Alamogordo

Alamogordo, city in southern New Mexico. It was founded in 1898, with the coming of the railroad. Situated at an elevation of 1326 m (4350 ft) in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains, it is a trade center for a ranching, vegetable-farming and fruit-growing area. Its economy revolves largely around aerospace research at nearby Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range, where the first atomic bomb was exploded at Trinity Site on July 16, 1945. The city is the seat of the Alamogordo branch (1958) of New Mexico State University, the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped (1903), and the International Space Hall of Fame. Nearby are White Sands National Monument, Lincoln National Forest, Oliver Lee State Park, and the Mescalero Indian Reservation. The city's name, Spanish for “fat cottonwood,” refers to cottonwood trees in the area. Alamogordo was incorporated in 1912. Population 24,024 (1980); 27,596 (1990); 35,582 (2000); 36,245 (2005 estimate).