New Mexico Becomes the 47th State

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, January 6, 1912: Oh you lonesome Saturdays. It’s just about the same every week-end when you have to stay at home.  Ruth went to Turbotville today and forgot to ask me to go along. When she came home she thought I ought to have done her milking but I didn’t.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since today’s diary entry is fairly self-explanatory I’ll share an interesting piece of trivia—

A hundred years ago today New Mexico became the 47th US state.

(Arizona would become the 48th state on February 14, 1912. Alaska and Hawaii won’t be admitted until 1959.)

A hundred years ago New Mexico was still considered part of the wild west. It’s amazing how much the state has grown.  The population of New Mexico was about 327,000 in 1912; today it’s about 2.1 million. In 1912 Albuquerque had only about 11,000 residents; it now has 550,000. Santa Fe, the capital, had 6,000 residents in 1912; today it has about 68,000 people.