Puzzles

Find these words:

• Plaza
• Gazebo
• Basilica
• Butterfield
• Territorial
• Parian
• Acequia
• Chile
• Pecans
• Alfalfa
• Onions
• Cottonwood
• Gadsden
• Santa Anna
• Boundary
• Treaty
• Bartlett
• Rio Grande
• Cinco de Mayo
• Diez y Seis
• Car Show
• Christmas Eve
• Tree Lighting
• Fireworks

• The National Historic Landmark square at the heart of town
• The basilica’s patron saint
• New Mexico’s oldest movie theater, rebuilt in 1905
• The 1853 treaty also called the Treaty of Mesilla
• The 1851 army post that guarded the valley
• The river along the town’s western edge
• The fertile floodplain from Radium Springs toward El Paso
• A plaza street named in the Historic American Landscapes Survey
• The street with the Maurin Building and Barela-Reynolds House
• The outlaw tried in Mesilla in April 1881
• The lawyer and newspaper founder who defended him
• The boundary commissioner who wrote about Mesilla in 1854

On the opposite side of the river is the famous Mesilla Valley, which has caused such a hubbub in the political world.

1. What does the Spanish word mesa, root of Mesilla, mean?

   • Table or plateau
   • Mountain
   • Market
   • River

2. The Gadsden Purchase is also called the Treaty of what?

   • Santa Fe
   • Guadalupe Hidalgo
   • Mesilla
   • El Paso

3. How much did the United States pay Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase?

   • US$10 million
   • US$50 million
   • US$25 million
   • US$1 million

4. On what date was the flag raised on the Mesilla Plaza to confirm U.S. sovereignty?

   • April 13, 1881
   • June 8, 1854
   • July 4, 1776
   • November 18, 1854

5. Which military post was created in 1851 to protect the Mesilla Valley?

   • Fort Selden
   • Fort Craig
   • Fort Bliss
   • Fort Fillmore

6. Which saint is the Basilica of San Albino named for?

   • Albert the Great
   • Anthony of Padua
   • Albinus of Angers
   • Francis of Assisi

7. In what year did the Holy See raise San Albino to a minor basilica?

   • 1961
   • 1906
   • 2008
   • 1852

8. What did Mesilla serve as during 1861 and 1862?

   • A Union supply depot
   • Capital of New Mexico
   • Capital of the Confederate Territory of Arizona
   • The county seat of El Paso

9. Which Confederate colonel won the Battle of Mesilla in July 1861?

   • Edward Canby
   • Henry Sibley
   • John R. Baylor
   • Isaac Lynde

10. How many people were killed in the 1871 plaza riot?

    • Nine
    • Twenty
    • Two
    • None

11. Which outlaw was tried and sentenced to hang at Mesilla in 1881?

    • Billy the Kid
    • Butch Cassidy
    • Jesse James
    • Black Bart

12. Who defended Billy the Kid at his Mesilla trial?

    • Lew Wallace
    • Albert J. Fountain
    • Pat Garrett
    • Albert Fall