Add Enchantment to Your Holiday Decor
Light it up. The tiny mining town of Madrid has an outsize reputation for lighting the night. In the early 1900s, the town enjoyed free electricity supplied by the coal mining companies, which allowed…
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Category: History
A Spectacle to Behold
A FEW MILES NORTH OF TAOS, a massive pair of thick-rimmed glasses peers out onto NM 150 near the driveway to the Bareiss Gallery. In 2002, Texas artist Steve Teeters constructed two sculptures of…
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Billy the Kid's Hole in the Wall
THERE’S A BULLET HOLE in the western wall of the Old Lincoln County Courthouse, but not just any bullet hole. On April 28, 1881, William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, was being held at the courthouse…
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Ham the Astrochimp's Journey into Space
AT THE NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF SPACE HISTORY, in Alamogordo, visitors leave bananas on the gravestone of Ham the Astrochimp as a tribute to the first great ape who was launched into space. “Before an…
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Check Out Carnegie's Library Legacy
NESTLED IN THE CENTER OF A LEAFY GREEN, the 1904 Carnegie Library brought neoclassical gravitas to New Town. East Las Vegas hatched the monument to book-learning by asking steel tycoon Andrew…
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The History Behind the Whitmore House
WHEN KATHY HENDRICKSON first walked into her three-story Victorian home on 825 Seventh Street, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I saw this unpainted original woodwork, and I was like, ‘This is…
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Rawlins Building Returns to Glory
FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY Thomas Clayton remembers playing as a child in the massive boarding house his grandparents owned at 515 Railroad Avenue. It was built by British saloon owner William…
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A Tale of Two Buildings
LAS VEGAS IS ESSENTIALLY A TALE OF TWO TOWNS—Old and New, West and East—that separately incorporated in 1888 and 1903, respectively, and did not join as one municipality until 1970. Similarly, the…
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Historic Masonic Lodge Waits for Revival
“THIS IS STILL OPERATING, yes, ma’am,” says Greg Baker, secretary for Chapman Masonic Lodge No. 2. We’re standing outside the ruddy, purplish sandstone front of what experts call the most…
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Take History 101 on Las Vegas Plaza
PLAZA HOTEL 1882 | 230 Plaza St. The three-story brick Italianate “Belle of the Southwest” cost $25,000 for a consortium of local partners to build. CHARLES ILFELD BUILDING 1882 and 1890 | 224 Plaza…
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