|
Feb 1860 |
3 Attacks against
Navajo from Fort Craig |
New Mexico |
|

|
|
mid-1860 |
Snively, Swilling,
Mastin, Birch, Houston and 5 others leave Tucson trekking east to
discover gold at Piños Altos and begin the first gold rush in the
upper-Gila River country. This event becomes a major piece of
the
Lost Adams Diggings legend. |
Tucson, Mesilla,
Piños Altos |
Snively was
the founder of Gila Bend, AZ, and the discoverer of gold there.
Swilling (at this point) was a fugitive from justice in Texas.
All these men were to play a major role in the histories of AZ and NM
during the coming years. Swilling commanded Rebel troops in the
only Civil War battle fought west of the Continental Divide, founded
Phoenix, and died in Yuma Prison in 1878. Both are characters in
Hell Bent for Santa Fe. |
|
Mar 1860 |
Navajo general attack
on Rio Grande communities |
New Mexico |
During the
coming 3 years they would raid with increasing frequency, even to the
outskirts of Santa Fe. The tribes along the Rio Grande were
worst hit, losing countless lives and 160,000 sheep while the white
forces were fighting over the secession matter. Once the Texans
were defeated the Navajo and Apache depredations became the main
concern of the California Column in New Mexico. The tragic end
was the removal of the Navajos and Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo
following the Kit Carson campaign against the Navajos. This
resulted in the near-extermination of the Mescalero by Navajos during
the Bosque Redondo exile, quietly ignored by the white overseers. |

|
|
03 Apr 1860 |
The Pony Express |
between California
and St. Joseph, Missouri |
Considering
the brief time this service existed it has gotten prime billing as a
historical event. |

|
|
08 May 1860 |
Fort Breckenridge
established |
Araviapa Cr
confluence with San Pedro river |
The increasing
hostilies between Apaches and the US spurred the need for a more
active military presence. Too much, too late in retrospect. |

|
|
1861 |
Colorado Territory
Established |
Colorado |
This timely
event was made easier by the secession of the southern states and
non-participation in Union decisions. The Colorado Volunteers
played a crucial role the following year when Texas Mounted Rifles
invaded along the Rio Grande. |

|
|
1861 |
Majority of army
officers in New Mexico and Arizona resign to join the Confederacy |
|
Wagon-loads of
them came south through Fort Fillmore, Fort Bliss and Fort Davis on
their way to San Antonio. As they encountered groups of enlisted
men at these places they cajoled them to leave the ranks and swore
they'd soon return wearing gray. They did. |

|
|
Jan 1861 |
American Civil War |
United States |
New Mexico was
touched by the Civil War. July 26, 1861: In the first Civil War clash
in New Mexico, Confederates capture Fort Fillmore near Las Cruces. Lt.
Col. John Baylor's Rebels capture 400 Bluecoats fleeing to Fort
Stanton. Within a week, Baylor establishes the Confederate Territory
of Arizona.
The Lost Adams
Diggings examines these events in detail. |

|
|
28 Feb 1861 |
Territory of Colorado
Organized |
Colorado, Washington,
D.C. |
Congress organizes
the Territory of Colorado, and a northern portion of New Mexico from
the fertile San Luis Valley to the east is taken. Many longtime New
Mexicans become citizens of Colorado. |

|
|
Mar 1861 |
Mail Cut Off to
Arizona |
Arizona |
The United States
Government formally revoked the contract of the Butterfield Overland
Stagecoach Company, which carried the United States mails on a route
from San Antonio, Texas, through El Paso, Texas, Mesilla and Tucson to
California. The loss of the Butterfield Stagecoach service virtually
severed the region of Arizona from communication with the outside
world. |
| |

|
|
16 Mar 1861 |
Arizona and southern
New Mexico Secede |
Mesilla |
A Convention was
held for the purpose of considering what should be the future
relationship between Arizona and the United States. At this Convention
the people of Arizona voted to secede from the Union and to join their
future to that of the Confederate States of America. The Tucson
Convention ratified the proceedings of the Mesilla Convention, and
elected provisional officers for the new Confederate Territory. Dr.
Lewis Owings of Mesilla was elected Provisional Governor of the
Territory, and Granville Henderson Oury of Tucson was elected as
Delegate to the Confederate Congress. The Confederacy was not yet
ready to accept new Territories, however, and so Arizona would have to
wait again for Territorial status. |

|
|
18 May 1861 |
Hicks, Snively and
Birch discover gold at Piños Altos |
Piños Altos,
NM |
The three
swore a pact of secrecy between themselves and journeyed to Mesilla to
file the claim. The local gossip mill soon knew all. The
three returned to their claim after dark believing all was well.
They awoke the following morning to the sounds of a boom-town
tent-city birthing. They'd been tracked by to their discovery by
several hundred Mesillanos and hangers-on.
The Lost Adams Diggings |

|
|
Jun 1861 |
Texas/Confederate
Colonel Baylor invades El Paso |
El Paso, Texas |
Descriptions
and photographs of this HQ in Mesilla in
The Lost Adams Diggings |

|
|
11 Jul 1861 |
Juarez wins the War
of Reform |
Mexico City |
|

|
|
Aug 1861 |
Albert Jennings
becomes Albert J. Fountain, joins the California Column volunteers in
San Francisco |
San Francisco, CA |
Prior to 1861
this important figure in NM history certainly went by the name 'Albert
Jennings' from 1857 - 1861. No records exist of his pre-1857
past under either of those names. |

|
|
23 Oct 1861 |
Sibley begins march
to New Mexico |
San Antonio Texas |
|

|
|
24 Oct 1861 |
Telegraph Comes to
California |
|
|

|
|
08 Dec 1861 |
20000 British, French
and Spanish troops land in Vera Cruz |
Vera Cruz, Mexico |
Napoleon III of
France, Britain, and Spain join forces, taking advantage of the US
Civil War, to invade Mexico and install Maximillian Ferdinand as
Emperor Maximillian of Mexico. |

|
|
1862 |
The Overland Trail |
|
The secession
of the south and occupation of Tucson by Arizona Scouts from New
Mexico and Texas illustrated the need for a more northerly route to
the west coast. |

|
|
1862 |
The Territorial
Enterprise Hires Mark Twain |
Virginia City |
|

|
|
Jan 1862 |
90-500 Confederates
occupy Tucson under Hunter |
Tucson |
This episode
is examined in detail in
The
Lost Adams Diggings |

|
|
07 Feb 1862 |
Sibley Brigade
offensive begins from Mesilla |
Mesilla, NM |
During these
early stages the campaign was entirely too easy for the invading Texas
troops. Although Canby had ample time to prepare and every
reason to expect this incursion the preoccupation in the eastern
states was entirely on the events there. Sibley was lulled into
bypassing Fort Craig when he couldn't lure the Union Regulars outside
the fortifications. After the victory at Valverde this seemed
unimportant until the burning of the Texan supply train at Cañoncito.
Suddenly in retreat, the Texans found themselves disorganized, without
a supply line and with an intact Union force along their line of
retreat. |

|
|
21 Feb 1862 |
Battle of Valverde |
Bloody Valverde
Battleground, NM |
Highest percentage of
casualties among the combatants of any battle of the Civil War after
Gettysburg. Fought on the Rio Grande a few miles north of Fort Craig.
Colonel John Sutton, one of the primaries of
Hell Bent for Santa Fe
and a member of the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 was killed here. |

|
|
Mar 1862 |
Confederate invasion
stopped at Glorieta Pass |
Southeast of Santa
Fe, NM |
Texans took
Albuquerque, drove the government out of Santa Fe, headed east toward
Fort Union. Met Union forces and Colorado Volunteers at Glorieta
Pass. Texans won a decisive victory at Glorieta and would have easily
taken Fort Union. However, Colorado volunteers circled behind to to
the Confederate supply train at Cañoncito, captured the small guarding
force there, and burned the supplies. This forced the Texans to
retreat and was the practical end of the Texan campaign. |

|
|
12 Apr 1862 |
Swilling captured by
Union Troops |
Pima Villages |
Swilling's Confederate
Arizona Scouts fought in both of the only two Civil War battles west
of the Continental Divide |

|
|
18 Apr 1862 |
Fort Barrett
Established |
Pima villages |
Mainly to
protect the route from Yuma to Mesilla from Apaches and to act as a
staging area in the event Confederate forces in Tucson gave battle. |

|
|
05 May 1862 |
Confederate forces
under Hunter retreat from Tucson |
Tucson |
Outnumbered,
out-gunned and his route of supply and retreat on the Rio Grande
collapsing left Hunter with no other alternative. |

|
|
05 May 1862 |
First French Army
defeat at Puebla |
Puebla, Mexico |
Although the battle
will followed by many defeats the initial victiory is still celebrated
in Mexico and Hispanic US as Cinco de Mayo. |

|
|
Jun 1862 |
California Column
arrives New Mexico |
California, New
Mexico, Arizona |
The
Lost Adams Diggings covers these events in loving detail. |

|
|
Aug 1862 |
Carlton takes
military command of Department of NM and AZ |
|
California Volunteer
Commandant |

|
|
Aug 1862 |
Hunter Confederate
unit from Tucson arrives Mesilla |
|
Hunter and 11 others,
all remaining of Hunter's Tucson force, join Steele's rearguard of
Texans |

|
|
19 Aug 1862 |
A letter from Baylor
to General Herbert |
|
asked for any
intelligence on the location of Hunter's Volunteers. |

|
|
Oct 1862 |
Walker Party with
Conner enters New Mexico from Colorado |
Santa Fe, NM |
|

|
|
1863 |
Territory of Arizona
Created |
Arizona, Washington |
New Mexico is
partitioned in half. Territory of Arizona is created. |

|
|
1863 |
Navajo and Mescalero
Apache campaigns |
|
'Kit Carson campaign' |

|
|
08 Jan 1863 |
The Transcontinental
Railroad |
|
|

|
|
19 Jan 1863 |
Captain E.D. Shirland
leads advance patrol to Fort West location, |
Fort West |
Horses stolen, meets
group of miners under Joseph Reddeford Walker.
The
Lost Adams Diggings |

|
|
24 Jan 1863 |
Fort West Established |
|
|

|
|
Feb 1863 |
Swilling captures
Mangus Colorado, turns him over to Shirland. Mangus killed, |
Piños Altos |
|

|
|
24 Feb 1863 |
Arizona becomes a
Territory |
Arizona |
After several bills
had been introduced and then failed, President Abraham Lincoln signed
into law the bill that provided for the Territory of Arizona, with a
boundary separating it from New Mexico at approximately 109°
longitude. The first officers of the Territory, appointed by President
Lincoln on March 4, 1863, were the following: Governor John A. Gurley;
Chief Justice John Noble Goodwin; Secretary Richard C. McCormick;
Associate Justices William T. Howell and Joseph P. Allyn; District
Attorney Almon Gage; U.S. Marshal Milton B. Duffield; and
Superintendent of Indian Affairs Charles Poston. |

|
|
Mar 1863 |
Walker Party at Piños
Altos |
|
|

|
|
Apr 1863 |
Walker Party arrives
Tucson |
Tucson |
|

|
|
Aug 1863 |
Kit Carson invades
Navajo country |
|
|

|
|
1864 |
Mescaleros and Navajo
moved to Bosque Redondo |
Bosque Redondo, NM |
Following the
Kit Carson Expedition against the Navajos both tribes were moved off
their historic tribal lands to eastern New Mexico. The frictions
between the two tribes during those years at Bosque Redondo almost led
to the extinction of the Mescaleros, numbered far fewer than the
Navajos. To save the tribe the Mescaleros finally returned in
mass to their original home. Even today when Navajos complain of
size of the 160,000 acre Mescalero Reservation for the 3500 Mescalero
population (compared to the per-capita acreage of the Navajo tribal
lands) the Mescalero will bitterly reply, "We fought our way down". |

|
|
12 Jun 1864 |
Maximillian arrives
in Mexico City as Emperor |
Mexico City |
|

|
|
Aug 1864 |
Green and scouting
party arrives Fort Craig from Gila |
|
6 captives, 19 head
of cattle, 3 scouts |

|
|
Sep 1864 |
Colonel Rigg leaves
Fort Craig |
|
Raids west to White
Mountains, returns with 4 captives |

|
|
31 Oct 1864 |
Becomes a State |
California |
|

|
|
29 Nov 1864 |
Sand Creek Massacre |
Sand Creek |
|

|
|
28 Feb 1865 |
Robert S Johnson
resigns California Column to lead 250 men to settle in Mexico |
|
The
Lost Adams Diggings |

|
|
09 Apr 1865 |
The Black Hawk Indian
War |
Manti |
|

|
|
Oct 1865 |
Camp Grant
established |
Formerly site of Fort
Breckenridge |
|

|
|
1866 |
Charles Goodnight and
Oliver Loving trail the first Cattle from Texas to Fort Sumner |
Fort Sumner, NM, West
Texas |
|

|
|
1866 |
Alamo Band 'Navajo'
tribe is formed |
North of
Magdalena |
The Navajo and
Mescalero scouts for Kit Carson during the 1863-1864 campaigns and
their families could not be sent to Bosque Redondo for obvious
reasons. Instead they were lumped together as a Navajo band and
placed on a temporary reservation north of Magdalena, safe from
reprisals from both tribes. There, unclaimed by both Navajo and
Mescalero, they remain today. Mostly forgotten and certainly
disfranchised. |

|
|
15 Apr 1866 |
Butch Cassidy |
Beaver |
|

|
|
1867 |
Prostitutes ejected
from 'Star Fort' at Fort Union |
Fort Union |
|

|
|
1867 |
Reconstruction begins
in Texas |
Post-Confederate
Texas |
Carpetbaggers and
Scallywags arrive |

|
|
02 Apr 1867 |
Second Battle of
Puebla |
Puebla, Mexico |
Porfirio Diaz defeats
French army |

|
|
14 May 1867 |
Maximillian defeated,
surrenders at Queretero |
Queretero, Mexico |
|

|
|
19 Jun 1867 |
Emperor Ferdinand Max
executed |
Queretero, Mexico |
Firing squad.
His brother the Hapsburg Emperor, Louis Napoleon of France and the
British attempted to intervene to Juarez for clemency. Probably
Juarez would have preferred merely exiling the ex-Emperor, but the
atrocities committed by French troops in Mexico during the years of
Ferdinand Maximillian's turbulent rule made the measure politically
impossible. Juarez' hold on the bankrupted country was already
tenuous and Porfirio Diaz, he suspected, was already planning a
rebellion to rob him of the presidency. The popularity of Diaz
soared following his defeat of the French army at Puebla.
Europeans, it was generally believed, needed an object lesson they'd
remember to keep them from interfering in Mexico politics in the
future. European leaders of every nationality had been the
source of endless suffering in Mexico since the independence from
Spain in 1821. |

|
|
04 May 1868 |
Camp Crittendon
established |
Site of Fort Buchanan |
|

|
|
10 May 1869 |
Completion of the
World's First Transcontinental Railroad |
Promontory |
|

|

|
|
16 May 1870 |
Fort Apache
established |
Fort Apache, AZ |
|

|

|
|
1871 |
John Bullard, founder
of Silver City killed by Apaches in New Mexico.
Jacob Snively, former Secretary of War for the
Republic of Texas, co-founder of Piños Altos, NM, killed by Apaches at
Vulture Gulch, AZ |
Gila, NM
Vulture Gulch, AZ |
Snively fought at the
Battle of San Jacinto, served in high appointed positions under three
Republic of Texas presidents, accompanied the Texan-Santa Fe
Expedition in 1841, and raided commerce on the Santa Fe Trail in 1842.
Snively discovered gold and began the gold rush at Gila Bend, AZ, and
was one of the three-man party to discover gold at Piños Altos, NM,
and begin the gold rush there. Snively is the main character in
my ebook,
Hell
Bent for Santa Fe. He is also identified as the
'Dutchman' or 'German' in
The
Lost Adams Diggings. |

|
|
30 Apr 1871 |
Cushing Massacre |
Tucson |
A group of men out
of Tucson (many of whom were Papagos and Mexicans, but their leaders
were Americans) attacked the peaceful, sleeping Apache camp. About 144
were killed, almost all of them women and children. The event became a
cause for national debate. Many citizens in the East were horrified,
and even President Ulysses S. Grant denounced it. However, in Arizona
few people were sympathetic. A trial was held later that year and all
perpetrators were acquitted. One of the principal leaders, Sidney De
Long, was later even elected mayor of Tucson. Lieutenant Whitman
himself was heartsick. He buried the bodies and did what he could to
console the Apaches (most of them returned to Camp Grant a few days
later). For Whitman's compassion he was court martialed several times
and finally forced out of the army. General George Stoneman, himself,
was relieved of his command, and a new officer, General George Crook,
took his place. |

|
|
11 Nov 1871 |
Rio Mimbres community
destroyed by fire |
Mimbres, NM |
|

|
|
18 Dec 1872 |
Fort Grant II
established |
Sulphur Spring Creek
Vally below Mount Graham |
|

|
|
1873 |
Joslin Dry Goods
Company Opened |
Denver |
|

|

|
|
1873 |
Texans invade again |
Lincoln, Puerto de
Luna, Loma Parda |
60 armed Texans from
the upper Brazos arrived and raided to recover 30000 stolen cattle |

|
|
1873 |
Yuma renamed by AZ
Legislature |
Yuma |
Formerly called, 'the
mud-town' of Arizona City |

|
|
1874 |
100000 Cattle driven
from Roswell to Colorado |
New Mexico, Colorado |
|

|
|
1875 |
Brigham Young
University Founded |
Provo |
|

|
|
1875 |
John P. Clum, famous
Indian Agent dies |
Santa Fe |
|

|
|
1876 |
Billy the Kid |
Globe City, Arizona |
It was in Globe that
Billy actually ran afoul of the law for a serious offense: stealing
horses. Apparently, he also rustled cattle. He was rowdy and often
involved in gambling and similar nefarious pursuits. In August 1877
Billy was at Fort Grant. The Kid was tormented in a bar there by
another rowdy, by the name of Frank Cahill. The Kid did not take
kindly to the razzing, and so he shot and killed Cahill. The Kid was
captured and jailed, but he escaped and went to Lincoln County, New
Mexico. |

|
|
01 Aug 1876 |
Becomes a State |
|
|

|
|
1877 |
University of
Colorado Opens |
Boulder |
|

|
|
12 Feb 1877 |
Fort Huachuca
established |
Arizona |
|

|
|
1878 |
First Santa Fe steam
locomotive enters New Mexico |
Eastern NM |
|

|
|
1878 |
Jack Swilling
recovers the remains of Jacob Snively and reburies them at Gillette,
AZ, but is arrested for a stagecoach robbery during his absence.
Swilling dies in
Yuma Prison |
Yuma Prison |
Swilling designed and
constructed the first irrigation canals for the town he co-founded,
Phoenix, AZ, in 1867.
Posthumously found
innocent of all connection with a stagecoach robbery he was accused of.
The robbery occurred while Swilling was recovering the remains of
Jacob Snively, killed by Apaches in 1871, for reburial at Gillette,
AZ. |

|
|
1878 |
Victorio Apache
Uprising |
Ojo Caliente |
|

|
|
1878 |
Lincoln County War |
Lincoln County, NM |
The trouble in
Lincoln County had its origins in the aftermath of the Civil War. A
man named Lawrence G. Murphy served with the New Mexico Volunteers.
After the war he opened a store in Lincoln. He soon controlled the
economic life of the county. Ill health caused him to have to sell off
his businesses in 1876 to James Dolan and John H. Riley. These men
wanted to control the economic life of Lincoln just as Murphy had.
They would lead one of the two groups that fought in the Lincoln
County War. On the other side were newcomers to the area. Their leader
was Alexander A. McSween. McSween arrived in Lincoln in 1875. A
lawyer, he was soon handling lawsuits, most of them against Murphy.
Eventually, the confict turned bloody. Sympathizers for both sides got
involved and the killing escalted. It ended with the killing of Billy
the Kid. |

|
|
Apr 1878 |
Three black Buffalo
Soldiers shot to death in Cimarron Saloon |
Cimarron St James
Hotel Bar |
killed by the nephew
of Davy Crockett and Gus Hefferan |

|
|
1879 |
Raton tunnel
completed |
Raton NM, Trinidad,
Colo |
|

|
|
1880 |
First tuberculosis
clinics in New Mexico |
New Mexico |
|

|
|
26 Oct 1881 |
O.K. Corral Fracas |
Tombstone, AZ |
Earps and Doc Holiday
confront the Clantons et al in a legendary gunfight |

|
|
1882 |
Chinese Exclusion Act |
|
|

|

|
|
Jan 1883 |
Entire Dona Ana cow
herd run off by rustlers |
Dona Ana, NM |
|

|
|
Oct 1884 |
Sam Eckstein's saloon
'blown sky high' |
Silver City |
Fire engine wasn't
working |

|

|
|
1890 |
Discovery of Gold in
Cripple Creek |
Cripple Creek |
|

|
|
1893 |
The Silver Crash of
1893 |
|
This was caused by the US
Government decision to change the 'silver standard' for US currency.
The effects were devastating on the southwestern states and
territories where silver was mined. |

|
|
Feb2 1896 |
Colonel Albert J.
Fountain and his 8 year old son, Henry ambushed and murdered east of
Las Cruces |
Near Chalk Hill, NM |
These were the
times when New Mexicans were killing one another over political party
affiliations. Fountain and his son might have been murdered by
Democrats, cow-rustlers, or a combination of the two. Pat
Garrett was brought out of retirement in Uvalde, Texas, to assist the
investigation. |

|

|
|
1896 |
First Female United
States Senator |
|
|

|
| 
|
|
1900 |
Gold Production Peaks |
Cripple Creek |
|

|
|
1901 |
Pacific Electric
Railway System |
|
|

|
|
1901 |
Arizona Rangers |
|
Governor Murphy
authorized the formation of the Arizona Rangers. Until 1909 when the
group was disbanded, the Rangers helped track down and arrest cattle
rustlers and worked to suppress striking miners. In 1909, the
legislature voted not to continue the Arizona Rangers because those
counties not disturbed by the outlaws or striking miners did not want
to pay for services they did not need. |

|
|
11 Apr 1901 |
The Daughters of Utah
Pioneers |
|
|

|
|
18 Apr 1906 |
San Francisco
Earthquake and Fire |
San Francisco |
|

|
|
Apr 1908 |
Pat Garrett murdered
|
Near Las Cruces |
Still investigating the Albert Fountain
homicides, he was shot in the back and left beside the road. |

|
|
|
06 Jan 1912 |
Arizona and New
Mexico Statehood |
Washington, NM |
Despite the myriad
racial, religious, political, and economic issues which delayed every
attempt at statehood, New Mexico's efforts never ceased. Finally, on
June 20, 1910, President William H. Taft signed an Enabling Act which
authorized the territory to call a constitutional convention in
preparation for being admitted as a state. On October 3 of that year,
one hundred delegates elected from every county in the territory,
convened at Santa Fe and drafted a constitution which was approved by
voters on January 21, 1911. New Mexico had taken the final step in its
long journey towards becoming a full part of the United States of
America. A delegation from New Mexico was present in Washington, D.C.
when President Taft signed the proclamation admitting New Mexico as
the 47th state. After signing the long awaited document at I :35 P.M.,
January 6,1912, the President turned to the delegation and said,
"Well, it is all over. I am glad to give you life. I hope you will be
healthy." |
| |

|
|
1912
1919 |
Pancho Villa
raids Columbus, NM
Hidalgo County formed |
Columbus, NM
NM |
Villa occupied
the town for 3 days, destroyed the military compound and much of the
town of Columbus. This led to the Pershing invasion of Mexico
and the fighting between Villistas and US troops in Ciudad Juarez.
The artillery exchanges were viewed from rooftops by residents of El
Paso. The first aircraft used in warfare were introduced during
this campaign. |

|
|
1921 |
Catron and Harding
Counties formed |
Southwestern NM |
|

|
|
1926 |
First Burning of
Zozobra, Santa Fe Fiesta |
Santa Fe, NM |
A Sertoma innovation |

|
|
12 Feb 1929 |
First Rio Grande
Compact (water) |
Santa Fe |
Colorado, Texas and
New Mexico signed the first Rio Grande Compact in Santa Fe. It placed
five-year moratorium on water projects until water could be measured
for apportionment. The demands for water in all the southwestern US
and northern Mexico along the Rio Grande River were becoming a major
issue. They remain a problem. |

|
|
18 Feb 1930 |
Pluto Discovered |
Las Cruces, NM |
New Mexico State
University professor Clyde W. Tombaugh discovers the planet of Pluto.
|

|
|
17 Sep 1930 |
Construction of the
Hoover Dam |
Las Vegas |
|

|
|
1933 |
Civilian Conservation
Corps |
|
One of the earliest
attempts by the Roosevelt administration to reduce the distress caused
by the Great Depression of 1929 |

|
|
1938 |
First wild rodent
bubonic plague documented in New Mexico |
NM |
|

|
|
1942 |
Internment of the
Japanese |
California, Nevada, Utah,
Arizona |
This continued even while
the 442nd, composed entirely of men of Japanese ancestry fought
bravely in the European Theatre. The families of many of these
men were in concentration camps in the US while they struggled in
Italy and western Europe. |

|
|
1942 |
POW Camps |
Lordsburg, Roswell,
Portales |
Italians and Germans.
|

|
|
1942 |
The Granada
Relocation Camp |
Amache |
|

|
|
Apr 1942 |
Internment Camps in
Arizona for several generations of US citizens of Japanese ancestry as
a result of the war in the Pacific. |
|
One of the two camps
located in Arizona was Colorado River Relocation Center (April
1942-March 1946), on Colorado Indian lands near Poston, 12 miles
southwest of Parker in La Paz (formerly part of Yuma) County, that had
a peak population of about 18,000. The other was constructed at
Rivers, on leased Pima-Maricopa Indian lands in west central Pinal
County, and was known as the Gila River Relocation Center (May
1942-February 1946) with a population of about 13,000. These interned
citizens represented a broad spectrum of the Japanese community in
America at the time including Issei, the elders who arrived in the
early 1900s, the Nisei, the second generation born in America, and the
Kibei, also second generation born here but educated in Japan. |

|
|
24 Jan 1945 |
New Mexicans
Liberated |
Philippines |
Camp O'Donnell
(Philippines) is liberated from Japan by U.S. troops. Many New
Mexicans with the 200th and 515th coastal artillery units are
discovered, having survived the Bataan Death March and several years
of captivity. — Camp Cabanatuan is liberated 6 days later.
|

|
|
16 Jul 1945 |
World's First Atomic
Bomb Detonated on the US. Only a few farms, ranches and
migratory birds received unintended radiation fallout. |
Between San Antonio,
New Mexico and Carrizoso, NM |
The world's first
Atomic Bomb was detonated on the White Sands Testing Range near
Socorro a few miles east of Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge. North of the impact point a small placard marks the area
known as Trinity Site. The bomb was designed and manufactured in Los
Alamos for the purpose of dropping on the Japanese population. |

|
|
1949 |
First human Bubonic
plague reported in NM |
NM |
|

|
|
1949 |
Los Alamos County
formed |
Los Alamos |
The unique character of Los
Alamos community of physicists and nuclear weapons scientists and the
concomitant National Security funding concerns called for the
political separation from surrounding counties. |

|

|
|
1955 |
Last human reported
case of Rabies in NM |
NM |
|

|
|
18 May 1956 |
The Fremont Hotel
Opens |
Fremont |
|

|
|
1967 |
New Buffalo Commune
formed |
Lincoln Co., NM |
|

|
|
1974 |
First Asian-American
Female Secretary of State |
|
|

|
|
1976 |
First
African-American Elected to Utah State Legislature |
Ogden |
|

|
|
1977 |
New Mexico ranked 5th
in the US in suicides |
NM |
|

|
|
08 Jun 1978 |
LDS Church Allows
Black Priests |
|
|

|
|
1981 |
Cibola County formed |
Grants, NM |
|

|
|
1982 |
Alcoholism rate in NM
ranked 37 times the national average |
New Mexico |
|
| |

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