Albuquerque New Mexico History & Facts

Albuquerque abbreviated as ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its 1706 founding by Nuevo México governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés as La Villa de Alburquerque. Named in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain, the 10th Duke of Alburquerque, the city was an outpost on El Camino Real linking Mexico City to the northernmost territories of New Spain. The 2020 census found the population of the city to be 564,559, making Albuquerque the 32nd-most populous city in the United States and the fourth-largest in the Southwest. It is the principal city of the Albuquerque metropolitan area, which had 916,528 residents as of July 2020.

Located in north-central New Mexico, Albuquerque serves as the county seat of Bernalillo County. To its east are the Sandia–Manzano Mountains, Rio Grande flows north to south through its center, while the West Mesa and Petroglyph National Monument make up the western part of the city. Albuquerque has one of the highest elevations of any major city in the U.S., ranging from 4,900 feet (1,500 m) above sea level near the Rio Grande to over 6,700 feet (2,000 m) in the foothill areas of Sandia Heights and Glenwood Hills. The civic apex is found in an undeveloped area within the Albuquerque Open Space; there, the terrain rises to an elevation of approximately 6,880 feet (2,100 m), and the metropolitan area's highest point is the Sandia Mountains crest at an altitude of 10,678 feet (3,255 m).

The economy of Albuquerque centers on science, medicine, technology, commerce, education, entertainment, and culture outlets. The city is home to Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Presbyterian Health Services, and both the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College have their main campuses in the city. Albuquerque is the center of the New Mexico Technology Corridor, a concentration of high-tech institutions, including the metropolitan area being the location of Intel's Fab 11X in Rio Rancho and a Facebook Data Center in Los Lunas. Albuquerque was also the founding location of MITS and Microsoft. Film studios have a major presence in the state of New Mexico; for example, Netflix has a main production hub at Albuquerque Studios. There are numerous shopping centers and malls within the city, including ABQ Uptown, Coronado, Cottonwood, Nob Hill, and Winrock. Outside city limits but surrounded by the city is the location of a horse racing track and casino called The Downs Casino and Racetrack, and the Pueblos surrounding the city feature resort casinos, including Sandia Resort, Santa Ana Star, Isleta Resort, and Laguna Pueblo's Route 66 Resort.

Petroglyphs carved into basalt in the western part of the city bear testimony to an early Native American presence in the area, now preserved in the Petroglyph National Monument.

The Tanoan and Keresan peoples had lived along the Rio Grande for centuries before European settlers arrived in what is now Albuquerque. By the 1500s, there were around 20 Tiwa pueblos along a 60-mile (97 km) stretch of river from present-day Algodones to the Rio Puerco confluence south of Belen. Of these, 12 or 13 were densely clustered near present-day Bernalillo and the remainder were spread out to the south.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Albuquerque has a total area of 189.5 square miles (490.9 km2), of which 187.7 square miles (486.2 km2) is land and 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2), or 0.96%, is water.

Albuquerque lies within the center of the Albuquerque Basin ecoregion, centered on the Rio Grande with its Bosque gallery forest, flanked easterly by the Sandia–Manzano Mountains and westerly by the West Mesa. Located in central New Mexico, the city also has noticeable influences from the adjacent Colorado Plateau semi-desert, New Mexico Mountains forested with juniper and pine, and Southwest plateaus and plains steppe ecoregions, depending on where one is located.

Famous Peoples From Albuquerque New Mexico

Annabeth Gish

Anne Elizabeth "Annabeth" Gish (born March 13, 1971) is an American actress. She has played roles in films Shag, Hiding Out, Mystic Pizza, SLC Punk!, The Last Supper and Double Jeopardy. On television, she played Special Agent Monica Reyes on The X-Files, Elizabeth Bartlet Westin on The West Wing, Diane Gould on Halt and Catch Fire, Eileen Caffee on Brotherhood, Charlotte Millwright on The Bridge and Sheriff Althea Jarry on the seventh and final season of Sons of Anarchy.

Gish was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of Judy and Robert Gish. When she was two, her family moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she grew up with her brother Tim and her sister Robin. Her father was an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa; her mother was an elementary school teacher.

Gish went to Northern University High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she graduated in 1989. She attended Duke University, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and focused her energies on the Drama program, Film Studies and Women's Studies. She received a B.A. in English in July 1993.

We also serve Las Cruces city.

More Info.

PD&G Wallcover Inc.

Call Us: 949-487-9261
Email: deb@pdgwallcover.com