but that was just the beginning. we have two now. too little girls. wish my mother could see that. that was just the beginning. we have two of them now. two little girls. ♪ crabs you are watching america history tv. c-span three. this weekend, joining our cable partners to showcase our

history. to learn more, visit c-span.org\cities tour. we continue now with our look at the history of the city of las cruces. >> in new mexico, chile pepper's is one of our main crops. a lot of times, food is grown in areas because of the culture. if you look at wisconsin, they make a lot of sauerkraut because of the immigrants. he or have a lot of chile pepper's. people do not realize chile's artan native to a tropical rain forest. with raineally happy every three days. goes40, francesco vess coronado came up on a mission to introduce spanish role to new mexico.

to theoduced agriculture pueblo indians. 1598, they really established the spanish and new mexico. the pueblo indians would now grow chile's. before then, there was what they system.he waffle they have little squares where they would plant and catch the rainwater. it then they introduced irrigation. intohad incorporated that their chile. we had chile beans growing here for a long time. late 1800s, we had a firstsor that was our

horticulturist and the in our first graduating class. his mission was to find new crops for farmers to grow. then they were growing cotton, corn, that was it. he began to look at different horticultural products. he looked at fruit trees, suite onions, he introduced pecans to the area which is a major crop. he also looked at chile peppers. at the time, they were only being grown in kitchen gardens. he thought of we made them milder they could get more people to eat them. he began a breeding program. early 1900s, he released the new mexico number nine. a new pod type. people liked it. it began new industry.

they began to can it so they could ship it back east. they began the process of building up an industry. dehydrating the red chile's and canning and freezing the grain chile's. -- the green chiles. fitthere was one chile that that niche for all. you could have won chile, grow it, process it, and it could be used in the mexican food industry. so we did not have to level -- have all these different kinds of chiles. he was the father of the mexican food industry. our993, we established

industry. we have a long history of research from the founding of the university until today. one thing we noticed at our teaching garden is people come in from all over and say, that is from my country. towere trying to export asia. the asians told us we did not have good quality. we did not know what they meant because we had good color, no insects, no disease or mold. what we learned at the time talking to people is that the chile has a different kind of heat. we weren't sure we knew what they were talking about. weregan to check and there five components. we didt time you eat,

not know if it dissipated quickly or lingered for hours. heat, is at the tip of your tongue, your lips, your throat? sharp or flat? sharp is like sticking with the heat. flat heat is like a broad heat in your mouth. level, mild,heat medium, hot. we found asian culture once that sharp heat and they wanted to be a fast heat that dissipates quickly at a high level. we went and looked back at the varieties and almost all of them had flat heat. we found one friday that was

sharp with a high heat. we sent people back to try. they said they liked it, he it was good. so now we had chile to make likei, noodles, stuff that. we realized that was the quality. they could not explain it, but profile.the heat we were interested in it because if you think of the food industry, they want to a fast heat that dissipates quickly. medicinenet chile heat is used , ointments, ligaments, that is how you kill pain, you are heat forn a little pain. so we were starting to make chile that would be medicinal besides the food industry.

chile pepper's is one of the few agriculture types. it adds about $5 million annually to the economy. look at the raw economy, $50 million. but it is worth 10 times that when you look at the processes, people to hire for the industry. chile who are really into are known as chile heads. people all around the world send us seeds. -- we introduced ghost pepper

for going to or bad to the united states. it was interesting afterwards. the world's hottest.

our friends at and colleagues said, ours is hotter. to test.send it to us we tested the trinidad scorpion. had 2nd one variety that million. so for us at the chile pepper institute, that is still the world hottest. guinness has its own way to is hottest. being research-based, we have to aow with controls and do it scientific way. some people say, guinness say some is the world hottest, you say it is hotter. at the institute, we have found the trinidad is the world's hottest. here, at what we call the center for chile pepper knowledge, we have expanded. one thing we've done is we have a public-private partnership.

after we discovered the ghost pepper, they came and said we want to help with you we want to make a hot sauce. not just a hot sauce so hot people can't eat it. flavor is important. i think that is the future of chile's, flavor. we would like to make a hot sauce to help you. we are self supporting. we get no help from the university except they pay the electric bill. so we have to be self-sufficient. they said, we would like to help you. we said we like this formulation. we worked with the university relations and came up with a hot sauce. flavor.t but it has we have been trying to educate people that chile's have flavor.

we have hot sauce, salsa, spice of, and a whole set products. in new mexico, chile's are more than just an economic crop. it is part of our culture. in new mexico, we have an official state question. or green?d when you go to a restaurant you will be asked if you want read or green enchiladas. when people leave new mexico they miss that green or red chile. when they come back, they have to have that dish. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to luz, new mexico, to learn about its history. learn more at c-span.org\citiestour. you are watching american

history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3 tv. this weekend on american artifacts, we learned what life was like for the american world war i soldiers. we visited carlisle, pennsylvania, to talk to reenactors. here is a preview. >> i'm here to talk to about what the average soldier from the american expeditionary force and world war i would of thought, felt, carried, that sort of thing. the we have here, this is 1910 haversack. this is what we would call a knapsack or backpack today. this is what all of the soldiers would of carried, at least according to the united states government view. here we have a pouch where you would've kept your mess kit.

utensils.our eating perhaps a photo of someone you wanted to of access to quickly. underneath that, a shovel. this is what they would call a k, you did not have the trenching tools of later on. during world war i, you would have at least one man and every platoon carry one of these to break up the dirt, loosen it, so it could be more easily shoveled out. when you are issued your rations, not unlike during the american civil war, they still issued hard bread biscuits. announcer: watch the entire program sunday at 6:00 p.m. in 10:00 p.m. on our weekly series

,"lled "american artifacts only on american history tv. next, historians talk about the experiences of men and women who fought with the and supported the confederate brigade. the speakers spoke at a summer conference. this is about one hour. >> good evening, everyone. i'm peter carmichael, the director of the institute here at gettysburg college. i'm a member of the history department. it is my pleasure to announce the first inaugural lecture. many of you know of the legacy. the first director of the institute, the reason why