| Welcome to Southwest New Mexico! Southwest New Mexico is the gateway to Old West Country! In southwest New Mexico visitors can find the state's second-largest city, Las Cruces (Spanish for "the crosses"), so named because it was the site of a cluster of crosses marking the graves of a group of travelers from Taos who were ambushed by Apaches in 1830, the largest lake, Elephant Butte (36 miles long), and the "Chile Capital of the World," an agricultural village called Hatch, where more than 30,000 acres of the addictive New Mexico chile is grown. |
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| The Gila National Forest, offering 3.3 million acres in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, offers the diversity of rugged mountains, deep canyons, meadows, and semi desert country. Also in southwest New Mexico is Elephant Butte Lake State Park, with over 200 sites for RV camping, an unlimited number of tent campsites, and 200 miles of shoreline, the park is a premiere summertime attraction. |
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