Las Cruces (; ; lit. 'the crosses') is a city in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States, and its county seat. The population was 111,385 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in New Mexico, and the largest in both Doña Ana County and southern New Mexico. It is the principal city of the Las Cruces metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Doña Ana County and had an estimated 230,000 residents in 2024. The city is also part of the larger El Paso–Las Cruces combined statistical area.
Las Cruces is the economic and geographic center of the Mesilla Valley, the agricultural region on the floodplain of the Rio Grande, which extends from Radium Springs to the west side of El Paso, Texas. The Organ Mountains, to the east, are dominant in the city's landscape, along with the Doña Ana Mountains, Robledo Mountains, and Picacho Peak. Las Cruces lies south of Albuquerque, northwest of El Paso, and north of the Mexico–United States border.
The city's major employer is the federal government at nearby White Sands Test Facility and White Sands Missile Range. Spaceport America, which has corporate offices in Las Cruces, operates from to the north; it has completed several successful crewed, suborbital flights. The city is also the headquarters for Virgin Galactic, the world's first company to offer suborbital spaceflights. Las Cruces is the home of New Mexico State University, New Mexico's only land-grant university.
History
During the Mexican–American War, the Battle of El Bracito was fought nearby on Christmas Day, 1846. The settlement of Las Cruces was founded in 1849, when the US Army first surveyed the town, thus opening up the area for American settlement. The town was first surveyed as the result of the American acquisition of the land surrounding Las Cruces, which later became the New Mexico Territory. This land had been ceded to the United States as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, which ended the Mexican-American War. The town was named Las Cruces (Spanish: "the crosses") after three crosses that its earliest settlers had reported seeing just north of the town. The crosses were thought to be "either marked graves or were similar to roadside memorials called descansos". See pages 9–11.
Initially, Mesilla became the leading settlement of the area, with more than 2,000 residents in 1860, more than twice what Las Cruces had; at that time, Mesilla had a population primarily of Mexican descent. When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reached the area, the landowners of Mesilla refused to sell it the rights-of-way, and instead residents of Las Cruces donated the rights-of-way and land for a depot in Las Cruces. The first train reached Las Cruces in 1881. Las Cruces was not affected as strongly by the train as some other villages, as it was not a terminus or a crossroads, but the population did grow to 2,300 in the 1880s. Las Cruces was incorporated as a town in 1907.
Pat Garrett is best known for his involvement in the Lincoln County War, but he also worked in Las Cruces on a famous case, the disappearance of Albert Jennings Fountain in 1896.
New Mexico State University was founded in 1888, and it has grown as Las Cruces has grown. The growth of Las Cruces has been attributed to the university, government jobs, and recent retirees.
The establishment of White Sands Missile Range in 1944 and White Sands Test Facility in 1963 has been integral to population growth. Las Cruces is the nearest city to each, and they provide Las Cruces' workforce with many high-paying, stable, government jobs. In recent years, the influx of retirees from out of state has also increased Las Cruces' population.
In the 1960s, Las Cruces undertook a large urban renewal project, intended to convert the old downtown into a modern city center. As part of this, St. Genevieve's Catholic Church, built in 1859, was razed to make way for a downtown pedestrian mall. The original covered walkways have been removed in favor of a more traditional main-street thoroughfare.
On February 10, 1990, seven people were shot, four fatally, in the Las Cruces bowling alley massacre. The incident remains unsolved.
Geography
The approximate elevation of Las Cruces is above mean sea level.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.18%, is covered by water.
Las Cruces is the center of the Organ Caldera; the Doña Ana Mountains to the north and the Organ Mountains to the east are its margins. citing from Its major eruption was 32 Ma.
Doña Ana County lies within the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion, and the vegetation surrounding the built portions of the city are typical of this setting; it includes creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), soaptree (Yucca elata), tarbush (Flourensia cernua), broom dalea (Psorothamnus scoparius), and various desert grasses such as tobosa (Hilaria mutica or Pleuraphis mutica) and black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda).
The Rio Grande bisects the Mesilla Valley and passes west of Las Cruces proper, supplying irrigation water for the intensive agriculture surrounding the city. Since the institution of water rights, though, the Rio Grande fills its banks only when water is released from upstream dams, which before 2020 usually occurred at least from March to September. Drought conditions, exacerbated by climate change, mean that the Rio Grande experiences increasingly short or small flows.
Prior to farming and ranching, desert shrub vegetation extended into the valley from the adjacent deserts, including extensive stands of tornillo (Prosopis pubescens) and catclaw acacia (Acacia greggii). Desert grasslands extend in large part between the edges of Las Cruces and the lower slopes of the nearby Organ and Robledo Mountains, where grasses and assorted shrubs and cacti dominate large areas of this mostly rangeland, as well as the occasional large-lot subdivision housing.
The desert and desert grassland uplands surrounding both sides of the Mesilla Valley are often dissected with arroyos, dry streams that often carry water following heavy thunderstorms. These arroyos often contain scattered small trees, and they serve as wildlife corridors between Las Cruces' urban areas and adjacent deserts or mountains.
Cityscape
Unlike many cities its size, Las Cruces lacks a true central business district, because in the 1960s, an urban-renewal project tore down a large part of the original downtown. Many chain stores and national restaurants are located in the rapidly developing east side. Las Cruces' shopping mall and a variety of retail stores and restaurants are located in this area.
The historic downtown of the city is the area around Main Street, a six-block stretch of which was closed off in 1973 to form a pedestrianized shopping area. The downtown mall has an extensive farmers' market each Wednesday and Saturday mornings, where a variety of foods and cultural items can be purchased from numerous small stands that are set up by local farmers, artists, and craftspeople. This area also contains museums, businesses, restaurants, churches, art galleries, and theaters, which add a great deal to the changing character of Las Cruces' historic downtown.
In August 2005, a master plan was adopted, the centerpiece of which was the restoration of narrow lanes of two-way traffic on this model portion of Main Street, which was reopened to vehicular traffic in 2012.
In February 2013, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima announced during his "State of the City" address that a park in the area behind the Las Cruces Dam was under construction, in cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers. The area features trails through restored wetlands, and serves as a major refuge for migratory birds and a key recreational area for the city.
Climate
Las Cruces has a cool desert climate (Köppen BWk). Winters alternate between colder and windier weather following trough and frontal passages, and warmer, sunnier periods; light freezes occur 69 nights on average. Spring months can be windy, particularly in the afternoons, sometimes causing periods of blowing dust and short-lived dust storms. Summers begin with the hottest weather of the year, with some extended periods of over temperatures not uncommon, while the latter half of the summer has increased humidity and frequent afternoon thunderstorms, with slightly lower daytime temperatures. Autumns feature decreasing temperatures and precipitation.
Precipitation is very light from October to June, with only occasional winter storm systems bringing any precipitation to the Las Cruces area. Most winter moisture is in the form of rain, though some light snowfalls happen most winters, usually enough to accumulate and stay on the ground for a few hours. Summer precipitation is often from heavy thunderstorms, especially from the late summer monsoon weather pattern.
Since records began in 1892, the lowest temperature recorded at New Mexico State University has been on January 11, 1962 – though only 10 nights have ever fallen to or below – and the highest on June 28, 1994. The lowest maximum on record is on January 28, 1948, and the highest minimum on June 8, 2024. The wettest calendar year has been 1941 with , although 1905 with is the only other year to exceed . The only months to exceed have been September 1941 with and August 1935 with . The wettest single day has been August 30, 1935, with and the driest calendar year 1970 with .
Demographics
2020 census +Las Cruces, New Mexico – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop.2000Pop.2010%2000%2010White (NH)31,20836,57735,67242.02%37.47%32.03%Black or African American (NH)1,4861,9152,3922.00%1.96%2.15%Native American or Alaska Native (NH)6978619830.94%0.88%0.88%Asian (NH)8161,4211,9571.10%1.46%1.76%Pacific Islander (NH)3477760.05%0.08%0.07%Some other race (NH)4971364720.67%0.14%0.42%Mixed or multiracial (NH)1,1081,1882,6291.49%1.22%2.36%Hispanic or Latino38,42155,44367,20451.73%56.80%60.33%Total74,26797,618111,385100.00%100.00%100.00%
As of the 2020 census, Las Cruces had a population of 111,385.
Estimates for 2019 indicate that Las Cruces had a population of 103,432. Its demographics were 32.5% non-Hispanic White, 2.8% African American or Black, 1.4% Native American, 1.8% Asian, and 2.9% from two or more races: 60.5% were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. The 39,925 households had an average household size of 2.51 people each. Median household income was $43,022, and the level of people in poverty was 23.6%.
Census 2010 data As of the 2010, census Las Cruces had a population of 97,618. The ethnic and racial makeup of the population was: 56.8% Hispanic and Latino Americans (Hispanics may be of any race) 34.3% Non-Hispanic White 2.4% African American or Black 1.7% Native Americans 1.6% Asian 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 3.5% Two or more races
Census 2000 data As of the census of 2000, 74,267 people, 29,184 households, and 18,123 families were residing in the city. The population density was . The 31,682 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 69.0% White, 2.3% African American, 1.7% Native American, 1.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 21.6% from other races, and 4.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 51.7% of the population.
Of the 29,184 households, 30.4% had children under 18 living with them, 42.3% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were not families. About 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.05.