Santa Fe

Located in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe was founded in 1608 by Spanish colonists and Franciscan missionaries who were searching for gold, arable land, and Indians to convert to Christianity. In the 400 years since, this mountain community has been the hub of Spanish colonialism in the New World, the terminus of the historic Santa Fe Trail, and since 1912, the state capital of New Mexico. It is America's third-oldest continuously inhabited, European-built community, s