Las Cruces (; ; lit. 'the crosses') is the second-most populous city in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

of Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 111,385, making Las Cruces the most populous 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 the Las Cruces metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Doña Ana County. The city is also part of the El Paso–Las Cruces combined statistical area, a larger trading and marketing region. The combined statistical area has a population of 1,088,420, making it the 56th-largest in the United States. Las Cruces is the economic and geographic center of the Mesilla Valley, the agricultural region on the floodplain of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, which extends from Hatch to the west side of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. Las Cruces is the home of

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

(NMSU), New Mexico's only

land-grant university A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, Morrill Acts of 1862 and ...

. The city's major employer is the federal government on nearby

White Sands Test Facility White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) is a NASA rocket engine test facility and a resource for testing and evaluating potentially hazardous materials, space flight components, and rocket propulsion systems. NASA established WSTF on the White Sands M ...

and

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

. The

Organ Mountains The Organ Mountains (also known as La Sierra de los Órganos) are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument was declared a national monument on May 21, 2014 ...

, to the east, are dominant in the city's landscape, along with the Doña Ana Mountains, Robledo Mountains, and Picacho Peak. Las Cruces lies south of Albuquerque, northwest of El Paso, Texas, and north of the Mexican border at Sunland Park. Spaceport America, which has corporate offices in Las Cruces, operates from to the north; it has completed several successful crewed, suborbital flights. The city is also the headquarters for

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

, the world's first company to offer suborbital spaceflights.

History

During the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, the Battle of El Bracito was fought nearby on Christmas Day, 1846. The settlement of Las Cruces was founded in 1849, when the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

first surveyed the town, thus opening up the area for American settlement. The town was first surveyed as the result of the American acquisition of the land surrounding Las Cruces, which later became the

New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of '' Nuevo México'' becomi ...

. This land had been ceded to the United States as a result of the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...

of 1848, which ended the Mexican-American War. The town was named Las Cruces (Spanish: "the crosses") after three crosses that its earliest settlers had reported seeing just north of the town. The crosses were thought to be "either marked graves or were similar to roadside memorials called ''descansos''". See pages 9–11. Initially, Mesilla became the leading settlement of the area, with more than 2,000 residents in 1860, more than twice what Las Cruces had; at that time, Mesilla had a population primarily of Mexican descent. When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reached the area, the landowners of Mesilla refused to sell it the rights-of-way, and instead residents of Las Cruces donated the rights-of-way and land for a depot in Las Cruces. The first train reached Las Cruces in 1881. Las Cruces was not affected as strongly by the train as some other villages, as it was not a terminus or a crossroads, but the population did grow to 2,300 in the 1880s. Las Cruces was incorporated as a town in 1907.

Pat Garrett Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (June 5, 1850February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and U.S. Customs, customs agent known for killing Billy the Kid. He was the Sheriffs in the United States, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Me ...

is best known for his involvement in the Lincoln County War, but he also worked in Las Cruces on a famous case, the disappearance of Albert Jennings Fountain in 1896.

was founded in 1888, and it has grown as Las Cruces has grown. The growth of Las Cruces has been attributed to the university, government jobs, and recent retirees. The establishment of

in 1944 and

in 1963 has been integral to population growth. Las Cruces is the nearest city to each, and they provide Las Cruces' workforce with many high-paying, stable, government jobs. In recent years, the influx of retirees from out of state has also increased Las Cruces' population. In the 1960s, Las Cruces undertook a large

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

project, intended to convert the old downtown into a modern city center. As part of this, St.

Genevieve Genevieve (; ; also called ''Genovefa'' and ''Genofeva''; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January. Rec ...

's Catholic Church, built in 1859, was razed to make way for a downtown pedestrian mall. The original covered walkways have been removed in favor of a more traditional main-street thoroughfare. On February 10, 1990, seven people were shot, four fatally, in the Las Cruces bowling alley massacre. The incident remains unsolved.

Geography

The approximate elevation of Las Cruces is above mean sea level. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.18%, is covered by water. Las Cruces is the center of the Organ Caldera; the Doña Ana Mountains to the north and the

to the east are its margins. citing from Its major eruption was 32 Ma. Doña Ana County lies within the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion, and the vegetation surrounding the built portions of the city are typical of this setting; it includes creosote bush (''

Larrea tridentata ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush, greasewood, and chaparral is a medicinal herb. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific ...

''), soaptree (''

Yucca elata ''Yucca elata'' is a perennial plant, with common names that include soaptree, soaptree yucca, soapweed, and palmella. It is native to southwestern North America, in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert in the United States (western Texas, N ...

''), tarbush ('' Flourensia cernua''), broom dalea ('' Psorothamnus scoparius''), and various desert grasses such as tobosa ('' Hilaria mutica'' or ''Pleuraphis mutica'') and black grama ('' Bouteloua eriopoda''). The

bisects the Mesilla Valley and passes west of Las Cruces proper, supplying irrigation water for the intensive agriculture surrounding the city. Since the institution of water rights, though, the Rio Grande fills its banks only when water is released from upstream dams, which before 2020 usually occurred at least from March to September.

Drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

conditions, exacerbated by climate change, mean that the Rio Grande experiences increasingly short or small flows. Prior to farming and ranching, desert shrub vegetation extended into the valley from the adjacent deserts, including extensive stands of tornillo ('' Prosopis pubescens'') and catclaw acacia (''

Acacia greggii ''Senegalia greggii'', formerly known as ''Acacia greggii'', is a species of tree in the genus ''Senegalia'' native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, from the extreme south of Utah south through southern Nevada, southeast Cal ...

''). Desert grasslands extend in large part between the edges of Las Cruces and the lower slopes of the nearby Organ and Robledo Mountains, where grasses and assorted shrubs and cacti dominate large areas of this mostly rangeland, as well as the occasional large-lot subdivision housing. The desert and desert grassland uplands surrounding both sides of the Mesilla Valley are often dissected with arroyos, dry streams that often carry water following heavy thunderstorms. These arroyos often contain scattered small trees, and they serve as wildlife corridors between Las Cruces' urban areas and adjacent deserts or mountains.

Cityscape

Unlike many cities its size, Las Cruces lacks a true central business district, because in the 1960s, an urban-renewal project tore down a large part of the original downtown. Many chain stores and national restaurants are located in the rapidly developing east side. Las Cruces' shopping mall and a variety of retail stores and restaurants are located in this area. The historic downtown of the city is the area around Main Street, a six-block stretch of which was closed off in 1973 to form a pedestrianized shopping area. The downtown mall has an extensive farmers' market each Wednesday and Saturday mornings, where a variety of foods and cultural items can be purchased from numerous small stands that are set up by local farmers, artists, and craftspeople. This area also contains museums, businesses, restaurants, churches, art galleries, and theaters, which add a great deal to the changing character of Las Cruces' historic downtown. In August 2005, a master plan was adopted, the centerpiece of which was the restoration of narrow lanes of two-way traffic on this model portion of Main Street, which was reopened to vehicular traffic in 2012. In February 2013, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima announced during his "State of the City" address that a park in the area behind the Las Cruces Dam was under construction, in cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers. The area features trails through restored wetlands, and serves as a major refuge for migratory birds and a key recreational area for the city.

Climate

Jardin de Mesquite Las Cruces New Mexico

Las Cruces has a cool desert climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BWk''). Winters alternate between colder and windier weather following trough and frontal passages, and warmer, sunnier periods; light freezes occur 69 nights on average. Spring months can be windy, particularly in the afternoons, sometimes causing periods of blowing dust and short-lived dust storms. Summers begin with the hottest weather of the year, with some extended periods of over temperatures not uncommon, while the latter half of the summer has increased humidity and frequent afternoon thunderstorms, with slightly lower daytime temperatures. Autumns feature decreasing temperatures and precipitation. Precipitation is very light from October to June, with only occasional winter storm systems bringing any precipitation to the Las Cruces area. Most winter moisture is in the form of rain, though some light snowfalls happen most winters, usually enough to accumulate and stay on the ground for a few hours. Summer precipitation is often from heavy thunderstorms, especially from the late summer

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

weather pattern. Veterans Memorial Park Las Cruces New Mexico

Since records began in 1892, the lowest temperature recorded at New Mexico State University has been on January 11, 1962 – though only 10 nights have ever fallen to or below – and the highest on June 28, 1994. The lowest maximum on record is on January 28, 1948, and the highest minimum on June 8, 2024. The wettest calendar year has been 1941 with , although 1905 with is the only other year to exceed . The only months to exceed have been September 1941 with and August 1935 with . The wettest single day has been August 30, 1935, with and the driest calendar year 1970 with .

Demographics

Las Cruces - Our Lady of Health church - 5

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Las Cruces had a population of 111,385. Estimates for 2019 indicate that Las Cruces had a population of 103,432. Its demographics were 32.5%

non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

, 2.8%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

or Black, 1.4% Native American, 1.8% Asian, and 2.9% from two or more races: 60.5% were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. The 39,925 households had an average household size of 2.51 people each. Median household income was $43,022, and the level of people in poverty was 23.6%.

Census 2010 data

As of the 2010, census Las Cruces had a population of 97,618. The ethnic and racial makeup of the population was: * 56.8%

Hispanic and Latino Americans Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spaniards, Spanish or Latin Americans, Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino (demonym), ...

(Hispanics may be of any race) * 34.3%

Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

* 2.4%

or Black * 1.7% Native Americans * 1.6% Asian * 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander * 3.5% Two or more races

Census 2000 data

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, 74,267 people, 29,184 households, and 18,123 families were residing in the city. The population density was . The 31,682 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 69.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.3%

, 1.7% Native American, 1.2% Asian, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 21.6% from other races, and 4.1% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 51.7% of the population. Of the 29,184 households, 30.4% had children under 18 living with them, 42.3% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were not families. About 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.05. In the city, the age distribution was 25.1% under 18, 16.0% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 91.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $30,375, and for a family was $37,670. Males had a median income of $30,923 versus $21,759 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $15,704. About 17.2% of families and 23.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 30.7% of those under age 18 and 9.7% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Major employers in Las Cruces include New Mexico State University, Las Cruces Public Schools, the City of Las Cruces, Memorial Medical Center,

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

, MountainView Regional Medical Center, Doña Ana County, Doña Ana Community College, Addus HealthCare, and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Film and television shoots

Movies and TV series shot in Las Cruces include: * The 2018 film, '' The Mule'', written, produced, directed by, and starring

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

, filmed for six days in and around Las Cruces. * The 1964 pilot, ''Calhoun: County Agent'', starring Jackie Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, was filmed in and around Las Cruces, but never aired. The process of writing and shooting the pilot is the subject of Merle Miller and Evan Rhodes's book ''Only You, Dick Daring!''

Arts and culture

Most of Las Cruces's cultural events are held late in the calendar year.

Gallery

File:Las Cruces Branigan Cultural Center.jpg , Branigan Cultural Center File:New Mexico State University Art Gallery.jpg , University Art Gallery File:New Mexico State University Center for the Arts.jpg , New Mexico State University Center for the Arts File:New Mexico State University Conroy Honors Center.jpg , William Conroy Honors Center

Festivals and events

Current Festivals

Past festivals

Museums

The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum is state-operated and shows the history of

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

ranching A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often applied to li ...

in New Mexico. It is located just east of New Mexico State University. The New Mexico State University Arthropod Museum and Collection contains roughly 500,000

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

specimens. The University Museum (Kent Hall) at New Mexico State University focuses on archeological and

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

collections and also has some history and natural-science collections. The Zuhl Museum (located in the Alumni and Visitors' Center) at New Mexico State University focuses on

geologic Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

collections, including the finest collection of

petrified wood Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...

on display and a large

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

and

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

collection. The four city-owned museums include the Branigan Cultural Center, which examines local history through photographs, sculpture, paintings, and poetry. The building is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The Las Cruces Museum of Art offers art exhibits and classes. The Las Cruces Museum of Natural History makes science and natural history more accessible to the general public and has an emphasis on local animals and plants. The Las Cruces Railroad Museum is in the historic Santa Fe Railroad station. It exhibits the impact of the railroads on the local area.

Las Cruces Symphony

The Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra is an 80-member

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, conducted by Dr. Ming Luke. The orchestra consists of 47% students, 17% NMSU faculty, 20% other local musicians, and 16% professionals from outside Las Cruces. The venue of the orchestra is the NMSU Music Center Recital Hall. The orchestra received attention with the world premiere of Bill McGlaughlin's ''Remembering Icarus'', a tribute to local radio pioneer Ralph Willis Goddard, performed by the LCSO on October 1, 2005. The performance was taped and broadcast nationally on NPR's '' Performance Today'' on December 9, 2005 and on July 4, 2007, on ''Performance Today'' and on

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

Points of interest

Several

water tank A water tank is a container for Water storage, storing water, for many applications, drinking water, irrigation, fire suppression, farming, both for plants and livestock, chemical manufacturing, food preparation as well as many other uses. Water ...

s in Las Cruces have been painted with

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s by Tony Pennock, including one at the intersection of Triviz Drive and Griggs Avenue. Multimedia artist group Keep Adding has a large mural titled ''Wave Nest'' on Picacho Avenue at the Lion's Park. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces.

Sports

Las Cruces is the home of Vado Speedway Park, a 3/8th-mile dirt track that hosts the annual Wild West Shootout. At the university level, the New Mexico State Aggies compete in

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

for various sports, such as men's and women's basketball, as well as football. Aggies men's basketball has had a rich history of success. Between 2010 and 2019, the Aggies made the NCAA tournament eight times. The team also reached the

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

of the tournament in 1970. The 2014-15 NMSU women's basketball team reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1988, when it won both the WAC regular season and tournament championships. The Las Cruces Kings have been a long running semiprofessional football team in the city. Beginning in the 2010 season, the Las Cruces Vaqueros were the first professional sports team in Las Cruces. In the 2011 season, the Vaqueros joined the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs against the White Sands Pupfish, Roswell Invaders, Ruidoso Osos, Alpine Cowboys and Carlsbad Bats. The Vaqueros played in the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs for the 2011–2013 seasons. The team returned for the 2015 season, but structural damage to their home ballpark in January 2016 forced them to sit out the 2016 season. They planned to return for the 2017 season.

Parks and recreation

Las Cruces operates 87 city parks, 18 tennis courts, and four golf courses. A list of parks, with facilities and maps, is available. Las Cruces holds a Ciclovía, a citywide event featuring exercise and physical activities, on the last Sunday of each month at Meerscheidt Recreation Center. The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum is a 47-acre (190,000 m2) interactive museum that chronicles the New Mexico's 3,000-year history of farming and ranching. The museum is part of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Government

Las Cruces is a

charter city Home rule in the United States relates to the authority of a constituent part of a U.S. state to exercise powers of governance (i.e., whether such powers must be specifically delegated to it by the state—typically by legislative action—or a ...

(also called a home rule city) and has a council–manager form of government. The city council consists of six councilors and the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

, who chairs the meetings. The mayor is elected at-large, and each of the city councilors represents one neighborhood district within the city. Each resident of Las Cruces is thus represented by the mayor and by one city councilor. The mayor and city council members serve staggered four-year terms. As of the 2024, the mayor is Eric Enriquez. Councilors are Cassie McClure, Dist. 1; Bill Mattiace, Dist. 2; Becki Graham, Dist. 3; Johana Bencomo, Dist. 4; Becky Corran, Dist. 5; Yvonne Flores, Dist. 6. Live and archived video of city council meetings are available anytime a
Las Cruces, NM
In the November 2019 municipal election, ranked-choice voting was used for the first time.

Education

Public schools

Public schools are in the Las Cruces Public School District, which covers the city of Las Cruces, as well as White Sands Missile Range, the settlement of Doña Ana, and the town of Mesilla. The system has 26 elementary schools, nine middle schools, and six high schools. Of the high schools, Rio Grande Preparatory is an alternative high school. Four

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

s are within the Las Cruces Public Schools. Alma d'arte is a high school with a focus on an integrated arts curriculum. Las Montañas is a charter high school that opened in fall 2007 and caters to at-risk students. New America High School offers schooling for young and older adults who want to go back to school for their diploma or GED. Academia Dolores Huerta Middle School is the only recognized dual language program in the state. New Mexico School for the Deaf operates a preschool facility in Las Cruces.

High schools

* Arrowhead Park Early College High School * Centennial High School * Las Cruces High School * Mayfield High School * Organ Mountain High School * Alma d'arte Charter High School

Private schools

Five private

Christian school A Christian school is a Parochial school, religious school run on Christianity, Christian principles or by a Christian organization. These schools often include religious education and worship in their curriculum. They may also have a distinct Ch ...

s operate in Las Cruces. College Heights Kindergarten is a private Christian

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, founded in 1954. Desert Springs Christian Academy, Las Cruces Catholic Schools, Mesilla Valley Christian School, and a small independent Baptist school called Cornerstone Christian Academy are other Christian schools in the area. A

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

nonprofit private school, Las Cruces Academy offers kindergarten through grade eight, with plans to eventually enroll up to grade 12.

Colleges and universities

University

New Mexico State University (NMSU) is a land-grant university that has its main campus in Las Cruces. The school was founded in 1888 as Las Cruces College, an agricultural college, and in 1889, the school became New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. It received its present name, New Mexico State University, in 1960. The NMSU Las Cruces campus had about 18,500 students enrolled as of fall 2012, and had a faculty-to-student ratio of about one to 19. NMSU offers a wide range of programs, and awards associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through its main campus and four community colleges. For 10 consecutive years, NMSU has been rated as one of America's 100 Best College Buys for offering "the very highest quality education at the lowest cost" by Institutional Research & Evaluation Inc., an independent research and consulting organization for higher education. NMSU is one of only two land-grant institutions classified as Hispanic-serving by the federal government. The university is home to New Mexico's NASA Space Grant Program and is one of 52 institutions in the United States to be designated a Space Grant College. During its most recent review by NASA, NMSU was one of only 12 space grant programs in the country to receive an excellent rating. The Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine (BCOM), a private osteopathic medical school, opened on the campus of NMSU in 2013. The first class began instruction in August 2016. Doña Ana Community College is a branch of New Mexico State University. When it first opened in 1973, it had 500 students in six programs. In the 2015–2016 school year, there were 4,997 full-time equivalent credit enrollments and 4,246 non-credit students, served by 136 full-time faculty, 401 part-time instructors, together with 225 full-time staff and 55 part-time staff. DACC operates centers in Anthony, Sunland Park, Chaparral, and White Sands Missile Range. In Las Cruces, its central campus is at 3400 S. Espina Street, and its East Mesa campus is at 2800 Sonoma Ranch Boulevard. Community Education is available at all centers and campuses and also in Las Cruces at the Mesquite Neighborhood Learning Center at 804 N. Tornillo, and Workforce Center at 2345 E. Nevada Street.

Libraries

Branson Library New Mexico State University Las Cruces

Thomas Branigan Memorial Library is the city's public library. It was constructed in 1979 and has a collection of about 185,000 items. The previous library building, also called Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, opened in 1935. That building is now the Branigan Cultural Center. and is on the

. The two university libraries at the New Mexico State University campus, Branson Library and Zuhl Library, are open to the public. Any New Mexico resident can check out items from these libraries.

Media

Las Cruces is part of the El Paso – Las Cruces Designated Market Area (DMA) as defined by

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

. The City of Las Cruces operates CLC-TV cable channel 20, an Emmy award-winning 24-hour government-access television (GATV) and educational-access television channel on

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

in Las Cruces. CLC-TV televises live and recorded Las Cruces city council meetings, Doña Ana County commission meetings, and Las Cruces School board meetings. The channel had previously televised ''City Beat'', a monthly news magazine, hosted by Jennifer Martinez, with information directly related to the City of Las Cruces. The program is no longer available, but segments can still be found on Youtube.com/Clctv20. Also available for viewing are health news and other government/education related programming, as well as current weather reports and road and traffic information. CLC-TV is not a

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable TV channel. In addition to a 2009

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

by the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

, CLC-TV received a first- and third-place award by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors and five national Telly Awards, four platinum and one gold. '' Las Cruces Sun-News'' is a daily newspaper published in Las Cruces by

Digital First Media MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

. '' Las Cruces Bulletin'' is a weekly community newspaper published in Las Cruces by FIG Publications, LLC. It is tabloid size and covers local news, business, arts, sports, and homes. ''The Round Up'' is the

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

at NMSU. It is tabloid size and published twice weekly. ''The Ink'' is a monthly tabloid published in Las Cruces, covering the arts and community events in southern New Mexico and West Texas. Las Cruces has one television station, the PBS outlet KRWG-TV, operated by NMSU. The

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

outlet KTDO is licensed in Las Cruces, but serves El Paso. The city also receives several

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

, and

Ciudad Juárez Ciudad Juárez ( , ; "Juárez City"), commonly referred to as just Juárez (Lipan language, Lipan: ''Tsé Táhú'ayá''), is the most populous city in the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua. It was k ...

stations. Las Cruces is in

's El Paso/Las Cruces television

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...

. Las Cruces has one local commercial independent cable television station called "The Las Cruces Channel" (LCC98). It can be seen on Comcast cable channel 98. LCC-98 is not a public-access television channel. The channel airs programs that are produced locally in their studio facility and by outside producers. About 10 commercial radio stations broadcast in the Las Cruces area, running a variety of formats. Four of these stations are owned by Adams Radio Group and four are owned by Bravo Mic Communications, LLC, a Las Cruces company. The local NPR outlet is KRWG-FM, operated by NMSU, which also operates a college radio station, KRUX. KRUC is a Spanish-language station in Las Cruces. Many

stations are received in Las Cruces. See list of radio stations in New Mexico for a complete list of stations. Las Cruces is in

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

's Las Cruces

Infrastructure

Transportation

Airports

* Las Cruces International Airport currently offers service with Advanced Air to Albuquerque. Prior to the start of this service, it had had no regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights since July 25, 2005, when Westward Airways ceased operations.

General aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, New Mexico Army National Guard (4 UH-72 Lakota Helicopters), private charters, and the

Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered, federally supported Nonprofit corporation, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliaries, auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CA ...

use the airport, among others.

Major highways

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

, east–west travel: south-southeast to El Paso, Texas; west to

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

Interstate 25 Interstate 25 (I-25), also known as the Pan-American Freeway, is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 st ...

, north–south travel: north to

, Las Cruces is the southern terminus for Interstate 25, where it intersects Interstate 10. * U.S. Route 70, east–west travel: northeast to

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is a city in and the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, 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 (New Mexico), Sac ...

, to the west it is merged with Interstate 10. * U.S. Route 85 (unsigned; follows I-25 north to Albuquerque and I-10/US-180 east to El Paso) * U.S. Route 180

Rail

Las Cruces is served by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

' El Paso Subdivision, which provides freight service and extends from Belen, New Mexico to

. Passenger service on this line was discontinued in 1968, due to low ridership numbers on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway's (predecessor to the BNSF) '' El Pasoan'' train.

Bus transit

The city operates a small transit authority known as RoadRUNNER Transit. It operates a total of eight routes, and two Aggie routes running Mondays through Saturdays. NMDOT Park and Ride's Gold Route connects Las Cruces to El Paso on Monday through Friday during commute hours. The Silver Route connects Las Cruces to White Sands Missile Range. South Central Regional Transit District's Green Line connects Las Cruces to Hatch, and the Red Line connects Las Cruces to Anthony. Ztrans connects Las Cruces with Alamogordo. Greyhound buses departing Las Cruces serve El Paso, Amarillo, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Utilities

The City of Las Cruces provides water, sewer, natural gas, and solid-waste services, including recycling centers. El Paso Electric is the electricity provider, CenturyLink is the telephone land line provider, and

is the cable TV provider.

Healthcare

Hospitals

Memorial Medical Center is a

for-profit Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." A business entity is not necessari ...

general

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

operated by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. The physical plant is owned by the City of Las Cruces and the County of Doña Ana, which signed a 40-year, $150 million lease in 2004 with Province HealthCare, since absorbed into LifePoint. Prior to 2004, it was leased to and operated by the nonprofit Memorial Medical Center Inc. The hospital is a licensed, 286-bed,

acute care Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acce ...

facility and is accredited by

JCAHO The Joint Commission is a United States-based nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c) organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs. The international branch accredits medical services from around the world. A majori ...

. It offers a wide range of patient services. The

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

Cancer Center-South opened in 2006 on the MMC campus. It is and has 9 examination rooms. The original facility was called Memorial General Hospital and was opened in April 1950 at South Alameda Boulevard and Lohman Avenue after the city obtained a $250,000 federal grant. In 1971, the city and county joined to build a new hospital on South Telshor Boulevard. In 1990, it was renamed Memorial Medical Center. MountainView Regional Medical Center is a for-profit general hospital operated by Community Health Systems (formerly Triad Hospitals). It opened for business in August 2002. It is a 168-bed facility with a wide range of patient services. Mesilla Valley Hospital is a 125-bed, private, psychiatric hospital operated by

Universal Health Services Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS) is an American Fortune 300 company that provides hospital and healthcare services, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania , King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. In 2024, UHS reported total revenues of $15.8b. C ...

. It is an acute inpatient and residential facility offering a variety of treatments for

behavioral health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

issues. Three Crosses Regional Hospital is a 46 bed, private, acute care hospital developed by Goldenrod Companies and the Tetrad Property Group. The facility opened in 2020, after being delayed by the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is the body responsible for accrediting all graduate medical training programs —internships, residencies, and fellowships (subspecialty programs) — for physicians in the United ...

approved accreditation for an internal medicine residency program at the hospital in 2025. Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern New Mexico is a 40-bed, rehabilitative-care hospital, operated by Ernest Health Inc. It opened January 2005. It treats patients after they have been cared for at general hospitals for injuries or strokes. Advanced Care Hospital of Southern New Mexico is a 20-bed, long-term,

facility operated by Ernest Health Inc. It opened in July 2007.

Notable people

* Richard Artschwager, painter and sculptor, grew up in Las Cruces. *

Anwar al-Awlaki Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki (; April 21 or 22, 1971September 30, 2011) was an American-Yemeni lecturer assassinated Drone strikes in Yemen, in Yemen in 2011 by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki was th ...

, alleged Al-Qaeda spokesman and regional leader, was born in Las Cruces; he was killed by the U.S. government in 2011 for his alleged propaganda on behalf of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula * Luis Barraza, soccer player * Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr., a career U.S. Army officer and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, spent six years in Las Cruces prior to the war. * Rich Beem, a professional golfer who played high school and college golf at Las Cruces High School and NMSU, was the winner of the 2002

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

. * Joseph Benavidez, Mexican-American mixed martial arts fighter * Baxter Black, cowboy, poet, philosopher, former large-animal veterinarian, and radio commentator, grew up in Las Cruces and attended NMSU. *

Frank Borman Frank Frederick Borman II (March 14, 1928 – November 7, 2023) was an American United States Air Force (USAF) colonel (United States), colonel, aeronautical engineer, NASA astronaut, test pilot, and businessman. He was the commander of Apollo ...

, NASA astronaut and engineer, had a home and auto dealership in Las Cruces. He is known for Gemini VII, a nearly 14-day, low-Earth-orbital mission (1965) and

Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times ...

, the first humans to leave low-Earth orbit, reach and orbit the Moon, and return safely (1968). *

William Bowers William Bowers (January 17, 1916 – March 27, 1987) was an American reporter, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Long Beach, California and for ''Life Magazine, Life'' magazine, and specialized in writing Comedy Western, ...

, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, was born in Las Cruces. * Randy Brown, professional basketball player for the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

while winning three

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

titles during 1996–98, had previously played at NMSU. * Pamela Burford, novelist, was born in Las Cruces. * Edgar Castillo, soccer player who represented the

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

national teams * Denise Chávez, author, playwright, and stage director * Steve Colter, a professional basketball player in the

, played at NMSU. * John A.D. Cooper, physician and educator, and first president of the

Association of American Medical Colleges Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry * Voluntary associati ...

, grew up in Las Cruces. * Sharon Douglas, actress, attended Las Cruces Union High School. * Doug Eddings, Major League Baseball umpire, lives in Las Cruces. * Albert Fall, U.S. senator from New Mexico and U.S. Secretary of the Interior * Richard Farrer, South African–American soccer player, grew up in Las Cruces. * Albert Jennings Fountain, a lawyer, Indian fighter, and Republican politician in Texas and New Mexico, whose disappearance remains a mystery * Chuck Franco, first gentleman of New Mexico *

, Old West lawman who killed Billy the Kid * Mimi Reisel Gladstein, professor of English and Theatre Arts at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

, is a specialist on authors

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

and

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

. * Lou Henson, basketball coach, led NMSU and

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

teams to the

. * Po James, a running back who played four seasons for NFL's

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

, played collegiately at NMSU. * Albert Johnson, first black mayor in New Mexico * Charley Johnson, NFL quarterback, professor of chemical engineering at his alma mater, NNMSU, resides in Las Cruces. * Freddy Juarez, American soccer coach and former player. * Paul Wilbur Klipsch, engineer and high-fidelity audio pioneer, is known for developing the high-efficiency, folded-horn loudspeaker; he graduated from NMSU. * Timothy Kraft, a political consultant and the

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

campaign manager A campaign manager, campaign chairperson, or campaign director is an individual whose role is to coordinate a political campaign's spending, broad tactics, and hiring. They lead operations such as Campaign finance, fundraising, advertising, Opi ...

for

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

, retired in Las Cruces. * Kiki Lara, soccer player, was born in Las Cruces/ * Delano Lewis, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and president and CEO of

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, resided in Las Cruces. * Kerry Locklin, football coach, was most recently defensive line coach for NFL's

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

. * Mireille Marokvia, a French writer best known for two books about her ordeals during World War II in Nazi Germany, lived in Las Cruces later in life until her death in 2008. * Mark Medoff, Tony Award-winning playwright of '' Children of a Lesser God'' * Rose Marie Pangborn, scientist and pioneer in the sensory analysis of food, was born in Las Cruces. * J. R. Patton, racing driver, was born in Las Cruces. * Bertha M. Paxton was the first woman elected to the New Mexico Legislature. * Lenny Pickett, the saxophonist and musical director of the ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' band, was born in Las Cruces. * Buck Pierce, professional Canadian football quarterback who played for NNSU, lives in Las Cruces during the off-season. * Bashir Ramzy, a long jumper in track and field, won a bronze medal in the 2007 Pan American Games; he was born in Las Cruces. * Patricia Ryan, writer of romance, mystery and erotic novels, was born in Las Cruces. * Mai Shanley, Miss USA 1984 * Tom Smith, playwright and director, teaches at NMSU, and resides in Las Cruces. * Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

, lived in Las Cruces until his death in 1997. * Xochitl Torres Small, congressional representative from New Mexico and

United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture The United States deputy secretary of agriculture is the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Agriculture, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The deputy secretary becomes acting ...

* Austin Trout, a former WBA light-middleweight champion of the world, was born in and fights from Las Cruces. * Prentiss Walker, member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, lived part of his childhood in Las Cruces. * Cora Witherspoon, stage and screen character actress, was a Las Cruces resident along with her sister, Maud Witherspoon. * Fredd Young, four-time Pro Bowl football player for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

and the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

, played for NMSU, and lives in Las Cruces.

Sister cities

Ciudad Lerdo Ciudad Lerdo (Lerdo City) is a small city in the northeastern portion of the Mexican state of Durango. It serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is located at co-ordinates 25.33° N, 103.31° W, bord ...

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

, Mexico * Nienburg,

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Germany Las Cruces Sister Cities Foundation is responsible for overseeing sister cities activities on behalf of the citizens of Las Cruces. The Foundation was created in 1989 to officially recognize a relationship that began in 1982 with exchanges between Doña Ana Community College and the Centro de Bachilleratio Technológico Industrial y de Servicios Numero 4 of Lerdo, Durango, Mexico''.'' In 1993, a second partnership was established with

Nienburg, Lower Saxony Nienburg (, official name: ''Nienburg/Weser''; , or ) is a town and capital of the Nienburg (district), district Nienburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Situated on the scenic German Timber-Frame Road, Nienburg lies on the river Weser, app ...

, Germany, which grew from a school exchange between Mayfield High School and .

References

External links

City of Las Cruces official website

Las Cruces Convention and Visitors Bureau
{{Authority control Cities in Doña Ana County, New Mexico County seats in New Mexico New Mexico populated places on the Rio Grande Cities in New Mexico

History

Geography

Cityscape

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

Census 2010 data

Census 2000 data

Economy

Film and television shoots

Arts and culture

Gallery

Festivals and events

Current Festivals

Past festivals

Museums

Las Cruces Symphony

Points of interest

Sports

Parks and recreation

Government

Education

Public schools

High schools

Private schools

Colleges and universities

University

Libraries

Media

Infrastructure

Transportation

Airports

Major highways

Rail

Bus transit

Utilities

Healthcare

Hospitals

Notable people

See also

Sister cities

References

External links