New Mexico
New Mexico is located in the Southwestern United States and together with Arizona, Colorado and Utah it forms the Four Corners region. With the Carlsbad Caverns and the historic settlements of the Chaco culture and the Taos Pueblo people, New Mexico is home to more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other state. The pre-colonial inhabitants of New Mexico include the Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon cultures and the Ute people. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the Navajos, Apaches and Comanches also moved to the region.
The name of New Mexico goes back to Aztec legends in which the "Seven Cities of Gold" of the Pueblos are described as a "new" rival empire. Hoping to find treasures comparable to those of the Aztecs, the Spanish then named the area "Nuevo México" when they arrived. In 1598, the first permanent European settlement was founded and New Mexico became a province of New Spain. An autonomous region of Mexico since Mexican independence in 1821, the area was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 as a result of the Mexican-American War. In 1912, New Mexico was admitted to the Union as the 47th state. The official nickname "Land of Enchantment" comes from the title of a 1906 travel guide. New Mexico's motto, “Crescit Eundo,” is Latin and means “It grows as it goes along.” The motif on the state flag is the sun symbol of the Zia Pueblo people.
New Mexico's landscape encompasses parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, vast forests and the Rio Grande, which crosses the state from north to south. The Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque to the ski slope of the Sandia Mountains is the longest aerial tramway in the Americas.
Facts
- Capital city: Santa Fe
- Largest city: Albuquerque
- Area: 121,591 square miles (314,915 km²)
- Population: 2.1 million
- Date of statehood: 6th January 1912
- Rank of the admission: 47th
New Mexico Folding Card
Geronimo was the leader and medicine man of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache people. His resistance to the U.S. Army and the Mexican military made him one of the most famous figures of the Apache Wars (1849–1924). Among the areas where the battles were fought were the badlands of New Mexico. They are home not only to fascinating multi-colored sandstone hoodoos, but also to remarkable dinosaur fossils. This note of the 50 U.S. States Program depicts Geronimo, the striking rocks in the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness area, the state flag of New Mexico, the state motto "Crescit Eundo" (Latin for "It grows as it goes"), and the year of admission to the Union.
100 Souvenir Dollars
Obverse: Geronimo (1829–1909), leader and medicine man of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache people, Geronimo with rifle, rock formations in Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness, geographic depiction of New Mexico with abbreviation NM, state flag
Reverse: United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., seals of the commemorative series
| Dimensions: 7.07 x 3.00 inches (179.50 x 76.20 mm) Material: Paper |
