First National Santa Fe Revenue and Competitors

The First National Bank of Santa Fe was founded by Lucien B. Maxwell (then the largest land-owner in the United States) on December 13, 1870, becoming the first bank to be established in the New Mexico Territory. It would be forty-five years before New Mexico became a state. In 1870, there was no other bank within 400 miles! The Bank officially opened its doors on April 15th, 1871 on part of the site currently occupied by the Bank. The First National Bank of Santa Fe is the oldest bank in the entire Southwestern US. First National's early customers took out loans to finance sheep, cattle and mining operations. The organization weathered several national banking panics since 1870, notably among these were the panic of 1907 and the Great Depression. With the onset of World War II the Bank was the repository of funds for the government's secret Los Alamos operations.