New Mexico in Light in August (Location)

Santa Fe itself was founded in 1608. At the period when Nathaniel and the mother of his son, Juana, travel there in an attempt to get married, it was a territory of the United States that had been claimed by Spain, Mexico, and Texas in turn. The novel describes it in the mid-19th century as a dusty place (247); these days it is the capital of the state of New Mexico.