New Land of Enchantment Stamp

Last week, the U.S. Postal Service honored New Mexico with a Forever stamp commemorating the state's 100th birthday.

The stamp art shows a landscape in northern New Mexico, about 65 miles northwest of Albuquerque. High desert, junipers and piñon pines grow in the foreground. In the middle distance, the Rio Puerco courses through an arroyo, while in the background, two peaks known as Cerro de Santa Clara and Cerro de Guadalupe are silhouetted against a vast sky.

According to the U.S.P.S. news release, when Spanish missionaries arrived in present-day New Mexico in the 1500s, they found a region already settled by Pueblo and Navajo people. The flags of both Spain and Mexico flew over the land before it became American soil. Northern New Mexico was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 at the end of the U.S.-Mexican War. Two years later, Congress established the New Mexico Territory. English-speaking cattle ranchers, cowboys, and miners mingled with the earlier Native American and Hispanic residents to create the unique cultural diversity that characterizes New Mexico today. Even after it became a state in 1912, New Mexico retained much of its frontier and Old Mexico flavor, and Spanish and English are both widely spoken.

A resident of New Mexico for more than 35 years, artist Doug West is best known for his southwestern landscapes and skies. Art director Richard Sheaff selected one of West’s existing oil paintings for the stamp art.

New Mexico Statehood is being issued as a Forever stamp. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate. What that means, is that if you buy the stamps before Jan. 22, 2012, they'll cost you 44 cents each. But, on Jan. 22, the price goes up to 45 cents each.