Get your Free State of Socorro Passport during SocorroFest at the Info Booth! Present your FFoS Passport at participating businesses (see list below) for discounts and goodies.
Get it stamped/stickered and bring it to the next SocorroFest for some cool Free State merch!
~ Origin Story ~
It all started in February 1953, when Socorro resident Elmer Brasher was arrested and found guilty of driving while intoxicated.
Brasher hired well-known local attorney Claron Waggoner to appeal the decision. Waggoner argued that while DWI was against state law, he could find no law against it in Socorro鈥檚 ordinances. District Judge Charles Fowler, intrigued by this unique argument, suspended court to conduct his own investigation into the matter. Fowler found that many of the city鈥檚 statutes had not been properly recorded.
Waggoner and a colleague continued to investigate Socorro鈥檚 legal history. What they found was truly astounding. When the Spanish empire fell in 1821, all Spanish lands were converted to Mexican land grants. With statehood, the constitution provided that all Mexican land grants become part of the state of 色狐入口 鈥� and, of course, the United States.
Socorro was an exception. It seems the Spanish Provincia de Socorro land grant was never turned over to Mexican authorities and was omitted from the 1848 annexation to the territory of 色狐入口. Therefore, the two attorneys concluded Socorro County is not and never was a legal part of the state of 色狐入口.
The next issue of the Socorro Chieftain announced these findings under the headline: 鈥淪ocorro May Establish New Free State.鈥� Chieftain editor Thomas Dabney speculated Socorroans were due a full refund of federal and state taxes since 1912 statehood.
The official 鈥淧roclamation for the Free Republic of Socorro,鈥� in English and Spanish, was published on April 9 in both the Socorro Chieftain and the Spanish language El Defensor.
All Socorro wanted to do was get the attention of lawmakers in Santa Fe, whom everyone thought were neglecting this rural county鈥檚 needs.
Socorro gave a convincing impression of sovereignty by erecting a Port of Entry on U.S. 85 (now I-25) and charging 25 cents to pass through the county. For $1, you could become a citizen and travel the county鈥檚 highways for free. The phenomenon got the attention of the rest of the country, climaxed by a three-page feature article in Life magazine in June. Almost overnight, Socorro went from an obscure desert town to a tourist destination. Thousands of travelers bypassed Santa Fe for Socorro.
This turn of affairs also got Santa Fe鈥檚 attention: State money financed road improvements, a county public health clinic and a new hospital.
The heyday of the Free State of Socorro lasted into 1955, but revivals keep the movement alive.
Free State of Socorro research contributed by Paul Harden.
ORIGINAL 1953 PROCLAMATION-- FREE STATE OF SOCORRO 1953-2003
By Paul Harden, for Socorro El Defensor Chieftain. Below are portions of the original Proclamation for the Free State of Socorro, as
originally published in the April 8, 1953 issue of the "Socorro Chieftain."
~ PROCLAMATION ~
To all freedom loving men and women everywhere, these presents are address with greeting
and salutations:
WHEREAS it has been established to our satisfaction that the United States has no
legal title or claim to the lands situate in the ancient and free Provincia de Socorro,
WHEREAS heavy burdens of taxation and government regimentation imposed have become
burdensome and detrimental to our best interests and our pursuit of happiness here
in our land along the beautiful Rio Grande in the southern Rocky Mountains and present obstacles
alien to
our way of life,
WHEREAS our own money is taken in taxes from our pockets to develop substitutes for
our cotton, and whereas Socorro raises the best cotton in the world,
WHEREAS we have been subjected to burdensome taxation for the purpose of supporting
and arming and feeding and clothing foreigners and aliens while our own citizens, including
our native Indian population, die of disease and hunger,
WHEREAS the United States has given our waters from the Rio Grande to Texas, Colorado
and old Mexico and we are forbidden to use our own water which was granted to us by the
Almighty and the King of Spain, and by U.S. treaties, and whereas this is a direct violation
of God and man
given rights and of the United State Constitution and the Washington Great White Father
has been negligent in our vital interests and has refused and neglected to provide for
and protect our rightful, legal and essential interests,
WHEREAS our minerals and other resources have been dispoiled of and seized without
agreeable compensation,
WHEREAS the price of gold and silver have been arbitrarily set at low and unnatural
levels in violation of the right of free exchange based on the law of supply and demand,
WHEREAS we have seen our silver, gold and other mines close as a result of an artificial
and rapidly depreciating paper currency,
WHEREAS we wish to return to a system of less red-tape, less record keeping, more
opportunity, greater value for the individual citizen and law based primarily on religion,
with greater freedom, lower prices, and more profits,
WE DECLARE our Free Republic to be pacificistic, with no military establishment other
than a police force, and place our full reliance upon the justice we expect fully to receive
from the courts of the United Nations.
WE HEREBY ISSUE a call for delegates and representatives of foreign nations, including
Texas and United States, to be present at a Constitutional Convention to be held in our
capitol city of Socorro during the annual 49ers celebration in the month of November and in the year
of 1953, at which time the delegates will be assembled and a new government will be formed
the following year after which our constitution will be official.
s/Socorro for a Free Republic Freedom Concerned Citizens of Socorro