Alamogordo, New Mexico

Alamogordo is a city in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. The population was 35,582 at the 2000 census. The city name is a Spanish word meaning "fat cottonwood". It is the county seat of Otero County. Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range are two major military bases located near Alamogordo.

Geography

Alamogordo is located at (32.895940, -105.952134), which places it on the western flank of the Sacramento Mountains and on the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 50.1 km² (19.4 mi²), all land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 35,582 people, 13,704 households, and 9,729 families residing in the city. The population density was 710.0/km² (1,839.0/mi²). There were 15,920 housing units at an average density of 317.7/km² (822.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 75.35% White, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.99% of the population. 5.58% African American, 1.05% Native American, 1.53% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 12.07% from other races, and 4.25% from two or more races.

There were 13,704 households out of which 36.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.0% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.7% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,928, and the median income for a family was $35,673. Males had a median income of $28,163 versus $18,860 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,662. About 13.2% of families and 16.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.9% of those under age 18 and 11.8% of those age 65 or over.

History

Trinity Site: Site of the First Atomic Bomb

The very first atomic bomb in history was detonated at the Alamogordo Test Range on July 16, 1945. The site of the explosion, called Trinity Site, is located property owned by the present-day White Sands Missile Range. This was the only nuclear test that took place at this location.

Grave of Ham, First Chimp in Space

Ham was the world's first astrochimp, trumpeted by the United States as "the first free creature in outer space". He blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1961, and traveled 155 miles in 16.5 minutes before splashing down safely in the Atlantic.

After Ham died in 1983 at age 27, his body was shipped west and was buried in the front lawn of the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, under the first slab of natural-tone concrete poured in Otero County.

Atari Burial Grounds

In 1983, with the video game industry they had helped create came crashing down around their ears, Atari warehouses were filled with millions of unsold video game cartridges they had optimistically overproduced, including 5 million E.T. cartridges. Basing a video game on a movie rather than an established arcade hit or a tested game premise (and expecting it to sell simply because of the popularity of the film) was a questionable enough decision, but the poor quality of the finished product was unprecedented. Atari rushed E.T. through development in about 6 weeks (less than 1/3 of the usual game development period) to get it onto the market in time for Christmas, and the result was a virtually unplayable game with a vastly sub-standard plot and graphics in which frustrated players spent most of their time leading the E.T. character around in circles to prevent him from falling into pits. According to Atari's then-president and CEO, "nearly all of them came back."

Some other video game manufacturers attempted to rid themselves of excess inventory by selling it at sharply reduced prices, but Atari, stuck with millions of games and consoles — along with prototypes and limited runs of experimental Atari 2600 hardware like the questionable Mindlink system, a control method for the 2600 based on mind-control — that were largely unsellable at any price, sent fourteen truckloads of merchandise from their plant in El Paso, Texas, to be dumped in a city landfill in Alamogordo in late September 1983. In order to keep the site from being looted, D9 Caterpillars crushed and flattened the games, and a concrete slab was poured over the remains.

Book Burnings

Alamogordo briefly made international news in 2001 when some residents held a public book burning of children's books in the Harry Potter series. The people behind the burnings stated the belief that the books had Satanic origins and influenced children to take up witchcraft. Several hundred others protested the event.

Points of Interest

Within the City
- New Mexico Museum of Space History
- Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum
- The Toy Train Depot, Inc. is a non-profit store and museum dedicated to scale model reproductions of railroad equipment. The Toy Train Depot also runs a sixteen-inch track model train line that takes visitors for rides around the museum grounds.

Nearby
- The picturesque Lincoln National Forest is accessible via U.S. Route 82 or U.S. Route 70.
- The Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation is accessible via U.S. Route 70.
- The White Sands National Monument, a U.S. National Monument, is located about 15 miles (25km) southwest of Alamogordo along U.S. Route 70. The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 275-square mile (710km²) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals.
- The Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is south of Alamogordo and accessible via U.S. Route 54.

Transportation

Airports

Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport
El Paso International Airport in neighboring El Paso, Texas

Major Highways

Three U.S. highways pass through Alamogordo:

U.S. Route 54 enters Alamogordo from the south and merges with U.S. Route 70 which enters the city from the southwest. The terminus for U.S. Route 82 is in Alamogordo and begins where U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 70 merge at the southern end of the city. North of Alamogordo, U.S. Route 82 diverges from the still merged U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 70. At this point, U.S. Route 82 turns east into the Sacramento Mountains and the Lincoln National Forest, while U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 70 continue north several more miles until they diverge in the neigboring village of Tularosa.