Santa Rosa - City of Natural Lakes
Welcome to Santa Rosa, the Oasis on Route 66. Founded in 1865, the town beginnings were as a a large Spanish Rancho known as Aqua Negro Chiquita. Around 1890, Santa Rosa gained a new name when Don Celso Baco built a chapel and named it for his wife and Saint Rose of Lima, the first canonized Saint of the "New World." When the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad steamed into town in 1901, Santa Rosa became an important transportation hub of the area. Just two years later, in 1903, Santa Rosa became the Guadalupe County seat.
Upon the completion of Route 66 in 1930, Santa Rosa became known as a welcome and well-known oasis in the desert for weary travelers.. During the days of early Route 66, after travelers had tired of the long, hot, dusty miles, our city provided a longed for place to eat, and rest for the journey ahead.
In 1935 Phillip Craig and Floyd Shaw built the Club Café with the smiling, satisfied face of the Fat Man. For more than fifty years, thousands of hungry Route 66 travelers would stop to enjoy a tasty home cooked meal. The logo of the Fat Man soon became synonymous with Route 66 in Santa Rosa. Club Café served it's last meal in 1991, but the famous 'Fat Man' icon lives on. You can see him at Joseph s Bar and Grill down the road.
Today, there are still plenty of signs of the good ole days of Route 66 to be seen as you travel through Santa Rosa. Look for billboards painted on huge roadside boulders and the still-grinning faces of Fat Man billboards before you enter the town. A particularly scenic stretch of Route 66 parallels Interstate 40 and can be accessed from the three exits east of the city. Once you enter Santa Rosa, you can see the Comet Drive In, Silver Moon, Sun and Sand, and the La Loma Motel. If you're traveling at night, the neon lights will thrill your Route 66 sensibilities. While in Santa Rosa, another "must stop" is the Route 66 Auto Museum.
More activities abound at the area lakes where you can scuba dive at the Blue Hole, Santa Rosa is known as a scuba diving mecca and has many natural lakes, an anomaly in the dry Desert climate surrounding it. These are sinkholes that form in the limestone bedrock of the area and fill with water, and thus the lakes are connected by a network of underground, water-filled tunnels. Among these is the famous Blue Hole, a geological phenomenon. The natural, bell-shaped pool is 80 feet deep and has astonishing clarity with a constant water temperature of 64 degrees. You can also fish at natural Perch or Park Lakes, and enjoy all the amenities of a large man-made lake, such as boating, skiing and camping at Santa Rosa Lake State Park.
Come and learn for yourself why we have been called the "Jewel of New Mexico".
Sources:
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
City of Santa Rosa, NM
Legends of America
