1. Local minor league baseball squad the Albuquerque Isotopes take their name from a “Simpsons” episode where Springfield’s minor league baseball team plans to move to Albuquerque. The name won a 2003 fan vote competition in a landslide.
2. Albuquerque is the only word in the English language that repeats the letter sequence “que” twice.
3. Route 66, which used to include Albuquerque’s Central Avenue, was originally used to test the feasibility of riding camels in the American Southwest.
4. “Breaking Bad” actor Bryan Cranston is a known Isotopes fan. He played in a celebrity softball game at Isotopes park and even wore an Isotopes hat on the show while playing Walt White.
5. Albuquerque is one of the most highly educated large cities in the country. It frequently lands in the top ten when it comes to PHDs per capita.
6. Albuquerque New Mexican food institution El Pinto shows no favoritism when it comes to politics. They’ve served John McCain, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, and Sarah Palin over the years.
7. Although most people probably associate him with Texas, “King of the Hill,” “Beavis and Butthead,” and “Silicon Valley” creator Mike Judge hails from Albuquerque. Wilson Middle School and Highland High School, featured in “Beavis and Butthead,” are named after Albuquerque schools.
8. Albuquerque is approximately equidistant from New Orleans to San Francisco and from Salt Lake City to Dallas.
9. Albuquerque has it’s very own official charity, called Prairie Dog Pals, that specializes in finding suitable habitats for prairie dogs around the city.
10. Bill Gates and Microsoft are most closely associated with the Greater Seattle area, but Bill Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started the company in Albuquerque, where it was located between 1975 and 1979.
11. A hot dog cart rivalry reached fever pitch in 2012 when an Albuquerque hot dog vendor was charged with battery with a deadly weapon for mowing down a competing vendor with his hot dog cart. No word on how many good hot dogs were rendered inedible following the incident.
12. The Best Friends Forever pet cemetery in Albuquerque accommodates people who wish to be buried alongside their beloved animals.
13. James Mercer, lead singer and songwriter of Broken Bells and The Shins, grew up in England, Germany and Honolulu, but started up The Shins in Albuquerque in 1997. The band relocated to Portland in 2002 as it gained steam.
14. At the “Red Rally” bonfire held on the University of New Mexico’s campus, a huge effigy of New Mexico State University’s mascot Pistol Pete is set ablaze.
15. While attending UNM, star linebacker Brian Urlacher owned a cat named Norman, who he called the “23 pounds of the greatest feline in the history of New Mexico.”
16. Even though Albuquerque and its surrounding areas are home to nearly a million people, the city’s tallest building is only 22 stories and 351 feet high. This is because soil near the Rio Grande makes it difficult to build tall buildings.
17. Route 66 also one of the main reason Albuquerque became a major city. The city’s population boomed during the 1930s Dustbowl as Americans migrated westward.
18. Albuquerque is the home town of Ethel Mertz in “I Love Lucy.”
19. You may or may not be proud to learn that Steve-O of “Jackass” spent some of his formative years living in Albuquerque.
20. New Mexico was the first state in the country to give a major tax rebate to filmmakers and producers. This has helped lead to movies like “Transformers,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Rent” and, of course, “Breaking Bad” being filmed in the area.
21. The KiMo Theater in downtown Albuquerque is known for its decorative Hopi and Navajo artwork on the inside, which includes swastikas. Because swastikas originally symbolized life, freedom and happiness to several Native American cultures, and the building was constructed in 1927, there are no plans to remove them.
22. With 2,933 square feet of parkland per person per, Albuquerque leads the nation in per capita parkland within city limits.
23. Due to a kink in the alignment created in 1937, Route 66 looped backed onto itself in the spot where Central Avenue and 4th Street now intersect.
24. Albuquerque is home to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. New Mexico, alongside Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, and Mississippi, is one of five states where the United States has tested nuclear weapons.
25. Since 9/11, service people from Albuquerque have won more top military honors than people from any other city. In total, Albuquerqueans have received five Silver Stars and two Navy Crosses.
26. Albuquerque was the first major city to make carrying a personal video recorder mandatory for police officers.
26. It may sound like it’s directly out of a Philip K. Dick book, but University of New Mexico professor Kent Kiehl’s research involves scanning the brains of criminals “to establish the world’s largest database of brain data from incarcerated populations.”
27. You probably remember hearing about the infamous McDonald’s coffee spill of 1992, which occurred when an Albuquerque resident scalded herself with the contents of her styrofoam cup, and ended up with $2.7 million in punitive damages. You might not know that while the case ended up becoming symbolic of frivolous lawsuits, Liebeck suffered third-degree burns to six percent of her body, McDonalds knew that at 185 degrees fahrenheit, their coffee was dangerously hot, and $2.7 million equals about two days of McDonalds coffee sales.
28. In Albuquerque, as in the rest of New Mexico, the state claims the right to moisture falling from the sky
29. Even though the city was far West of the major fighting, there was a Civil War “Battle of Albuquerque.” In 1862, a skirmish broke out when the Confederate army retreated to the city. There was a single casualty.
30. The car wash featured as Walt White’s money fronting operation in “Breaking Bad” is a real Albuquerque business, although it’s not called A1. It’s the mini-chain Octopus Car Wash, which has seven locations in the greater Albuquerque area.
31. All three High School Musical movies are set in Albuquerque at the (non-existent) Albuquerque East High School. Their rival is the (equally non-existent) Albuquerque West High School.
32. University of New Mexico alum and very tall person Luc Longley is one of only a handful of players ever to win three consecutive NBA championships. He took home the titles between 1996-1998, while playing alongside Michael Jordan.
33. UNM’s mascot is a “lobo,” which is the Spanish word for “wolf.” UNM student George S. Bryan suggested the name in the school newspaper in 1920, writing: “The Lobo is respected for his cunning, feared for his prowess, and is the leader of the pack.”
34. During the 1920s, a wolf pup was the Lobo’s mascot at football games. However, the practice stopped after the small wolf bit a child in attendance.
35. Earlier this year, a bachelor party hiking in Elephant Butte State Park near Albuquerque unearthed an enormous 3-million-year-old elephant skull fossil. They dug up the skull—technically a stegomastodon—took picture and eventually sent it to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
36. Houston Texan star running back Arian Foster was born and raised in Albuquerque, but elected to play college ball in Tennessee. However, his father Carl Foster played wide receiver at UNM during the 1970s.
37. In Albuquerque, as in all of New Mexico, animals taken for rattlesnake roundups and lizard races are exempt from wildlife laws.
38. It’s also illegal to sell leathery or “decidedly shrunken” pecans. However it’s unclear who, exactly, arbitrates this decision.
39. You might expect New York City or San Francisco to be the home of the first-ever bitcoin machine. However, the title belong to (you guessed it) Albuquerque. The machine, which debuted in February, is in a cigar shop called Imbibe.
40. Earlier this year, an inmate at Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque escaped jail by hiding in a laundry basket. The criminal was later found after breaking into an assisted living complex.
41. Alongside Denver, Albuquerque is one of the highest elevated major metropolitan area in the United States. Elevation in Albuquerque ranges between 4,900-6,700 ft, while elevation in Denver ranges from 5,130–5,690 ft.
42. A private residence in Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque has became a popular tourist destination after the artist owner covered a telephone pole entirely with womens shoes.
43. The Albuquerque area was originally home to the ancient Pueblo people, who were the oldest farming civilization on the North American continent.
44. Albuquerque High School has existed si\nce 1879, far before New Mexico officially became a state in 1912.
45. You can find local favorite Blake’s Lotaburger in 23 New Mexico cities. The first location was a small stand Albuquerque that opened in 1952.
46. Three Indianapolis 500 winners hail from Albuquerque: Al Unser, Al Unser Jr., and Bobby Unser. If you suspect they might be from the same family, you are correct.
47. In 2011, police nabbed a group of three men after they attempted to steal twelve rolls of toilet paper from a restaurant called Burgers, Dogs and Wings.
48. Founded in 1706, Albuquerque is one of the oldest inland communities in the United States.
Featured Image Source: Flickr user littlemoresunshine
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