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—faith) is a city in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,548 at the 2000 census. The town is named for the Santa Fe Railroad (now part of BNSF Railway) which runs through the town alongside State Highway 6.
The community grew after the Santa Fe Railway was built outside the area in 1877. Just over a century later in 1978, the residents there voted to become incorporated, and by the 1980s, Santa Fe annexed the towns of Arcadia and Alta Loma.
The City of Santa Fe came to be because the neighboring City of Hitchcock tried to annex a large portion of Alta Loma. After a six year struggle the residents of Alta Loma were given the chance to become their own incorporated city. To be in accordance with the laws of Texas they needed a certain number of residents within the area and a large part of the next town of Arcadia was included. The new city which included the towns of Alta Loma and Arcadia needed one name. The name of Santa Fe was chosen after the Santa Fe Independent School District which surrounds the area. It was the Santa Fe School District that got its name from the railroad in the early 19th century.
In 1981, white supremacists traveled to the city to join local shrimpers in protesting the growing presence of Vietnamese shrimpers in the Gulf. That controversy, as well as similar conflicts in nearby port towns like Rockport, served as the basis for the 1985 Ed Harris film
On April 23, 1991 the community, and other areas of Galveston County, received an enhanced 9-1-1 system which routes calls to proper dispatchers and allows dispatchers to automatically view the address of the caller. Previously Santa Fe had a basic 9-1-1 service.
In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Santa Fe Independent School District's policy of permitting "student-led, student-initiated" prayer at football games and other school events violated the Constitution's prohibitions against the establishment of state religion. That controversy prompted discussions and news articles about the city's largely white population and its past and present connections to the KKK.