Socorro (New Mexico)
Socorro County
35-73540
Socorro is a small city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the county seat ( county seat ) of Socorro County. The city itself has 8877 inhabitants (as of 2000) and is home to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ( NMIMT ).
The City of Socorro is located on the Rio Grande at an altitude of about 1500 m, about 120 km south of Albuquerque, the largest city of New Mexico with the nearest ( international ) Airport (International Sunport ) and 315 km north of El Paso, Texas.
As a founding date of the city is called 1598, but before that time existed the Indian Pueblo of Pilabo.
The Spaniards have come about mid-16th century in this area. Creation date and name of the city ( Socorro is Spanish for assistance) will be returned to the Spaniard Juan de Oñate, who in 1598 his expedition to colonize the area in the already existing Pueblo by the Indians after a serious route through the south-east location desert area " Jornada del Muerto " had received assistance in the form of food and shelter and the Pueblo then " Socorro "notified.
Until 1627 a Spanish mission was constructed, including a meantime renovated and today still serving as a Catholic church mission church.
However, the economic development began essentially only in the middle of the 19th century with the mining of silver and lead deposits in the more westerly Magdalena Mountains. Socorro experienced a real boom and was in 1890 with 4,500 inhabitants, is one of the largest cities in New Mexico.
This period also saw the establishment of the University (1893 ) falls. Today the university is ( NMIMT, or " New Mexico Tech" or even shorter " Tech" called ) the determining economic factor in the city. The NMIMT is primarily focused on the engineering (mining, oil extraction ), materials science, physics, especially astrophysics and geology, including the so -toothed companies and other institutions, such as Aerojet and the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, EMRTC or the NRAO 's largest employers in Socorro.