Santa Fe Trivia

• Santa Fe, located at approximately 7,000 feet above sea level, is the highest capital city in the United States.

• Santa Fe’s Palace of Governors, built in 1610, is the oldest government building in the United States.

• New Mexico boasts more Ph.D.'s per capita than any other state in the U.S.

• New Mexico has a state question, “Red or Green?,” which refers to the choice of chile sauce a diner wants served with his or her meal. (If you want both, answer, "Christmas.")

• While Lew Wallace served as territorial governor of New Mexico, he wrote the popular novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which was published in 1880 and was the basis for the 1959 movie starring Charlton Heston.

• New Mexico's state constitution officially declares that New Mexico is a bilingual state. One-third of all families in the state speak Spanish at home.

• New Mexico encompasses seven national forests, including the 3.3-million-acre Gila National Forest, the nation’s largest. Although many people picture New Mexico as desert terrain, a quarter of the state is forested.

• Santa Fe is the ending point of the 800-mile Santa Fe Trail, an international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders in the early 1800s and later a national road leading to the southwest territories.

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