Arriving at Silver City we were immediately struck by how wintery everywhere had become, leaves off trees, cold bite to the air etc. 6000ft, to be expected really! Hardy as we are, although I’m Laurel at times, we set out for an explore. Silver City was originally an Apache campsite until, yes, copper mining and the Spanish arrived. An American Civil War later, it developed and was founded in 1870. Silver deposits found, it had a reputation for lawlessness. It was the first ever place of arrest for Billy The Kid (who escaped!) and Butch and his Wild Bunch were regulars in the hostelries. The town doesn’t need to live off its Billy past though, it’s an interesting place. The buildings, like the magnificent City Hall with a gorgeous clock and the historic home museum are very different. The coffee shops are quirky and there are Spanish architectural styles and lots of colour, even if a cold, grey day!
City of Rocks, no not a ‘Music School’ movie, is a unique and wondrous place. Following the Kneeling Nun eruption and a second violent eruption, volcanic by the way, then 35 million years of erosion, the spectacular City of Rocks was formed. The hot ash travelled 125 miles and as the hot ash melded and fell, it cooled, it cracked and shrunk, (known as Ignimbrite or Tuff) giving limestone erosion its opportunity. Fascinating rocks with boulders balancing and rocks wedged between others, eroded towers of rock, it’s a curious sight. Especially so, as this ‘city’ emerges from the very flat plains of the New Mexico high desert and parts reminded us somewhat of Stonehenge. The sculpted gardens of rocks are a great walk and a long trail leading away from them, through the yucca and cacti, gave a super perspective. Not only was the landscape surreal, we had a glorious clear sky, shooting stars and noisy coyote for the evening. Can you spot the van?
New Mexico has numerous Chilli Capital of the World claims (they spell it Chile in the US) but none so hot as Hatch. It was Chilli this and Chilli that but what made it one of the best detours ever, was the fantastic roadside Americana memorabilia. I’ll leave it to the pictures!
Truth or Consequences was a radio show in the 1950’s where the presenter of the day challenged US towns to change their name, there’d be positive consequences for the first to do so. Can you imagine that today? Well here, probably yes! Originally called ‘Hot Springs’ the town was known for….its hot springs and in the late C19th it was the building of Elephant Butte dam that put it on the map with some investment. It became a health retreat, spa town, a bit like Bath, UK, such that there were over 40 by the late 1930’s. Sadly, the tourists stopped coming (a bit like Bath too) and there remains a pretty shabby place (becoming so…). The radio presenter visited every May, for 50 years and the town still has a commemorative ‘Fiesta’ but that’s it. There’s some great wall art, one mimicking a Bruce Springsteen album cover of ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ’ but it’s got future ghost town written all over it.
New Mexico has a great approach to the natural world, ATV’s are banned from their state parks, tick. Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is well know for its bird migrations and its wildlife so off we went, becoming bird nerds again for a couple of days! Opened in 1939, at this time of year it’s busy with very early morning and dusk views of Snow Geese and Sand Cranes ‘Lift Off’s’. When we arrived we had a couple of hours that afternoon and immediately saw a Bald Eagle, White Tailed Hawks and off course Sand Cranes and Geese. At dusk the birds fly en masse to the shallow waters as safety from the predatory wildlife (coyote, bobcat and mountain lion) It’s the most amazing sight and sound.
Not necessarily easy to photograph with my phone, many of the close up (zoom lens) bird pics are back of Nicks screen. It was a wondrous place and worth the 6am starts and -7deg temperatures to see. There was frost on the ground, ice on the water and a stunning sunrise. The ‘Performance of The Snow Geese’ and ‘The Density of the Ducks’ as we named the events. Also, just driving around spotting and trying to identify is part of the fun and as we said ‘If you don’t look you don’t see’. We like it anyway and learn from experts with lenses bigger than Nicks!
From Bosque we headed to Valley of Fires Recreation Area and headed to Smokey Bear’s home patch. No kidding! The Smokey Bear Museum is in Capitan and it was during The Capitan Mountains fire in 1950 where he was found clinging to a blackened tree trunk and rescued. The rest is history as he became the iconic mascot of Fire Prevention. There’s a memorial garden with a statue to him (he died in 1976 shortly after retiring, all Federal employees have to retire at 70 which is 25 bear years!) There was a gift shop with lots of Smokey memorabilia… what a legend! Some of the memorabilia was of it’s time, fair enough, note the poster about ‘woman’s work’!
As mentioned we were in Billy the Kid Territory and he, with his brother The Milky Bar Kid ran havoc through the towns… spilling out of bars and generally causing trouble. Lincoln, another ghost town in waiting but currently a State Monument, was an immersion in American history. A very informative visitor centre, covering Native American era’s through to the early 1900’s when history must have stopped in the town, the ticket price includes a walking tour of the other notable buildings in the street (these were the only ones still standing) Several are from its turbulent past so to be fair, it’s a good example of an old Wild West Town still in existence, if not in a state of arrested decay. Key buildings are The Courthouse where Billy killed two deputies before escaping (again) and The Tunstall Mercantile Store.
To give it credit, Lincoln does a good job on 1800’s history, whether we can follow it or not. The Apache Mescalero’s lived around there but when settlers arrived and claimed the lands for themselves, there was indeed, trouble (we’d be pretty miffed if someone came and chucked us off our land too) The US wanted to protect the settlers as part of opening up the western lands and trade opportunities and couldn’t care less about the natives. Building nearby Fort Stanton to this end, in the mid 1800’s no doubt aggravated the situation as the military pressured the Apache to change their way of life. Civil War in 1861 ensued and by 1868 Lincoln was mainly hispanic, but rapid changes in society set the stage for lawlessness, with powerful men advancing their own interests through aggression, corruption and bribery (sound familiar?!) The Lincoln County War, late 1870’s was the climax and Billy was central to a lot of the fighting between various militia factions, ‘The Regulators’ and ‘The Ring’ being dominant. With a reputation for rustling and killing, Billy lived up to his name but was eventually shot by the sheriff in July 1881, aged 21 (we’d never have guessed that he was that young!)
Moving on from the Cowboy towns and the shoot outs of New Mexico we headed to a different kind of war zone, Alamogordo, home of Americas original atomic bomb testing area, missile development and pioneering space exploration development. Also, a chance for sledging!
The Curious Adventures of the Cat in the Camper Van 