Why Duke City?

It wouldn't be a good story if there weren't at least 3 points of view, would it? Some people say Albuquerque is called "Duke City" after Mexican viceroy Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, the Duke of Alburquerque back in 1706 (when the extra R was still around). While this website in no way espouses the tragedies that often accompany empirialist ventures, we're not revisionists. "Duke City" is what some locals call it and so we do too. For more on Albuquerque's long and colorful history, see The Founding of Alburquerque on the City's website.

Others insist it was Edward Abbey who gave Albuquerque the name "Duke City" in his novel The Brave Cowboy : An Old Tale in a New Time. We like this idea too.

The nickname may have originated in the 1700s (like so much in Albuquerque) but Abbey's novel certainly popularized the nickname and so here we are today.

To us, "Duke City" embodies the clash between old-school and new-school. The rambling haciendas of the South Valley and the neon lights of Route 66. Pueblos, city lofts, and old Victorian homes. Tumbleweed and steel.

Then again... maybe we just like "Duke City" because nobody spells Albuquerque right on the first try, even if you live here.