Las Cruces is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the seat of Doña Ana County. As of the 2010 census the population was 97,618, and in 2019 the estimated population was 103,432. Las Cruces is the largest city in both Doña Ana County and southern New Mexico. The Las Cruces metropolitan area had an estimated population of 213,849 in 2017. It is the principal city of a metropolitan statistical area which encompasses all of Doña Ana County and is part of the larger El Paso–Las Cruces combined statistical area.
Mesilla is a town in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,196 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Alamogordo is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 30,403 as of the 2010 census. Alamogordo is known for its connection with the 1945 Trinity test, which was the first ever explosion of an atomic bomb.
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a military testing area operated by the United States Army. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9 July 1945. White Sands National Park is located within the range.
White Sands National Park is an American national park located in the state of New Mexico on U.S. Route 70 approximately 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Alamogordo and 52 miles (84 km) northeast of Las Cruces, in western Otero County and northeastern Doña Ana County. The park is situated at an average elevation of about 4,000 feet (1,219 m) in the Tularosa Basin and comprises the southern part of a 275 sq mi (710 km2) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. The gypsum dunefield is the largest of its kind on Earth.
New Mexico State University is a public research university with its main campus in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded on September 17, 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in the state of New Mexico and one of two flagship universities in New Mexico. Total enrollment across all campuses as of 2017 was 21,874, with branch campuses in Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Doña Ana County and Grants, and with extension and research centers across New Mexico.
Holloman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base established in 1942 located six miles (10 km) southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, and a census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The base was named in honor of Col. George V. Holloman, a pioneer in guided missile research. It is the home of the 49th Wing of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC).
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southwestern region of the United States, comprising the 10 southern counties in the state of New Mexico: Hidalgo, Grant, Luna, Sierra, Doña Ana, Otero, Lincoln, Chaves, Eddy, and Lea. It is led by a prelate bishop which serves as pastor of the mother church, Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the City of Las Cruces. Its congregants are overwhelmingly Hispanic, mostly Mexican in descent. The diocese is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Las Cruces International Airport is a city-owned, public airport nine miles west of the central business district of Las Cruces, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. It is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–23 which categorized it as a regional general aviation facility.
The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert, east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States.
Spaceport America—formerly the Southwest Regional Spaceport—is an FAA-licensed spaceport located on 18,000 acres of State Trust Land in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin in New Mexico, United States directly west of and adjacent to U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range. It lies 89 miles (143 km) north of El Paso, 45 miles (72 km) north of Las Cruces, and 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Truth or Consequences.
The University of Santa Monica is a private unaccredited graduate school in Santa Monica, California, offering master’s of arts in spiritual psychology.
The Tularosa Basin Museum of History, formerly the Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum, is a history museum holding a collection of historical photographs, documents, and relics from Otero County, New Mexico. The museum is located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and is owned and operated by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society.
Doña Ana County is located in the southern part of the State of New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, its population was 209,233, which makes it the second-most populated county in New Mexico. Its county seat is Las Cruces, the second-most populous municipality in New Mexico, after Albuquerque with 102,926 as of the 2018 U.S. Census estimate.
The San Augustin Mountains are a small mountain subrange located at the southern terminus of the San Andres Mountains east of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Strings is a 2011 American dramatic thriller film about a musician who discovers his therapist manipulates patients into committing crimes. The film is the product of the Texas filmmaking team, Mark Dennis and Ben Foster. It was written, produced, and directed by Dennis and was produced and directed by Foster. Dennis and Foster graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in Radio/TV/Film and are both musicians. The extremely low-budget film collected major awards at film festivals across the United States in 2011 and 2012.
New Mexico State University Alamogordo (NMSU-A) is a public community college in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It is a branch campus of New Mexico State University at Las Cruces and is accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Lake Lucero is a playa located within that section of the Tularosa Basin that is contained within White Sands National Park in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The playa is noted for the unusually high quantity of water-deposited and wind-deposited gypsum dissolved in its intermittent waters. Annual evaporation cycles have caused much of the gypsum to precipitate into crystals of impure, brownish selenite that line the alkaline mudflats of the lakeshore. The further process of gypsum erosion abrades the fragile selenite, and other precipitated gypsum, into the pure-white sands covering most of the national park.
White Sands Ranch is a locale of private land in Otero County, New Mexico, near federal lands of the Tularosa Basin acquired during World War II. Located on the border of the White Sands Missile Range on census block 1168 between Las Cruces and Alamogordo, the site is ~40 mi (64 km) northeast of the White Sands Census Designated Place. Part of the White Sands Ranchers of New Mexico vs. United States legal case denied additional Takings Clause remuneration, the ranch includes numerous buildings and a pond on Wsmr S Rt 250.
U.S. Route 70 (US 70) is a part of the U.S. Highway System that travels from Globe, Arizona, east to Atlantic, North Carolina. In the U.S. state of New Mexico, US 70 extends from the Arizona state line south of Virden and ends at the Texas state line in Texico.
