Living Rootless: Gallup, New Mexico: The Sum of Its Parts

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Gallup, New Mexico: The Sum of Its Parts

Gallup, New Mexico

After my first pass through Gallup, I wrote about it here.

On a more recent drive-through, I still felt that special something about Gallup. Not the winters. Don't like them - too damn cold.

Zombies in Gallup, New Mexico?

Gallup is a train town. I like that. Even the town's name has a train connection.

Gallup, New Mexico

I'm not the only tourist attracted to Gallup. Here's an in-depth look at the town by another passerby, cvmiranda, who "found [herself] fascinated trying to figure out the history, demographics, economy, and everything about this city after an hour visit."

Gallup, New Mexico

Gallup has a town center - well, three town centers, in fact: One with the government buildings and a library and a public art thing going on, then an historic commercial center with bars and stores. Then there's the Route 66 motel row parallel to the train tracks. There's a residential area with tidy houses in good shape. There's a section where people aren't so flush.

The folks are gosh darn friendly in Gallup, an opinion based on my few interactions with Gallupians I encountered.

Gallup, New Mexico

Gallup has a diverse history, what with Indian trading in artisan work, mining, the railroad, and I don't know what else.

Here is a repository of oral histories from members of the United Indian Traders' Association (UITA), which played a prominent role in Gallup commerce.

Overall, Gallup comes across as a town that's seen better days, but with pockets of hope showing. To check my perception against reality, I looked at city-data's information for both Gallup and Jefferson City, Missouri, where I come from. Median household income is slightly higher in Gallup than Jefferson City (48k versus 47k, respectively), but there's a large reverse gap in per capita income: 19k in Gallup versus 26k in Jefferson City). (Larger families in Gallup?) When I dig a little deeper, I see that 46.6% of Gallup households have an income of 40k or less, while the same holds true for 43.7% of Jefferson City households. Bottom line: I haven't dug any deeper to know what to make of Gallup's economic situation.