Nuevo Casas Grandes is a city and the seat of the Nuevo Casas Grandes Municipality in northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is located in the northwestern part of the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Chihuahua, on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, situated in a wide, fertile valley on the 4,000-foot Mesa del Norte of the Plateau of Mexico. Nearby is the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American ...

Population

As of 2010, the city of Nuevo Casas Grandes had a population of 55,553, up from 50,863 as of 2005. The city was founded in the 1870s. Nuevo Casas Grandes got its name from another town about a mile away called

Casas Grandes Casas Grandes (Spanish for ''Great Houses''; also known as Paquimé) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Construction of the site is attributed to the Mogollon culture. Casas Grandes has been designat ...

. A train station was built in that area and soon people migrated near it. Many of the region's inhabitants were of Native American ethnic groups closely related to those of the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

History

The area around Nuevo Casas Grandes is noted for its great historical and archaeological heritage. Five miles southwest of Nuevo Casas Grandes is the most important archaeological site in northern Mexico, the Casas Grandes or Paquimé Archaeological Zone highlighted by the new Paquimé (which, translated to Spanish, means "Big Houses" or Casas Grandes) Museum. Nuevo Casas Grandes is also world-famous for the nearby "potter village" of

Mata Ortiz Mata Ortiz is a small village in the States of Mexico, state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Mexico, less than from the US-Mexico border. The community is one of the designated ''localidades'' (localities) in the Municipalities of Mexico, ''muni ...

an ejido and its revival of pottery in the ancient Paquimé tradition.

Climate

Nuevo Casas Grandes has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

with hot summers, mild winters and warm transition seasons. The location gets quite high summer rainfall and frequent

air frost Freezing, available onlinlibrary.wmo.int/ref> or frost occurs when the air temperature falls below the freezing point of water (0 °C, 32 °F, 273 K). This is usually measured at the height of 1.2 metres above the ground surface ...

s in winter.

Culture

The city is the see city of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Nuevo Casas Grandes The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nuevo Casas Grandes ( la, Dioecesis Neograndicasensis) is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chihuahua, Archdiocese of Chihuahua, in Mexico. It was created as a territorial prelature in 1977 and ...

. Nearby Nuevo Casas Grandes are

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radi ...

and

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

communities. Both of those groups are bilingual with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

as their

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

. However most of the Mormons in the region are of Mexican descent and speak Spanish as their mother tongue. The Mennonites are

Old Colony Mennonites The name Old Colony Mennonites (German: ''Altkolonier-Mennoniten'') is used to describe that part of the Russian Mennonite movement that is descended from colonists who migrated from the Chortitza Colony in Russia (itself originally of Prussian o ...

(not to be confused with

Old Order Mennonites Old Order Mennonites (Pennsylvania German: ) form a branch of the Mennonite tradition. Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss German and south German heritage who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology, who still d ...

who live in Canada, the United States and

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

) and speak a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

dialect called Plautdietsch as their primary language in addition to Standard German and Spanish, while those in the Mormon community are of American descent and speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. As Nuevo Casas Grandes has grown in the last few decades, it now meets on the north side with the Mormon colony, Colonia Dublán. Many who reside near Nuevo Casas Grandes endeavor to maintain orchards which grow a variety fruits, including peaches, apples, pears, and pecans. Shade and street trees include ash, cypress, deodar, eucalyptus, mulberry, pine, and sycamore. There is also significant activity in wheat and cattle. Nuevo Casas Grandes has an airport, Nuevo Casas Grandes, airport code NCG.

Sister cities

Nuevo Casas Grandes has two

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

: *

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

* Fallon,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

Transportation

The city is served by the Nuevo Casas Grandes Municipal Airport .

References

*"Nuevo Casas Grandes", Encyclopædia Britannic

retrieved 17 August 2005. *"Nuevo Casas Grandes", World Airport Codes

retrieved 17 August 2005.
Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

External links

Ayuntamiento de Nuevo Casas Grandes
Official website {{Authority control Populated places in Chihuahua (state) Old Colony Mennonites Russian Mennonite diaspora in Mexico