt and replaced by a complex stack interchange in 2000-2002.

In the 1960s and 1970s, as Albuquerque spread outward, the downtown area fell into a decline. Many historic buildings were razed to make way for new shopping plazas, high-rises, and parking lots as part of the city's urban renewal. Almost no pre-1900 buildings were left standing, and some of the city’s most notable landmarks were razed, including the famous Alvarado Hotel.  Only recently has downtown Albuquerque come to regain much of its urban character, mainly through the construction of many new loft apartment buildings and the renovation of historic structures.  The passage of the Planned Growth Strategy in 2002-2004 was the community’s strongest effort to create a framework for a more balanced and sustainable approach to urban growth.

Albuquerque has continued to grow economically, lying at the center of the New Mexico Technology Corridor, a concentration of high-tech private companies and government institutions along the Rio Grande. Larger institutions include Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, and associated contracting companies which bring highly educated workers to the region.  Intel operates a large semiconductor factory with corresponding large capital investment.  Northrop Grumman is located along I-25 in northeast Albuquerque, and Tempur-Pedic is located on the West Mesa next to I-40.  Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cooperate in Albuquerque in an enterprise that began with the Manhattan Project.

From the late 1930s, Albuquerque’s Municipal Airport continued to grow, the airport undergoing terminal expansions several times, renamed Albuquerque Sunport in 1963, Albuquerque International Airport in 1971, and changed to Albuquerque International Sunport in 1994.

Albuquerque’s population also continued to grow from 1960, reaching 244,501 in 1970, 332,920 in 1980, 384,736 in 1990, 448,607 in 2000, 545,852 in 2010, and an estimated 560,218 in 2018.  As of 2018, the Albuquerque metropolitan area had 915,927 residents.  According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial makeup of the City of Albuquerque was 46.7% Hispanic, 42.1% White, 4.6% Native American, 3.3% Black, 2.6% Asian, and 4.7% Other or Mixed Race.  The City now covers 189.5 square miles of area.

Meanwhile, Tucson had been growing at a similar pace as Albuquerque, with a 1950 population of 45,454, and an estimated 2018 population of 545,975.

Albuquerque has developed numerous attractions and events that preserve its historic past and environmental diversity, and celebrate an adventurous community spirit, including:

1966 - Sandia Peak Tram:  The world’s longest aerial tramway stretches from the northeast edge of the City to the crest line of the Sandia Mountains at an altitude of 10,378 feet.

1969 - National Museum of Nuclear Science & History:  Presents exhibits and educational programs that convey the individuals and events that shaped the history and technology of the nuclear age. 

1972 - International Balloon Fiesta:  Annual nine-day hot air balloon festival with over 500 balloons - the largest balloon festival in the world.

Albuquerque's International Balloon Fiesta is held annually in October.

1976 - International Pueblo Cultural Center: Owned and operated as a non-profit by the 19 Indian Pueblos of New Mexico, and dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of Pueblo Indian culture, history and art.  

1982 - Rio Grande Nature Center State Park:  Thirty eight acre urban wildlife preserve with two gardens, several wildlife viewing areas, and four ponds, which provide a habitat for birds and other wildlife.

1990 - Petroglyph National Monument:  Cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque, the 7,236-acre monument protects five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites, and an estimated 24,000 images carved on rock faces by Ancestral Pueblo peoples and early Spanish settlers.

Example of pueblo people's carving at Petroglyph National Monument.

Street map of Albuquerque showing key sites in the City.

Family connection:  Pat spent a large part of her first 15 years, growing up in Albuquerque.  Her father was an Air Force officer who had several rotational assignments in ABQ.  Pat’s two periods of residence in Albuquerque included 1948-1952 and 1956-1963.