Santa Fe

—Santa Fean.

/san"teuh fay"/

1. a city in and the capital of New Mexico, in the N part: founded c1605. 48,899.

2. a steam locomotive having a two-wheeled front truck, ten driving wheels, and a two-wheeled rear truck. See table under Whyte classification.

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City (pop., 2000: 62,203), capital of New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Founded by the Spanish in 1610, it was the administrative, military, and missionary headquarters of a vast, sparsely populated Spanish colonial province during the 18th century. In the Mexican War in 1846, the city was occupied by U.S. forces under Gen. Stephen Kearny. After New Mexico was ceded to the U.S., Santa Fe became the capital of the territory in 1851. In 1912 it became the state capital. It was the western terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. It is a major tourist centre noted for Indian and Mexican handicrafts, and its large Spanish-American population has made it the cultural capital of the southwest. A popular summer resort, it also attracts winter skiers.

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▪ Argentina

      city, capital of Santa Fe provincia (province), northeastern Argentina. It lies on a channel of the Paraná River, at the mouth of the Salado River, opposite the city of Paraná. It was founded in 1573 as Santa Fe de Vera Cruz at nearby Cayastá by Juan de Garay, lieutenant governor of Asunción, Paraguay. Moved to its present site in 1651, it was developed as a supporting river port for the Spanish settlement at Asunción, 615 miles (990 km) north on the Paraguay River. During the colonial era it was a missionary centre of the Jesuits, whose church in the city dates from 1660. Until the mid-19th century it marked the northern limit of provincial expansion and served as a strategic outpost against the Indians of the Gran Chaco region. A congress meeting there in 1853 produced the constitution establishing the Argentine Republic.

      Its economy is diversified and includes flour mills, dairy plants, plants processing forest products, mineral smelters, and automobile manufacturers. Its port, modernized for oceangoing vessels, is the most inland seaport in the world (250 miles from the Río de la Plata estuary) and handles Bolivian and Paraguayan, as well as Argentine, commerce. Santa Fe has three national historic monuments—the San Francisco Church and Convent (1680), La Merced Church (1660–1754), and the Santa Fe Cathedral (1685). The National University of the Litoral (1919) is located there. Pop. (2001) 368,668.

▪ New Mexico, United States

 capital of New Mexico, U.S., and seat (1852) of Santa Fe county, in the north-central part of the state, on the Santa Fe River. It lies in the northern Rio Grande valley at 6,996 feet (2,132 metres) above sea level, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A dry, invigorating climate makes it a popular summer resort, while mountain skiing attracts winter visitors.

      Founded in 1610 by Governor Don Pedro de Peralta (Peralta, Pedro de), it was named Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis (Spanish: “Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”) and developed around a central plaza. Evacuated in 1680 after the Pueblo Rebellion, it was retaken peacefully in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas, an event commemorated by an annual fiesta.

      During the 18th century Santa Fe served as the administrative, military, and missionary headquarters of a vast, sparsely populated Spanish colonial frontier province. U.S. interest in the area was aroused by the report of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike (Pike, Zebulon Montgomery), who was imprisoned there during his exploration of the Southwest in 1806. After Mexican independence (1821), a brisk wagon-train commerce developed over the Santa Fe Trail. During the Mexican War the city was occupied (1846) by U.S. forces under General Stephen Watts Kearny (Kearny, Stephen Watts), and an English-language newspaper was published there in 1847. After New Mexico was ceded to the United States (1848), Santa Fe became the capital in 1851 of the Territory of New Mexico and, in 1912, of the state. In 1862 the city was occupied for two weeks by Confederate forces under General H.H. Sibley. The railroad arrived in 1880, and there were brief mining booms in the nearby mountains, but the city essentially remained a trading centre for ranchers, farmers, and Indians.

      Construction in the early 1940s of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (later Los Alamos National Laboratory) for atomic research, 35 miles (56 km) northwest, brought new economic vitality to the area.

      The Palace of the Governors (built by Peralta in 1610) was restored as a museum in 1914. A new group of spaciously landscaped state government buildings, including the capitol (completed in 1966), faces the river. Traditional Spanish-Pueblo Indian architecture has been protected since 1958 by zoning ordinance. The 17th-century Chapel of San Miguel, also known as Oldest Church (rebuilt 1710, restored 1955), and the Cathedral of St. Francis, built in 1869 by John B. Lamy, first bishop of Santa Fe, are architectural landmarks. A fictionalized account of the life of Lamy and his work in the Santa Fe region was the subject of Willa Cather (Cather, Willa)'s remarkable novel Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

      With a large Spanish-American population, the city is the cultural capital of the Southwest and is growing rapidly as a commercial and residential centre. It is built on the site of a prehistoric Tiwa pueblo, and archaeological research is conducted in the surrounding Indian territory. The Museum of New Mexico encompasses the Palace of the Governors (specializing in the history of the city, state, and region), the Museum of International Folk Art (with what purports to be the world's largest collection of cross-cultural traditional folk art), the Museum of Fine Arts (with an emphasis on artists working in the Southwest), and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (the exhibition facility of the Laboratory of Anthropology), a repository of indigenous art and material culture. The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (formerly the Museum of Navaho Ceremonial Art), once part of the Laboratory of Anthropology, is privately endowed. The College of Santa Fe (formerly St. Michael's) was founded in 1859, and St. John's College in 1964. The Santa Fe Indian School (1932) and the New Mexico School for the Deaf (1887) are also in the city.

      Santa Fe is a regional headquarters for the National Park Service and headquarters for the Santa Fe National Forest (immediately east). The region's five state monuments are under the aegis of the Museum of New Mexico. Pop. (1990) city, 55,859; Santa Fe MSA, 117,043; (2000) city, 62,203; Santa Fe MSA, 147,635.

▪ county, New Mexico, United States

      county, a scenic area of northern New Mexico, U.S. The northeastern portion is in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Southern Rocky Mountains, featuring Santa Fe Baldy and Lake Peak, both more than 12,000 feet (3,650 m) in elevation. At the mountains' southern end is Glorieta Mesa, an area of hilly, grassy plains in the Basin and Range Province, with a landscape marked by colourful hills, mesas, and isolated mountains. The Rio Grande, which passes through the county's far northwest, and several small, tributary streams are the principal bodies of water. Santa Fe National Forest, Pecos Wilderness, Hyde Memorial and Santa Fe River state parks, and the San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojoaque, Tesuque, and Santo Domingo Pueblo Indian reservations are all located in the county.

      Pueblos were built in the region from at least the beginning of the 14th century. Spanish settlement commenced in 1610 at Santa Fe; the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against Spanish rule began at Tesuque pueblo. The development of Santa Fe as the capital of Spain's vast New Mexico territory dominated the area's history. The county was established by Mexico in 1844, and in 1852 it was reestablished as one of the first counties in New Mexico Territory, U.S. The Battle of Glorieta Pass, a decisive blow to Confederate hopes during the American Civil War, was fought in Santa Fe county.

      Government bodies are the county's principal employers, and tourism is also a leading economic factor. The city of Santa Fe is the county seat and the state capital; it is the site of the College of Santa Fe (1859) and St. John's College (1964). Area 1,909 square miles (4,945 square km). Pop. (2000) 129,292; (2007 est.) 142,955.

▪ province, Argentina

      provincia (province) of lowland plains, northeastern Argentina, bounded to the east by the Paraná River. Much of the province lies within the northern reaches of the Pampa, but, in the subtropical northeast it has marshes, tall savannas, and clusters of woodland, and the subtropical dry forests of the northwest consist largely of thorny shrubs and low trees.

      The province was settled in the late 16th century by Spaniards from Asunción, Paraguay, but it long remained a sparsely populated area exporting yerba maté (a tealike beverage). Into the early 19th century it repeatedly experienced malónes (violent Indian attacks) and epidemics. Not until the mid-1850s, when Rosario was made the official port of the Argentine Confederation, did stable economic growth begin. Thereafter, Santa Fe developed as the centre of immigrant agricultural colonias (colonies) and commercial grain production.

      Important crops are wheat, soybeans, corn (maize), and sorghum, followed by cotton and sugarcane grown in the extreme northeast. The province is the centre of Argentine dairy production, which is often processed on the agricultural cooperatives that are commonplace to this area. Oceangoing vessels load and discharge at the province's four river ports of Villa Constitución, Rosario, San Lorenzo, and Santa Fe (the provincial capital). The 7,850-foot tunnel between Santa Fe and Paraná greatly facilitates road communications between those two cities. Area 51,354 square miles (133,007 square km). Pop. (2001) 3,000,701.

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