In 1884, Shalam Colony was established on the banks of the Rio Grande near the village of Doña Ana by John Ballou Newbrough and a group of Utopian followers called Faithists. Newbrough’s “Book of Shalam" set forth a plan for gathering the outcast and orphaned children of the world and raising them to be the spiritual leaders of a new age. Shalam Colony was closed in 1901.