Category: School names

New Mexico Military Institute

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by Mike Magers

New Mexico Military Institute, or NMMI, was founded in 1891 by Col. Robert Goss and Capt. Joseph C. Lea and was initially known as Goss Military Academy.  New Mexico had been organized as a territory of the United States under the bill known as the Great Compromise of 1850.  Under the bill, California was admitted to the Union, New Mexico and Utah were created as territories out of land gained in the Mexican War (1846-1848), these territories were allowed sovereignty in voting for or against slavery, the boundary between Texas and New Mexico was established and it made it easier for residents of so-called slave states to recover fugitive slaves.  The subject of slavery was hotly debated and this bill was the compromise reached by members of the U. S. Congress.

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School Names: Belen

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The town of Belen (now in Valencia County) is one of the oldest in New Mexico having been founded around 1740 by Spanish colonists.  It is far from being the actual oldest behind Acoma and Taos Pueblo from around 1000, Zuni from around 1450, Santa Fe from 1607 and Albuquerque from 1706.  Its original name was Nuestra Señora de Belén, which is translated Our Lady of Bethlehem and was originally founded under a Spanish land grant.

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School Names: Foothill

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by Mike Magers

foothill

Foothill High School is unique among New Mexico schools in that all of its players are incarcerated juvenile offenders.  The school is managed jointly by the New Mexico Department of Education and the Children and the Youth and Families Department.  The student body is comprised of mostly males with some females.  It has a Parent Teacher Student Association made up of parents, teachers, guards and officials of the school.

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School names: Silver

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by Mike Magers

Silver City is located in the center Grant County in the southwest part of the state.  It was founded in 1870 after the Civil War, but has been inhabited since long before that, including long periods by the Apache tribe and later by Spanish settlers.  Early Spanish and Anglo inhabitants were drawn by the prospect of mineral deposits and this was the main attraction for the area.  The prospect of wealth from mining also attracted criminal elements to the area, including William Bonney, more popularly known as Billy the Kid, among his other aliases.

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School names: Tucumcari

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by Mike Magers

Tucumcari is the county seat of Quay County.  The landscape is dominated by Tucumcari Mountain, a natural feature on the east side of the town.  One might have assumed that the county name had an origin more related to the culture of the residents, but instead the county was named for a Pennsylvania senator by the name of Matthew Quay who supported statehood for New Mexico.  Because of the county’s odd layout, it borders seven other New Mexico counties in addition to Oldham County on the Texas border.

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