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Once the private retreat of frontier Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy
(the subject of Willa Cather's "Death Comes for the Archbishop" and
Paul Horgan's biography, "Lamy of Santa Fe"), The Bishop's Lodge was
owned and operated as a resort by the family of James R. Thorpe from
1918 until 1998, and is now managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts. The
Bishop's original garden and chapel, popular for weddings and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, continues to overlook the grounds.
In 1996 The Bishop's Lodge was inducted into Historic Hotels of America.
If your children do not wish to join in on the historical experience, we
have special days of organized activities for them. In addition to our
children's program, there are many excursions in the area you may wish to
consider for the whole family - trips to archaeological ruins and historic
sites, raft trips and chair lift rides. The Museum of International Folk Art,
with its vast display of folk art "toys" from all over the world, is a place
that children especially enjoy. Please check with the concierge, or the front
desk for other great ideas.
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Highlights
- Historical sites
- Archeological ruins
- Museums
- Chairlift rides
- Raft trips
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Santa Fe
The City of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo Indian
villages with founding dates between 1050 and 1150.
The "Kingdom of New Mexico" was first claimed for the Spanish Crown by the
conquistador don Francisco Vasques de Coronado in 1540, 70 years before the
founding of Santa Fe. Coronado and his men also traveled to the Grand Canyon
and through the Great Plains on their New Mexico expedition.
Spanish colonists first settled in northern New Mexico in 1598. Don Juan de
Oñate became the first Governor and Captain-General of New Mexico and established
his capital in 1598 at San Juan Pueblo, 25 miles north of Santa Fe. When Oñate
retired, Don Pedro de Peralta was appointed Governor and Captain-General in 1609.
One year later, he moved the capital to present-day Santa Fe. New Mexico was part
of the empire of New Spain and Santa Fe was the commercial hub at the end of which
linked Mexico City with its northern province.
During the next 70 years, Spanish soldiers and officials, as well as
Franciscan missionaries, sought to subjugate and convert the Pueblo
Indians of the region. The indigenous population at the time was close
to 100,000 people, who spoke nine languages and lived in an estimated
70 pueblos, many of which exist today.
In 1680, Pueblo Indians revolted against some 2,500 Spanish colonists,
killing 400 of them and driving the rest back into Mexico. The conquering
Pueblos sacked Santa Fe and burned most of the buildings, except the Palace
of the Governors. Pueblo Indians occupied Santa Fe until 1692-93, when don
Diego de Vargas reestablished Spanish control. When Mexico gained its
independence from Spain, Santa Fe became the capital of the province of
New Mexico. Trade was no longer restricted as it was under Spanish rule
and trappers and traders moved into the region. In 1821 William Becknell
opened the 1,000 mile-long Santa Fe Trail.
On August 18, 1846, in the early period of the Mexican American War,
an American army general, Stephen Watts Kearny, took Santa Fe and raised the
American flag over the Plaza. Two years later, 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceding New Mexico and California to the United States.
In 1851, Vicar Apostolic, and later Archbishop of Santa Fe, Jean B. Lamy,
arrived in Santa Fe. Eighteen years later, he began construction on the
Saint Francis Cathedral, one of 45 churches he built in New Mexico. Built
in the French Romanesque style, the building is alien to the Spanish
heritage of Santa Fe, but is still one of its greatest landmarks.
Constructed on the site of an adobe church destroyed in the Pueblo
Revolt, the Cathedral was built of locally quarried stone. Portions of the
old adobe parish church (La Parroquia), remain in the form of the Chapel of
Our Lady of the Rosary, which houses a wooden stature of the Virgin know as
La Conquistadora, Our Lady of the Conquest. La Conquistadora was first brought
to Santa Fe in 1625 and was returned to the city by the armies of don Diego de
Vargas during the reconquest of 1692-93.
For 27 days in March and April of 1862, the Confederate flag of Brigadier
General Henry H. Sibley flew over Santa Fe until he was defeated by Union troops. With
the arrival of the telegraph in 1868 and the coming of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa
Fe Railroad in 1880, Santa Fe and New Mexico underwent an economic revolution. Corruption
in government, however, accompanied the growth, and President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed
Lew Wallace as a territorial governor to "clean up New Mexico." Wallace did such a good job
that Billy the Kid threatened to come up to Santa Fe and kill him.
New Mexico gained statehood in 1912 and Santa Fe has been the capital city since statehood.
Ten years before Plymouth Colony was founded by the Mayflower Pilgrims, Santa Fe,
New Mexico was established as the seat of power of the Spanish Empire north of the
Rio Grande. Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the United States and the oldest
European community in the U.S. west of the Mississippi. The Palace of the Governors,
on the north side of the Plaza, is the oldest public building in the United States.
Santa Fe has been a seat of government under the flags of Spain, Mexico, the
Confederacy, and the United States of America.
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- Courtesy of City of Santa Fe
Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau
Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce |
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