WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - State Facts: New Mexico

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Nate is joined by Gabe Higbie to talk all about New Mexico. 

You're listening to State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Nate Gallagher, and I'm joined by Hillsdale's resident in New Mexico, Gabe Higby. How you doing today, Gabe? I'm doing great. How are you? Pretty good. So where are you from in New Mexico? I'm from Albuquerque. It's one of the bigger cities in New Mexico. So what's the capital of New Mexico? The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe.

It's a really neat kind of artistic town. A lot of artists come there. It's got some beautiful mountains. And it's got this really cool Adobe style architecture. And that makes it really unique. So it's got a lot of handmade, whether it's like jewelry or clothing. And so it's got a lot of neat crafts that are sold there. So it's a really neat, unique city. That's very nice.

When was in Mexico admitted to the union? It was late. It was not very early on. I don't remember. When was it? January 6th, 1912. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, and you just beat Arizona. Arizona was like a month later. That's right. That's right. We were close. Yes. And which state was it admitted? Like, what number was it? I'm going to take a wild guess.

I'm going to say 45th. 46th. 47th. Oh, my gosh. You're close, man. Went off. He was a wild guess. How about the population as of 2021?

I think all of New Mexico is like 2.1 million. And then Albuquerque is, I think it's like $560,000. What's the nickname of the state? Berkey. My research said land of enchantment. That too. That's on our license plate, land of enchantment. What's the first thing that you said, barkey?

Berkey. I mean, if you just take Albuquerque and you shorten it, it's Berkey. But then a lot of people call it land of enchantments on our license plates. And there's also saying land of entrapment. because a lot of time, like, you get in and then you never leave. Hopefully for good, not for bad. No, I mean, it depends. Where you go, where you live, so, yeah.

I see. How about the state bird? The state bird is the roadrunner. We have tons of those. They're really, really cool birds. They don't have a lot of flying capabilities, but they run across roads. That's what they do. They're really good at it.

You ever, like, seem like roadkill? Like, do you like kill him an accent? Not many roadrunners. I've actually never seen a road kill roadrunner. I mean, they're better than the other animals in that respect, I guess. Yeah. Fair enough. How about the state flower?

State flower is the yucca. I don't know much more than that. But, yeah, we have a lot of yucca and cacti because it's a desert. Yeah. So, yeah, that's for state flower. Yeah. How about the state inside? I don't know. Is it like a red velvet ant or something?

It's the tarantial hawk wasp, which I've seen them. I have seen them. They're scary. They're terrifying. Oh my gosh. They're like kind of blue, right? Yeah. They're big. You know what I have seen? I think it's either a tarantula hawk wasp. They have, they lay their eggs and grasshoppers. And so I was taking a hike because New Mexico has some fantastic hiking options and backpacking. and all that. And I saw a grasshopper being attacked by one of these,

and it lays its egg in this grasshopper, and then the grasshopper lives its life until the eggs hatch. So, fun facts about the trailer. It's kind of gross. Yeah, aliens, essentially. I don't want to think about that. How about the state tree? Aspins? Is it an aspen?

Pino and pine. Oh, my goodness. That's right. We have, well, the coffee, the best coffee company, in my opinion, that comes from Mexico is Pinoin coffee. And yeah, Pinoin is great. It smells really good in a fire, too. You got that nice smell? Oh, yeah.

It's phenomenal. How about the steak cookie? Oh, Biscuito. It's got a fun name, and they're really good. I think the tradition, usually a lot of people make Biscuitos for Christmas. That's a Hispanic tradition in New Mexico. And, yeah, Biscuitos are just, they're kind of like a sugar cookie coated in, you know, spices,

like cinnamon and sugar, I think, are the right ingredients. And then they go phenomenally with coffee, especially Pino and Coffee. So, Biscuitos, try them sometime. They're great. All right, I guess I'll have to. Yeah. Well, I think that's all the time that we have.

So thanks for going on, Gabe. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I've been Nate Gallagher with State Facts on, Radio for Hillsdale 101.7 FM. See you next time.