Hatch is a village in Doña Ana County,

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 ...

, United States. The population was 1,648 at the 2010 census. The town is experiencing moderate growth, along with its outliers of Salem, Arrey,

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, and Rincon. Hatch is widely known as the "best chile place in the World," for growing a wide variety of peppers, especially the New Mexican cuisine staple, and one of New Mexico's state vegetables, the

New Mexico chile New Mexico chile or New Mexican chile (Scientific name: ''Capsicum annuum'' 'New Mexico Group'; , ) is a cultivar group of the chile pepper from the US state of New Mexico, first grown by Puebloan peoples, Pueblo and Hispanos of New Mexico, Hispa ...

History

Hatch was originally settled as Santa Barbara in 1851; however, Apache raids drove the farmers away until 1853, when the nearby Fort Thorn was established.Julyan, Robert Hixson (1998) "Hatch " ''The place names of New Mexico'' (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 162, Fort Thorn closed in 1859, and the town was abandoned again in 1860. It was not until 1875 that it was reoccupied and renamed "Hatch" for Edward Hatch, who was then of the military District of New Mexico .Archuletta, Phil T. and Holden, Sharyl S. (2003) "Hatch" ''Traveling New Mexico: A Guide to the Historical and State Park Markers'' Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM, page 111,

Geography

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 village has a total area of , all land. The village is located just off

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 ...

, about northwest of Las Cruces, and approximately northwest 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 ...

Demographics

It is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area. 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, there were 1,673 people, 538 households, and 402 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 635 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 46.03%

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 ...

, 0.36%

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 ...

, 0.96% Native American, 0.24%

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 ...

, 50.03% from other races, and 2.39% 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 79.20% of the population. There were 538 households, out of which 43.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.1% were non-families. 20.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.11, and the average family size was 3.63. In the village, the population was spread out, with 35.7% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 17.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.9 males. The median income for a household in the village was $21,250, and the median income for a family was $23,819. Males had a median income of $21,923 versus $17,188 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 village was $14,619. About 28.5% of families and 34.5% 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 50.1% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

The Hatch Chile Festival is an annual event that occurs each

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

. This event attracts people worldwide to a place known as the chile capital of the world. The small town has accommodated up to 30,000 people for this event. This small farming community is known worldwide for raising renowned chiles. By 2012, Hatch chiles were being marketed under their name in most major urban markets in the US. Other crops such as

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

, and

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

are also raised there.

Irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

of local farms is accomplished by wells pumping ground water along with surface water irrigation ditches. These divert water from 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 ...

and two lakes approximately north of Hatch named Caballo ( Spanish for "horse") and

Elephant Butte Reservoir Elephant Butte Reservoir is a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico, north of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Truth or Consequences. The reservoir is the 84th largest man-made lake in the United Sta ...

(named after a rock formation in the middle of the lake that looks similar to an elephant). Hatch is northwest of

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; ; lit. 'the crosses') is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the county seat, seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 United States ce ...

, on

, and south of Spaceport America, a new purpose-built

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport''—and even more so ''cosmodrome''—has traditionally referred to sites capable of ...

being built by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) with

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

and county funding.New era draws closer: Spaceport dedicates runway on New Mexico ranch
''

El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (after the ''El Paso Herald-Post'', an afternoon paper, closed in 1997), but often competes with the Spanish-languag ...

'', 2010-10-23, accessed October 25, 2010. ''"two-thirds of the $212 million required to build the spaceport came from the state of New Mexico... The rest came from construction bonds backed by a tax approved by voters in Doña Ana and Sierra counties.''" In 2012, the NMSA announced it would be building a spaceport visitor center in Hatch.

Education

Hatch Valley Public Schools is the local school district.

Transportation

Hatch is served by South Central Regional Transit District, with services to Las Cruces to the south and

Truth or Consequences ''Truth or Consequences'' is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–57) and later on television by Edwards (1950–54), Jack Bailey (1954–56), Bob Barker (1956–75), Steve Dunne (1957–58), Bob Hi ...

to the north.https://scrtd.org/routesschedules/ The Southwestern Railroad passes through Hatch.

References

External links

*
Hatch Chile Festival 2008
Creative Commons gallery at Flickr {{authority control Villages in Doña Ana County, New Mexico Villages in New Mexico Populated places established in 1851 Populated places established in 1875 1851 establishments in New Mexico Territory 1875 establishments in New Mexico Territory New Mexico populated places on the Rio Grande