What Is New Mexico Known For? 23 Things New Mexicans Love About Themselves

New Mexico’s nickname is the “Land of Enchantment” — and it’s not hard to see why. This fabulous state has a lot going for it, from the pristine natural beauty of its wilderness to the depth of its traditional cultures.

There’s quite a lot to love about New Mexico, and the state’s residents will be quick to rattle off all the great things about living here.

If you’re curious about New Mexico, here’s a primer about some of the things that make this state a great place to live.

1. New Mexican Cuisine

It wouldn’t be a comprehensive article about New Mexico without mentioning New Mexican cuisine. New Mexico features a unique style of Mexican food that has many elements that hold it distinct from other styles of Mexican food.

Central to New Mexican cuisine are its famous chili peppers. Most of these peppers grow in the southern end of the state and are famous for their delicious flavor and versatility as an ingredient. Burritos and breakfasts slathered in red or green chile is a New Mexican staple that has found popularity even outside of the borders of the state.

2. Landscapes

New Mexico is famed for the beauty and diversity of its desert Landscapes. There’s quite a wide variety of micro-habitats that exist on the borders of this beautiful state.

The Colorado Plateau dominates in the northern third of the state, and the elevation routinely exceeds 6,000 feet. Here, it’s not uncommon to find dense pine forests and groves of aspen that are more common in places like Colorado and Montana.

Contrarily, the barren deserts of the southwest dominate further down Highway 25. This lends itself to being a very biodiverse place, with tons of opportunities for outdoor recreation of all kinds.

3. Climate

Climate is another thing that New Mexico has that people enjoy. With its abundant sunshine and lack of humidity, many find New Mexico’s climate to be quite accommodating for their tastes.

In the same spirit of its landscapes, the state hosts a number of different micro-climates. This is due to the often dramatic shifts in its elevation. One finds intense heat in the Chihuahuan Desert and more temperate rocky mountain climates in the higher-elevation north.

According to the Koppen climate assessment map of New Mexico, 13 different climate subtypes exist in this very diverse state.

4. Art

New Mexico is also home to a robust and thriving art market. In fact, Santa Fe is the country’s third largest in terms of commercial value after New York and Los Angeles.

Artists flock to New Mexico for inspiration from its beautiful scenery, as well as for the solitude and concentration that the state offers creative types in their quest to perfect their craft.

Many artists and artisans showcase their wares in open-air markets. Many tourists find entertaining in themselves for their glimpse of authentic New Mexican commerce.

5. History

New Mexico is a highly historical state from multiple perspectives. The various indigenous tribes of New Mexico were some of the first people in the Americas to construct monuments and cities that stand to this day.

New Mexico is home to three separate UNESCO World Heritage sites, the most of any U.S. state. Downtown Santa Fe, founded by the Spanish, is the oldest state capital in the United States. The San Miguel Mission that stands in its center is the oldest church in the United States, dating back to 1610.

In modern times, the state has stood at the center of history again as the birthplace of the atomic bomb. These nuclear developments have altered the flow of history and international politics.

6. Cinema

Speaking of Oppenheimer and the silver screen, New Mexico is also one of the major centers for film and television production in the United States.

In particular, many country and western films are produced in New Mexico. Some of the high alpine environments in the state stand in for movies allegedly set in Montana, Wyoming, and Canada. The state makes it easy to produce because of its lenient tax incentives.

Some recent films of note that have been shot in New Mexico include Oppenheimer, Thor, 3:10 to Yuma, and No Country For Old Men. In addition, many classic westerns from Hollywood’s golden era display scenes shot in New Mexico.

7. Hot Air Balloons

One of New Mexico’s most famous festivals is the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta held in Albuquerque. This is the world’s largest hot air balloon event.

This festival is truly a spectacle, with hundreds of hot air balloons filling the skies above the largest city in New Mexico. Interested tourists can catch a ride in one of the hot air balloons themselves.

Part of the reason that the Hot Air Balloon Festival has grown to such proportions is due to the optimal weather conditions in Albuquerque for the balloons. Part of this is facilitated by a weather pattern known as “The Albuquerque Box.” This is a name for a set of highly predictable wind patterns that minimize the potential for chaos in such an event.

8. Carlsbad Caverns

One of New Mexico’s natural treasures is the massive cave system Carlsbad Caverns. This enormous cave system is one of the largest in the world. It also has North America’s largest limestone chamber located within it, a cavern named the Big Room.

Carlsbad Caverns is doubly fascinating due to its natural history. The cave used to be a coral reef called El Capitan Reef. This reef formed underneath a large inland sea that was located where the deserts of New Mexico stand today.

Carlsbad Caverns is now a national park and provides habitat to a number of bird and bat species. The cave system also provides an opportunity for scientists to study microbial life. Much of it forms in the underground water systems that permeate the cave.

9. White Sands

This National Park is another natural wonder in New Mexico, famed worldwide due to the brilliant white color of the dunes in the park.

The white sand in the park is comprised of Gypsum, and the sand dune area is the largest field of Gypsum in the world. The park is the most-visited in the New Mexico park system, attracting over 600,000 tourists a year.

Despite the barren appearance of these dunes, there’s a large amount of wildlife that has ensconced itself in the sandy environment. Some of the endemic species in this area include the Apache Pocket Mouse, the White Sands woodrat, and the Bleached Earless Lizard. In addition, the park has over 40 species of endemic moths.

10. Bandelier

Bandelier National Monument is an archaeological marvel that has preserved the homes and dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest. The structures in the monument date from 1150 to 1600 AD.

Many of the structures in Bandelier are carved into cliff faces. This is an element of city-building that was quite common in this region in prehistoric times. The park also contains many cave and wall paintings. In addition, the park contains abundant wildlife, who have moved in in the absence of human activity.

11. Hot Springs

New Mexico is also famed for its fabulous hot springs. There are numerous wild and man-made hot springs peppered throughout the state. These springs offer visitors and residents alike numerous opportunities to unwind and kick back in their rejuvenating waters.

One of New Mexico’s most famous hot spring towns is a place with the peculiar name of Truth or Consequences. This town received its name after winning a contest held by a game show of the same name.

12. Taos Pueblo

Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo in Taos that was built by the Tiwa Pueblo people in pre-Columbian times. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Taos Pueblo is one of the longest continuously inhabited buildings in the world.

The Pueblo features many of the distinctive architectural features that have become iconic of the New Mexican style. This includes adobe construction and multiple floors connected by a series of ladders.

13. Roswell

New Mexico is also renowned by those interested in life from the beyond. Roswell, New Mexico, is home to what might be the most famous UFO crash in history.

The alleged crash occurred in 1947 and was one of the events that sparked a national and international craze surrounding flying saucers around the world. The United States Air Force officially attempted to debunk the lore surrounding the Roswell crash in 1996. They did this by claiming that the object seen in the sky was a wayward military balloon.

This debunking has been met with limited success. Even the township of Roswell has tried to cash in on the UFO craze by filling their town with images of aliens and their spacecraft. Roswell also hosts numerous UFO enthusiast conferences and events each year.

14. Atomic Energy

For better or worse, New Mexico is the birthplace of the atomic bomb, as well as the initial place where humanity began experimenting with harnessing atomic energy.

The Manhattan Project was a series of tests and experiments that occurred in northern New Mexico, centered around the town of Alamos. These tests were part of a covert arms race between the United States and Nazi Germany, which the former feared was developing its own atomic bomb.

Through the efforts of the nation’s most formidable physicists, the United States became the first nation to wield the terrible power of an Atomic Bomb. Much of this history lies on display in the town of Alamos, with many of the place’s street names referencing this history.

15. Petroglyph National Monument

This national monument lies just outside of Albuquerque. The site is interesting for both geological and archaeological reasons. Many of the petroglyphs are written into the side of ancient volcanic basalt formations. These formations came to be in a massive series of volcanic eruptions over 600,000 years ago.

The petroglyphs in the park hold a special significance to the Pueblo peoples of the area. This lends the formations a special brand of cultural gravitas.

Unfortunately, some of the petroglyphs have been subject to vandalism in the past couple of decades due to the growth of nearby Albuquerque. This has provoked the park service to take extra steps to protect this unique piece of natural and cultural history.

16. The Rio Grande

Here comes the fourth-largest river in the United States. From its origin in Southwest Colorado to its termination in the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande runs a total of 1,896 miles.

The river is one of the natural borders between the United States and Mexico in the state of Texas. However, the longest stretch of the river in the USA occurs in New Mexico. The river provides innumerable essential benefits to the people of New Mexico and its wildlife.

17. Turquoise

New Mexico is one of the world’s best places to find and buy Turquoise due to the plentiful veins of this precious ore that run through the state.

In particular, the Cerrillos Hills are renowned for the rich beauty of their Turquoise deposits. The minerals recovered from the mines here are sold wholesale or fashioned into delicately flashy jewelry pieces. Many of these are sold in one of the state’s many markets.

Outside of modern appreciation for this beautiful stone, the indigenous peoples of the Americas also utilized it for centuries to serve as a prized decoration for ceremonial objects.

18. Ghost Ranch

Next up is a historic ranch in the community of Abiquie, New Mexico. This ranch has served as an inspiration to many artists and thinkers over the decades, partially due to its fabulous red-rock scenery.

Georgia O’Keefe made many of her most famous works of art here, and there are dozens of films shot in the dramatic rock formations of this place. The ranch still serves as a conference center and retreat.

The ranch is also of interest to Paleontologists due to the very high concentration of fossils that exist on its land. Scientists have uncovered hundreds of very well-preserved fossils in the quarries surrounding Ghost Ranch.

19. Georgia O’Keeffe

This famous creative is one of America’s most celebrated painters, and the artist lived for quite a long time in New Mexico.

The artist moved to Northern New Mexico from New York City in 1930 and resided there until she died in 1986 at the ripe old age of 98. Many of O’Keefe’s most celebrated paintings depict scenes in New Mexico.

O’Keefe was well-known in her lifetime, but her work has been even more valuable since the artist’s passing. One of her paintings, Jimson Weed/White Flower no. 1, sold for over 44 million dollars in 2014.

20. George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin is perhaps New Mexico’s most recent large creative export. As the author of the international hit series of books Game of Thrones, the author is one of the best-selling novelists in history.

Game of Thrones has evolved from just a book series into a massive multi-media franchise that has spanned multiple media mediums. Martin’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed in his chosen home of Santa Fe. The city has elected to honor the writer with his own day – March 29th of every year is George R.R. Martin Day.

21. Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf is a multi-media art franchise that defies expectations. Jumpstarted by financial investments by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, the interactive art exhibit has spread to several other U.S. cities from its nativity in Santa Fe.

The installations almost defy description as well as expectations. The interactive museums that the company constructs have to be experienced to be understood. The ground-breaking style of entertainment featured in these exhibits has also attracted significant media attention.

22. Hatch Chile Festival

Every year, the humble town of Hatch, New Mexico, throws a massive celebration of all things Chile. This is because many consider Hatch to be the epicenter of the world’s greatest Chile harvest.

The Chile Festival is fairly popular, attracting upwards of 30,000 guests from around the world to this humble town of 1,500. Many of the Chiles that don’t make it into people’s mouths end up becoming strung up in Ristras, decorative garlands of Chiles that have become emblematic of New Mexico and the Southwest.

23. Shiprock

This entry is a monumental rock formation in northern New Mexico that holds great symbolic value to the Navajo people. These people have given the rock formation the nickname “Rock With Wings” due to the ridges of rock that seem to spread out from the central formation like wings.

The massive tower of stone rises dramatically above the relatively flat plains of the Colorado Plateau around it. The rock appears in numerous films and novels and is also a destination for veteran rock climbers. The latter test their skills against the rock massif’s difficult climbing features.

Unfortunately, this rock climbing is not acceptable to the Navajo People, who consider the rock to be religiously and spiritually significant. In their mythology, their people rode the monolith from the sky to land in the American Southwest from other lands. In addition, camping directly to the rock is essentially illegal, though one can camp nearby.