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Historically, New Mexico has been a hide-out for ideological outlaws,
maverick thinkers, and bands of reckless visionaries. Their legacies have
made our state a place where innovative ideas can manifest themselves into reality.
J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904-1967
One of the most brilliant scientists of his time, J. Robert Oppenheimer is credited with bringing the
nation’s top theoretical physicists to Los Alamos in 1941. His life story has become emblematic of the
inevitable conflict between what is scientifically possible and what is ethically responsible. Born to
a New York Jewish family, Oppenheimer entered Harvard at the age of 17, and in the words of a former
classmate “intellectually looted the place.” He went on to study at Cambridge University in England
and Gottigen University in Germany.
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A brilliant theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (right) has become emblematic of what is scientifically possible and what is ethically responsible. |
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In the 1930s, Oppenheimer had relatives living in an increasingly anti-Semitic
Germany, and though he never spoke of it publicly, it is possible that this motivated him to take the
helm of the Manhattan Project, whose top-secret headquarters were in Los Alamos. By July of 1945,
Oppenheimer and his team of scientists had successfully built and tested the atom bomb, and shortly
thereafter, this weapon ended World War II.
With the conflict over, Oppenheimer advocated strict control of atomic energy and opposed
development of the H-bomb. He was overruled, subsequently branded a communist, and his
security clearance was revoked. Oppenheimer went on to be a professor at Princeton
University and spent the last years of his life writing on the conflict between intellectual
ethics and morality.
In his relatively short time here, Robert Oppenheimer left a deep footprint on New Mexico.
The tradition he established during the Manhattan Project has made Los Alamos an enclave of some
of the world’s brightest scientists for 60 years running. Today, LANL is a major research
laboratory, furthering defense (such as the new Center for Homeland Security) as well as
collaborating with the private sector.
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The Legacy: New Mexico has the largest number of PhDs as a percentage of the workforce in the United States and leads in areas such as fuel cell research, nanotechnology, and bioinformatics. Meanwhile, scientists at LANL continue to make major contributions to science. In September 2004, LANL biologist Betty Korber won the E.O. Lawrence Award—often a precursor to the Nobel Prize--for her study of the genetic characteristics of the HIV virus. Astrophysicist Tom Vestrand and his team have built robotic telescope observatories that can film giant flares and gamma ray bursts.
Torchbearers: LANL’s Dr. Betty Korber, 2004 winner of the E.O. Lawrence Award for her AIDS research; LANL’s Dr. Fred Mortensen, winner of a 2004 E.O. Lawrence Award for his contributions to nuclear weapons design; and the late Theodore Taylor, a former LANL weapons researcher turned anti-nuke activist. |
Mabel Dodge Luhan 1879-1962
Mabel Dodge Luhan was a catalyst, assembling many of the most influential minds of the early twentieth century at her Taos home and establishing New Mexico as an epicenter for creativity and new thought—which it is to this day. A wealthy socialite, Luhan first arrived in Taos via stagecoach in 1917. Previously, she had lived in Europe where she was a protégé of Gertrude Stein, and sought to re-create her lauded salons against the backdrop of the high desert. The party was always pulsing at Mabel’s, where guests included the likes of photographers Edward Weston
and Ansel Adams, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, psychologist C.G. Jung, novelist D.H. Lawrence, painters Dorothy Brett, Leon Gaspard and Andrew Dasburg, and author Frank Waters. Above all, Luhan believed that Western culture was endangered by its own self-destructive values and that its only hope for survival was to abandon a continuum of war, materialism, and a |
Mabel Dodge Luhan assembled some of the great artistic minds of the twentieth century at her Taos salons. |
| disregard for the natural environment in favor of the universal truths—community, connection to spirit, and respect for the earth--she saw embraced daily at nearby Taos Pueblo. She believed artists and writers could be the ambassadors for her cause.
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The Legacy: More than 30 years after her death, Mabel Dodge Luhan’s ideals continue to flourish. Not surprisingly, Taos is home to El Monte Sagrado eco spa, Earthship Biotecture, the Taos Mountain Film Festival, and solar-powered radio station KTAO 101.9 FM.
Torchbearers: Actor Dennis Hopper, who filmed Easy Rider in Taos and later bought Luhan’s home in 1970; Taosena Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones, who holds workshops at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House annually; and Taos Pueblo musician Robert Mirabal. |
Robert Goddard 1882-1945
Years before Roswell would become the focus of the UFO craze, Robert Goddard was building rockets there. Not that anyone cared much. In fact, Goddard left New England for New Mexico after a 1920 New York Times editorial denounced his research as preposterous, printing that he lacked “the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.” Goddard remained undeterred.
Initially inspired by H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, he still believed that with the right fuel,
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“Father of Modern Rocketry” Robert Goddard came West to New Mexico in the late 1920s when his brave new ideas proved too avant-garde for the East Coast elite. |
| it was possible for a rocket to reach the moon, and in Roswell, he built and launched prototype after prototype.
Goddard died in 1945, but in 1969, Apollo 11—based on Goddard’s theories—did, in fact, land on the moon. The Times apologized. Today, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Roswell’s Goddard High School, and Jimmy Neutron’s mechanical dog are named in his honor. |
The Legacy: If only Goddard could see us now. Today’s New Mexico is a launchpad for innovative aviators and space explorers. Since 1960, White Sands Test Facility (part of NASA’s Johnson Space Center) has tested every manned U.S. exploration spaceflight program. Scheduled for licensing in 2006, the new multi-million-dollar Spaceport America near Las Cruces will host the X- PRIZE CUP and Public Spaceflight Exhibition from 2005 on. Before a crowd of spectators, teams from around the world will launch their manned rocket ships, designed for space tourism.
Torchbearers: Eclipse Aviation’s Vern Raburn; Starchaser’s Steve Bennett; Albuquerque-based astronaut Sid Guitterez; rock n’ roller-turned Virgin Galactic front man Sir Richard Branson. |
Clyde Tombaugh 1906-1997
As a farm boy growing up in Kansas, Clyde Tombaugh had no idea he would one day be the single most influential person in New Mexico’s astronomy research and education. He just knew he loved the night sky. As a teen, he did his stargazing by way of a Sears and Roebuck telescope at first, but when it proved too weak, Tombaugh made his own model from old tractor parts and the drive shaft of a 1910 Buick, grinding the glass lenses himself.
Fascinated by what he saw in the heavens, Tombaugh sent drawings of his observations to scientists at Arizona’s Lowell Observatory, hoping for some constructive criticism. Instead, the astronomers offered him a job. He took them up on their offer, and in the summer of 1929, 23-year-old Tombaugh-- who had yet to attend college--discovered Pluto, the ninth planet.
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New Mexico State University astronomy professor Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. |
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After his tenure at Lowell Observatory, Tombaugh worked at White Sands Proving Grounds, developing tracking telescopes for the fledgling space program. In the 1950s, he became a professor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he founded the astronomy program. Over the course of his career, Tombaugh went on to discover six star clusters, two comets, hundreds of asteroids, several dozen clusters of galaxies, and one super cluster.
Perhaps it was because Clyde Tombaugh never lost his childlike enthusiasm for the stars that he was able to leave such a mark on the world of astronomy and astrophysics, such a mark, that after his retirement, the Smithsonian Institution asked that his homemade telescope be added to their collection. Tombaugh declined. Afterall, he was still using it. |
The Legacy: Today, a community of astronomers and astrophysicists bear Tombaugh’s torch, mapping space while companies at the new Spaceport America prepare to explore it. Our state is home to the Very Large Array—27 radio telescopes, each 82 feet in diameter—50 miles west of Socorro. South of Cloudcroft is the Apache Point Observatory, operated by NMSU.
Torchbearers: VLA astronomer Jim Ulvestad; Rene Walterbos, head of NMSU Astronomy Department; actress Jodie Foster who portrayed Dr. Ellie Arroway, the fictitious VLA scientist who discovers intelligent life in Contact, a film adaptation of the book by Carl Sagan.
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Georgia O’Keeffe 1887-1986
Many individuals have come to New Mexico and had experiences that left indelible marks on their lives, their works, and the world. Perhaps the best known is Georgia O’Keeffe. Clearly, New Mexico made an impression on the artist. Her canvasses depicting the Abiquiu landscapes, desert flowers, and stark, white bones are considered some of her best work. At the same time, O’Keeffe’s prominence helped put New Mexico on the map and landed it the reputation it carries to this day as a world-class art community.
O’Keeffe was a New York artist with a following when, back in 1929, she accepted an invitation to visit Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos. The type of girl-power debauchery that ensued would make Thelma and Louise proud. With Mabel and friends, O’Keeffe smoked cigarettes, went skinny dipping, even learned to drive a car.
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The only museum in the world dedicated to the work of a single woman artist is the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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She continued to visit New Mexico regularly, settling in Abiquiu in 1949. When the artist was in her nineties she moved to Santa Fe.
Because of the artistic inclinations of the Native American and Hispanic communities, Santa Fe had always been an art mecca. However, it was O’Keeffe’s influence that vaulted it to the next level. Today, Santa Fe is home to more than 200 art galleries and is the nation’s second largest art market after New York City. The city also boasts seven major museums, including the only U.S. museum dedicated entirely to the work of a female artist—the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. |
The Legacy: Santa Fe is among the top art markets in the country, after New York and ahead of San Francisco. The arts and culture industry in Santa Fe County generates more than $1 billion in revenue annually, and in no other city do artists comprise such a large share of the labor force. Here, artists, performers, and writers are 4.7 times more common than in the nation as a whole. In his book The Rise of the Creative Class, author Richard Florida ranked Santa Fe first among cities under 500,000 in potential for creative economic activities.
Torchbearers: New York-Dallas-Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters; artist, feminist, and Belen local Judy Chicago; and hundreds of artists born and raised in New Mexico or who have come here on O’Keeffe-like odysseys of their own. |
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What began as a top-secret project at a former boy’s camp is now The Hill, or the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which employs more than 10,000 people.
 Creativity and environmental consciousness collide in today’s Taos, where Earthship Biotecture designs sustainable homes.
Living the high life at low cost to the environment is the mission of the $50 million El Monte Sagrado eco spa in Taos, which made headlines in Conde Nast Traveler and Robb Report.
Rebel Billionaire Richard Branson (right) poses with visionaries from the
X-Prize Foundation and the SpaceShipOne team. Branson’s brainchild Virgin
Galactic is the beginning of suborbital space tourism, a concept which will
fuel New Mexico’s Spaceport America.
Fifty miles outside Socorro, New Mexico, the Very Large Array is a collection of 27 radio telescopes, each 82 feet in diameter.
Tombaugh’s legacy and New Mexico’s ideal atmospheric conditions have made our state a primo location for observing and mapping space. Apache Point Observatory is in the hills of southern New Mexico and is operated by New Mexico State University.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s love of New Mexico put Santa Fe on the map as a world-class art community. The arts and culture industry in this city of 62,000 people generate more than $1 billion annually.
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