Events:
2022 October 1-9 – The 50th Annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta takes place at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
2022 October 1-2 – 50th Annual Harvest Festival at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas
2022 October 1 – 11th Annual New Mexico Brew Festival
2022 October 3 – 100th Annual Eastern New Mexico State Fair in Roswell
2022 October 12-16 – 15th Annual Roswell Jazz Festival
Historical Dates:
2000 October 13 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signed An Act to amend the National Trails System Act and creates El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail.
1988 October 28 – The National Park Service changes the name of the Gran Quivira National Monument to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, which was originally established on November 1, 1909. Located near present day Mountainair, New Mexico, the once thriving trade community of the Tiwa and Tompiro language-speaking Pueblo people dating back to the 11th century, construction of the Catholic missions began in 1622 and was completed in 1635 and was established by Fray Francisco Fonte and was depopulated by the late 1600s.
1923 October 25 – Carlsbad Caverns National Monument is created by proclamation by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, which was later established as Carlsbad Caverns National Park on May 14, 1930, by President Herbert Hoover.
1922 October 27 – Ralph Kiner, American Baseball Hall of Fame left fielder is born in Santa Rita, New Mexico. Kiner was the National League home run leader from 1946–52 and a six time MLB All-Star for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and Cleveland Indians, and subsequent to his playing career, a manager for the San Diego Padres and a sportscaster for the New York Mets. He died in 2014. His traditional home run call, “It is gone, goodbye,” is still a signature phrase in baseball.
1921 October 29 – Pulitzer Prize winner, Bill Mauldin, American cartoonist famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico. Mauldin was credited by GIs with helping them get through the war with his comic Willie and Joe, and famously made fun of General Patton, whom attempted to have Mauldin fired, although General Eisenhower intervened. He died in 2003 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
1913 October 22 – A coal mine explosion occurs in Dawson, New Mexico, killing 263 miners and two members of a rescue team resulting in the second worst mining disaster in United States History. A second explosion happened in February 1923 and killed 120 miners.
1906 October 5 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt creates the Mount Taylor Forest Reserve consisting of 110,525 acres. The Mount Taylor Forest Preserve, on Apr 16, 1908, is combined with Manzano National Forest and the name is discontinued. Zuni Forest Preserve is later added and the name was subsequently changed to the Cibola National Forest.
1905 October 12 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt creates the Jemez Forest Reserve by proclamation. The Jemez Forest Reserve name is later discontinued after it is incorporated into the Santa Fe National Forest along with the Pecos Forest Preserve on July 1, 1915.
1905 October 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt creates the Portales Forest Reserve, consisting of 172,380 acres through proclamation, which is later abolished on March 16, 1907 by President Roosevelt who stated the “no longer required for experimental forest purposes” and the land was returned to the public domain.
1881 October – The New Mexico Territorial Fair was first held in October 1881 under the direction of New Mexican Businessman and Politician, UNM President, and first State Fair President, Elias S. Stover. In 1911, the Territorial Fair transitioned into the New Mexico State Fair in anticipation of New Mexico’s upcoming statehood in early 1912.
1878 October 1 – President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints General Lew Wallace as governor of New Mexico Territory where he will serve until 1881. During his tenure, he was tasked with ‘taming’ New Mexico, and addressed the Lincoln County War and promised Billy the Kid a pardon. After his governorship, he was appointed Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during which he wrote “Ben-Hur.“ Wallace famously said, “Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico.”
1849 October 23 – Brevet Colonel John Munroe assumes command as the fourth (and last) U.S. provisional governor of New Mexico.
1848 October 11 – Brevet Lieutenant Colonel John M. Washington assumes command as the third U.S. provisional governor of New Mexico.
1841 October 5 – The Republic of Texas Santa Fe Expedition surrenders to Nuevo México troops under the command of Governor Manuel Armijo. The captured Texian troops are marched to Mexico City with an account of the trek was written by George Wilkins Kendall entitled Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition. The failure of Santa Fe Expedition would result in Texas President Mirabeau Lamar being impeached, however, Texas never relinquished its unfounded claim to the territory until the ratification of The Compromise of 1850.
1840 October 6 – New Mexico’s first State Senator, former Confederate Soldier, and Leader of the Santa Fe Ring, Thomas Benton Catron, is born in Lexington, Missouri. Though serving in the Confederate Army, Catron was a Republican and was appointed as Attorney General and subsequently became the largest land holder in New Mexico after becoming legally familiar with land grants. After a long and illustrious career, Catron died in Santa Fe on May 15, 1921.
1712 October 5 – Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon, after whom the Mogollon Mountains and subsequent ghost town of Mogollon takes its name, who had been commissioned by Felipe V at Madrid, assumed the office of governor of New Mexico.