Editing Farmington, New Mexico (section)

==History==
The area that is now Farmington was settled by [[Ancestral Pueblo people]] in the 7th Century. Ruins can be visited at nearby [[Salmon Ruins]] and at the [[Aztec Ruins National Monument|Aztec Ruins]].<ref name=Smith>{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Claudia|title=Farmington|url=http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=1317|publisher=New Mexico Office of the State Historian|access-date=2012-08-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812041910/http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=1317|archive-date=August 12, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> When the Ancestral Puebloans left the area, the [[Navajo people|Navajos]], [[Jicarilla Apache]]s, and [[Ute people|Utes]] moved into the area. A key part of the region was known in Navajo as ''Tóta''' which means "where three rivers meet".<ref name=Hudnall>{{cite book|last=Hudnall|first=Ken|title=Spirits of the Border IV: The History and Mystery of New Mexico|year=2005|publisher=Omega Press|location=El Paso|author2=Hudnall, Sharon}}</ref>

Although Spanish and American mineral prospecting happened in the area, there were few permanent settlements. In 1868, the [[Navajo Nation]] was created, taking up the western half of [[San Juan County, New Mexico|San Juan County]]. Six years later, the U.S. government offered territory in the rest of San Juan County to the [[Jicarilla Apache]] but they refused. As a result, the area was opened for settlement and a number of settlers moved into the region from Southern Colorado.<ref name=Smith /> The area was originally known as "Junction City" because of the access to the three rivers.<ref name=Hudnall />

In 1901 the town was incorporated and named Farmington with a population of 548.<ref name=Smith /> By September 19, 1905, the railroad was finished connecting Farmington to [[Durango, Colorado]], expanding economic and settlement opportunities. It was unusual in that it was a [[standard-gauge railway]] that connected to the [[Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad]] [[Narrow-gauge railway|narrow-gauge]] lines of southwestern Colorado. The railroad converted the line to narrow gauge in 1923. The line was abandoned in 1968 and dismantled to Durango in 1969.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.actionroad.net/DRGW-Relics/DRGW-Relics-FMN.htm|title=Farmington Branch|website=www.actionroad.net|access-date=April 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703041116/http://www.actionroad.net/DRGW-Relics/DRGW-Relics-FMN.htm|archive-date=July 3, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> In addition, in the 1920s there was significant investment in natural gas and oil in the area, although actual production remained low until the 1950s.

On March 18, 1950, Farmington was the site of a mass [[UFO sighting]] in which over half the town's population was reported to have seen large saucers in the sky flying at rapid speeds.<ref name=Hudnall /> The population was expanding rapidly after the 1940s construction of a developed road connecting Farmington to [[U.S. Route 66]] and [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]] and the San Juan Basin Natural Gas Pipeline in 1953, led by [[Tom Bolack]].<ref name=Smith /> However, the significant connection to the energy industry made the economics of the town largely vulnerable to international market fluctuations during the [[1970s energy crisis]] and resulted in some economic diversification.<ref name=Smith />

In 1967, as part of a joint U.S. Government-[[El Paso Electric]] operation, an underground nuclear detonation occurred {{convert|50|mi}} east of Farmington and about {{convert|25|mi}} south of [[Dulce, New Mexico]] in present-day [[Carson National Forest]]. This pilot project of [[Operation Plowshare]], code-named [[Project Gasbuggy]], was an attempt to fracture a large volume of underground bedrock to make more natural gas available for extraction by gas wells.<ref name=Szasz>{{cite book|last=Szasz|first=Ferenc M.|title=Larger than Life: New Mexico in the Twentieth Century|year=2006|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque, NM|page=156}}</ref>

The people of Farmington have been the subject of several [[civil rights]] investigations, including the 2005 report, ''The Farmington Report: Civil Rights for Native Americans 30 Years Later''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/122705_FarmingtonReport.pdf |title=Report |website=www.usccr.gov |access-date=2019-07-20}}</ref>