The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of our young nation. Here is the fifth in a series of articles reporting, state by state, what the Louisiana Purchase represents now.
SANTA FE, N.M. - In 1807, Capt. Zebulon Pike became the first English-speaking person to visit Santa Fe. He was brought here in shackles, under arrest as a spy.
Pike was part of an elite U.S. Army cadre charged with exploring the unknown lands of the Louisiana Purchase, 1,000 miles beyond the last American outposts.
In 1804, at the same time his fellow officers Lewis and Clark were making their expedition to the Pacific Ocean, Pike ventured to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Soon after he returned, he was sent with a small group of men to explore the southern boundary of the new territory.
The problem was, France and Spain had never agreed about the border between Louisiana and Nuevo Mexico. About 100,000 square miles in what is now northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado was claimed by both countries. With the Louisiana Purchase, the United States inherited the dispute.
As Pike crossed south of the Arkansas River - into Nuevo Mexico, according to the Spanish - army patrols from Santa Fe were out looking for him. Spies had tipped off the Spanish that the United States might be sending such an expedition, and American Indian villagers along the way had kept them posted about Pike's progress.
When the Spanish soldiers captured them, five of Pike's seven men were so badly frostbitten that they could not go on. Their arrest was also their rescue.
The northernmost Spanish colonial capital in North America, Santa Fe was already two centuries old when Pike arrived. The adobe city stood surrounded by mountain ranges on a broad, cool plateau that was covered with a pygmy forest of piqon and juniper.
Santa Fe reigned over haciendas, Franciscan missions and Indian pueblos that lined the Rio Grande and its tributary rivers for more than 100 miles. A Camino Real - Royal Road - linked it with Mexico City, about 1,600 miles to the south.
After interrogation in Santa Fe, Pike and his men were taken down the Camino Real to the city of Chihuahua for further questioning, but in the end they were returned to U.S. territory and released to avert an international incident.
No other Americans ever ventured into Spanish colonial Nuevo Mexico.
Not the Baja, but diverse
But 14 years later, Mexico won its independence. To establish commerce with the United States, the Mexican government decreed that Santa Fe would be a free trade zone, where traveling merchants could exchange American factory-made goods for Mexican silver and livestock.
Before the Santa Fe trade could be opened to norteamericanos, however, the federal government was required to acknowledge that eastern New Mexico was not U.S. territory - and never had been.
New Mexico became part of the United States again in 1848, after the Mexican War. The U.S. government had wanted to take Baja California as the price of peace, but Mexico insisted on giving up New Mexico and Arizona instead. To this day, more than a few New Mexicans doubt that their homeland is really part of the United States.
Santa Fe has been a multicultural crossroads ever since the war. It is the capital of an incredibly diverse state, the fifth-largest in size:
* The eastern part is cattle ranch land, geographically and culturally similar to the Texas Panhandle.
* The north is a mix of traditional Spanish villages and ancient Indian pueblos, along with the anomalous high-tech town of Los Alamos, where the first nuclear weapons were developed.
* The west is peopled mainly by Navajo and Zuni Indians.
* Much of the south is filled by the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness Areas, the largest roadless expanse in the lower 48 United States.
* And in the center is Albuquerque, the modern, midsize city where nearly half of New Mexico's population lives.
As the seat of government, Santa Fe is a curious blend of all these influences. The result has earned this community of 65,000 the nickname "The City Different."
About 3-million visitors come to Santa Fe each year - a surprising figure when you consider that there are few large hotels and no theme parks or other conventional tourist attractions.
The main sightseeing highlights are historic churches and more than a dozen museums that cover the spectrum of fine arts, folk art, American Indian arts and Spanish colonial arts, as well as New Mexico history.
Festivals and events also attract many visitors. The renowned Santa Fe Opera has its season in July and August. Other performance series, such as the Chamber Music Festival, the Desert Chorale and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, keep classical music lovers pleasurably occupied between operas.
In late August comes the Santa Fe Indian Market, one of the largest American Indian fairs in the nation.
The weekend after Labor Day, locals celebrate the end of the peak summer tourist season with Fiestas de Santa Fe, a traditional celebration that dates to 1691 and includes parades, religious processions, street dances and the burning in effigy of Zozobra, or Old Man Gloom, a 40-foot-tall puppet stuffed with fireworks.
The familiar is different here
Christmas, too, is celebrated in unusual ways - no plastic Santas or aluminum trees here. Farolitos, or "little lights," paper bags lit from within by altar candles, brighten the rooflines of the city's buildings, and the Mexican tradition of Las Posadas re-creates Joseph and Mary's search for a place to give birth to the child Jesus.
On Christmas Eve, more than 10,000 locals and visitors go caroling in the arts district. And on Christmas Day, the nearby pueblos hold ceremonial dances.
The local cuisine is equally special.
Although the city has numerous fine restaurants of every description, every Santa Fe visitor wants to try New Mexican food. Although it usually takes the familiar forms of Mexican dishes such as enchiladas, carne adovada and stuffed sopaipillas, the resemblance ends there.
New Mexican food uses ingredients adapted from the traditional staple foods of the Pueblo Indians. Green chili, the official state vegetable, is roasted, chopped and made into a stew or sauce served by the bowlful or poured generously over almost anything - nothing like the red beans-and-beef concoction called chili con carne in other parts of America. There's even green chili ice cream.
Another favorite ingredient is blue corn, cultivated and eaten by the Pueblo people, who consider all things blue, such as the sky and the turquoise used in jewelry, to be sacred. Order blue corn tortillas in a restaurant, and you'll discover that the taste and texture are quite different from standard sweet corn.
Then, of course, there's the architecture. Some of the adobe-style buildings in downtown Santa Fe were already standing when Zebulon Pike came to town. The oldest, the Palace of the Governors, dates to 1610.
But most of the colonial-era structures had been replaced by typical Victorian-era architecture by the early 20th century, when local archaeologists and artists revived the old styles.
By the 1950s, the Historic Styles Act - one of the first architectural preservation laws in the United States - required that all buildings constructed in Santa Fe's three National Historic Districts use the low-rise, earth-tone, adobe look now known as Santa Fe style. The style has grown so popular that it is used throughout the city and has spread to many other Southwestern cities and towns.
It is architecture, more than any other factor, that creates the distinctive ambience for which visitors come to Santa Fe.
But none of that - not the opera, Zozobra, green chili or adobe - is what really makes the city different. In fact, one has to live in Santa Fe at least once through all the seasons before realizing just how different the place is.
It's the people.
A stew of distinct flavors
Every Santa Fean is part of an ethnic minority. There are almost exactly as many Hispanic residents, whose ancestors have lived here since colonial times, as there are Anglos - about 44 percent each.
Most of the other residents are American Indians. (Don't call them Native Americans, a term many Indians find offensive.) Some have moved into the city from the surrounding pueblos to work or attend the Santa Fe Indian School. Others have been handpicked from tribes all over the United States to attend the prestigious Institute of American Indian Arts. Often they remain after finishing at the institute, joining Santa Fe's large community of artists, crafters and gallery owners.
The multicultural mix is more complicated than it seems at first glance. Newcomers are often surprised to discover that the term "Anglo" includes African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans and Jewish Americans - in fact, almost anybody who is not Spanish, Indian or Mexican.
On the other hand, there is a sharp social and cultural division between the Spanish - whose families have lived here for many generations - and the Mexican immigrants, who have recently become the city's fastest-growing ethnic group.
Many people confuse Santa Fe's multiculturalism with racial harmony. Anglos should not expect to be invited to dinner at Indians' houses or to date the daughters of Spanish families. Cultural crossovers are possible, but old prejudices still exist.
Yet over the centuries people have learned to defuse hostilities harmlessly by means of traditions such as the burning of Zozobra. They also negotiate community squabbles over whether to block off traffic around the plaza, whether to eliminate prairie dogs, whether to ration water, whether to exhibit what some consider disrespectful paintings of the Virgin Mary in a local museum, or any of 100 other excuses to let off steam. It works.
Readers of the religion section in Saturday's local paper are often surprised to note that there are more Buddhist groups in town than Lutheran, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches combined. Part of the reason is one Santa Fe minority that is not lumped into the "Anglo" category: Tibetan refugees.
Santa Fe has the oldest Tibetan community in the United States, and one of the largest. Visitors today may well find that their hotel clerk or restaurant waiter is named something like Tenzin. "Free Tibet" bumper stickers are everywhere. A local video store has a section of Tibetan movies, and Tibetan Santa Feans were even recruited and flown to the South American Andes for the filming of Seven Years in Tibet.
In this realm, too, cultural exchange goes on. If you go to a local Tibetan festival, for instance, you're likely to find Tibetan costumes, Tibetan food - and country music.
If Zebulon Pike had the chance to return to Santa Fe today, he'd know for sure that he wasn't in Kansas anymore.
- Richard Harris is the author of 31 travel books, including "Hidden Southwest," in its sixth edition and published by Ulysses Press. He lives in Santa Fe.
Top two annual festivals
Santa Fe Indian Market. Held late each August, when more than 1,200 artists from about 100 tribes display their works in a juried show. The organizers also ensure quality and authenticity of the items by inspecting the artists' booths during the event. Experts and collectors award more than $60,000 in prize money. The event attracts an estimated 100,000 to the city. For more information, go to www.swaia.org/market.php
Fiestas de Santa Fe. Taking place the first Friday after Labor Day, the event has been celebrated in various forms since 1712 to honor the city's Spanish and Catholic heritage. There is dancing, along with religious events and fireworks, drawing the city's largest crowds each year. For more information, call (505) 988-7575.
Best legend about the state, true or not
The "miraculous" spiral staircase in Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, built without nails by an itinerant carpenter, who then disappeared before he could be paid.
Three must-see places
New Mexico Museum of International Folk Art. This unique museum's vast collection of handmade toys from around the world, arranged in dioramas, makes it the best attraction in Santa Fe for travelers with children. Call 505 476-1200 or go to www.moifa.org
Rancho de las Golondrinas. Volunteers in period costume re-create the Spanish colonial way of life at this open-air museum, originally an 18th century way station on the Camino Real. It is set on 200 acres in a farming valley south of Santa Fe. Call 505 471-2261, e-mail mail@golondrinas.org or see the Web site, www.golondrinas.org/about.html
Ten Thousand Waves. A hot tub and massage at this Japanese-style bathhouse, secluded on a pine-covered mountainside 10 minutes from downtown, offers a deliciously relaxing experience for Santa Fe visitors. Call 505 992-5025, e-mail info@tenthousandwaves.com or see the Web site, www.tenthousandwaves.com/info.html
Three places to avoid
In Santa Fe, Cerrillos Road during rush hour. Rocky's Bar, if you're an Anglo. Any curio shop that has wooden coyotes in the window.
Best place to taste regional cooking
Tomasita's is a local favorite, often crowded, and is in a former railroad depot. Try the burritos, enchiladas or chili rellenos, with either red or green chili sauce. 500 S Guadalupe St., Santa Fe; (505) 983-5721.
A famous native son or daughter:
actor Gene Hackman
A major problem residents now face
Drought and water shortages
The best joke that locals tell on themselves or the next-state neighbors
"How many Santa Feans does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"Five. One to replace the bulb and four to stand around saying they liked it better the way it was."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: To find out more about Santa Fe and other New Mexico destinations, contact: New Mexico Department of Tourism, New Mexico/Santa Fe Welcome Center, 491 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Call toll-free 1-800-733-6396, ext. 0643; e-mail vcenter@state.nm.us The Web site is www.newmexico.org
On the Web
Readers can find all the articles in our series on the Louisiana Purchase, which runs through May, by going to the Web site www.sptimes.com/lapurchase There are links to the installments and interactive features.
