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Alamogordo is the county seat and economic center of Otero County in south-central New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by White Sands National Monument. It is the city nearest to Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 30,403 as of the 2010 census. Alamogordo is known for its connection with the Trinity test, the first explosion of an atomic bomb, and also for the Atari video game burial of 1983. Humans have lived in the Alamogordo area for at least 11,000 years. The present settlement, established in 1898 to support the construction of the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad, is an early example of a planned community. The city was incorporated in 1912. Tourism became an important economic factor with the creation of White Sands National Monument in 1934. During the 1950-60s, Alamogordo was an unofficial center for research on pilot safety and the developing United States' space program. Alamogordo is a charter city with a council-manager form of government. City government provides a large number of recreational and leisure facilities for its citizens, including a large park in the center of the city, many smaller parks scattered through the city, a golf course, Alameda Park Zoo, a network of walking paths, Alamogordo Public Library, and a senior citizens' center. Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a nonprofit shared military/civilian facility that is also the hospital for Holloman. == History == Tularosa Basin has been inhabited for at least 11,000 years. There are signs of previous inhabitants in the area such as the Clovis culture, the Folsom culture, the peoples of the Archaic period, and the Formative stage.〔 〕 The Mescalero Apache were already living in the Tularosa Basin when the Spanish came in 1534, and Mescalero oral history says they have always lived there.〔 〕 The Spanish built a chapel at La Luz (about from the future site of Alamogordo) in 1719, although La Luz was not settled until about 1860.〔 〕〔 〕 The city of Alamogordo was founded in June 1898, when the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad, headed by Charles Bishop Eddy, extended the railway to the town.〔 Eddy influenced the design of the community, which included large wide thoroughfares and tree-lined irrigation canals. Charles Eddy's brother John Arthur Eddy named the new city Alamogordo ("large/fat cottonwood" in Spanish) after a grove of fat cottonwoods he remembered from the Pecos River area.〔 When Alamogordo was laid out in 1898, the east-west streets were given numerical designations, while north-south streets were named after states. The present-day White Sands Boulevard was then called Pennsylvania Avenue.〔 Several government buildings in Alamogordo were constructed by the Works Progress Administration, a government program created in 1935 in response to the Great Depression. These include the Otero County Administration Building at 1101 New York Avenue, a Pueblo style building originally constructed as the main U.S. Post Office in 1938. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The main entrance portico features frescoes by Peter Hurd completed in 1942. The Post Office moved out in 1961, and the building was used by a succession of Federal agencies and was known as the Federal Building. The last Federal agency to occupy it was the United States Forest Service who used it as the headquarters of the Lincoln National Forest until October 2008, when that agency moved to a newly constructed building.〔 〕〔 〕 Ownership of the building was transferred to Otero County government and many government offices were moved from the Courthouse to the new Administration Building in February 2009.〔 〕〔 〕 Alamogordo briefly made international news in late 2001 when Christ Community Church held a public book burning of books in the Harry Potter series, and several other series, on December 30.〔 〕〔 〕〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alamogordo, New Mexico」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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