TUCUMCARI, NEW MEXICO - Son Johnny and I finish our ritual breakfast of huevos rancheros at the Pow Wow Inn on Tucumcari's historic strip. It is typical October Tucumcari weather, a crisp, cool morning with sunshine and bright blue skies.
We hit I-40 for the hour-long drive to Santa Rosa, then south on U.S. 54 across rolling rangeland dotted by windmills and grazing cattle. We pass the small settlement of Pastura, a collection of houses that time forgot, and reach Vaughan, another town that owes its origin to the railroad. It is a crossroads town with U.S. 54 going north and south, and U.S. 60, the east-west route from I-25 east to Fort Sumner where Billy the Kid met his violent end.
We continue south on U.S. 54 past the near-ghost town of Duran, once another rail stop. Then it's Corona (Spanish for "crown") and another 50 miles to Carrizozo. Another hour takes us to Tularosa and Alamogordo. Finally, we take U.S. 70 west across the Tularosa Valley, past White Sands National Monument, and up over the Organ Mountains and St. Augustine Pass. Once over the pass, we have a broad view of Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley of the Rio Grande.
The temperature during the next couple of days is in the high 80s and low 90s in the afternoon with low humidity - more perfect October weather. We take a look at my adobe in old Mesilla and find my tenants happy and the place in good shape. The ice plant, lady banks roses, and Mexican elders are doing well - they were frozen out several years ago with an unusually severe freeze for that neck of the woods. It's good to see that vegetation looking good again.
Since Johnny has to return to work, I bring him down to El Paso for his flight back to Chicago on Sunday morning. It's another gorgeous day with bright blue skies. On the way back to Las Cruces I stop at the New Mexico welcome center on I-10. I am reminded there of the interesting history of that corner of Texas and New Mexico.
The west Texas town of El Paso is featured in Marty Robbins' 1959 hit song of the same name. A young cowboy falls in love with a beautiful Mexican maiden. In Rosa's Cantina he kills a rival cowboy, steals a fast horse and flees across the border to New Mexico. Unable to stay away from his loved one, he returns only to encounter some armed mounted cowboys. He sees the white puff of the rifle, feels the bullet going deep into his chest, and dies with a final kiss in the arms of his lover.
At El Paso, the Rio Grande that rises in Colorado and flows the length of New Mexico, takes a sharp bend to the southeast, becoming the international border between the U.S. and Mexico. It is that point, originally known as "Paso del Norte," that is so historically significant.
American history is taught from east to west, as if it began with the early British colonies in Virginia followed by the Pilgrims arriving at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It's easy to forget, and maybe many American students are never taught, that in 1525, a mere 33 years after Columbus arrived in the western hemisphere, Hernando Cortez arrived in 1525, brutally conquering the Aztecs.
In 1598, Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate was the first New Spain explorer to lead an expedition from Mexico to the Paso del Norte of the Rio Grande. He is reputed to have celebrated a mass giving thanks on April 30, 1598, decades before the "first Thanksgiving" celebrated by the Pilgrims.
The Mexican city, Juarez, was founded on the south bank of the Rio Grande in 1659. In 1680 the small village of El Paso became the temporary Spanish capital of the territory of New Mexico when Santa Fe was taken over by the Pueblo Revolt by Native Americans. In 1692 Santa Fe was reconquered by the Spanish and again became the capital of the New Mexico territory.
Both Texas and Mexico vied for control of the old Paso del Norte region. The Compromise of 1850 designated the present Texas-New Mexico boundary, placing El Paso on the Texas side.
During 1857-61, the Butterfield Stage Line secured the U.S. Postal Service contract to deliver mail from St. Louis to California. El Paso was a major stop on the route that continued up to the Mesilla station (now the site of Mesilla's La Posta Restaurant) and on to Tucson and to California. The route ended with the Civil War. Confederates held the area until it was captured by the Union California Column in 1862.
El Paso itself was incorporated in 1873. The population remained small, less than 200 people during the 1870s. With the arrival of two rail lines in 1881, the population boomed to 10,000 by the 1890 census. With the arrival of so many newcomers, the wild boomtown became known as the "Six-Shooter Capital." During World War I, the Department of the Army pressured El Paso authorities to crack down on prostitution and gambling. The city continued to grow, developing into a manufacturing, transportation, and retail center of the Southwest.
Today the U.S. Census Metropolitan Statistical Area of El Paso has a population of nearly 839,000. The Combined Statistical Area including Las Cruces is over 1,000,000. If we include Juarez, across the Rio Grande, there is a combined metropolitan population of over 2.7 million.
El Paso is closer to four other capital cities: Phoenix, Arizona (348 miles); Santa Fe, New Mexico (272 miles); Chihuahua, Mexico (212 miles), Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (327 miles) than it is to its own capital, Austin (525 miles). As the crow flies, the distance between Texarkana, Texas and Chicago is approximately the same as from Texarkana to El Paso.
El Paso, an interesting historic city.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
We hit I-40 for the hour-long drive to Santa Rosa, then south on U.S. 54 across rolling rangeland dotted by windmills and grazing cattle. We pass the small settlement of Pastura, a collection of houses that time forgot, and reach Vaughan, another town that owes its origin to the railroad. It is a crossroads town with U.S. 54 going north and south, and U.S. 60, the east-west route from I-25 east to Fort Sumner where Billy the Kid met his violent end.
We continue south on U.S. 54 past the near-ghost town of Duran, once another rail stop. Then it's Corona (Spanish for "crown") and another 50 miles to Carrizozo. Another hour takes us to Tularosa and Alamogordo. Finally, we take U.S. 70 west across the Tularosa Valley, past White Sands National Monument, and up over the Organ Mountains and St. Augustine Pass. Once over the pass, we have a broad view of Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley of the Rio Grande.
The temperature during the next couple of days is in the high 80s and low 90s in the afternoon with low humidity - more perfect October weather. We take a look at my adobe in old Mesilla and find my tenants happy and the place in good shape. The ice plant, lady banks roses, and Mexican elders are doing well - they were frozen out several years ago with an unusually severe freeze for that neck of the woods. It's good to see that vegetation looking good again.
Since Johnny has to return to work, I bring him down to El Paso for his flight back to Chicago on Sunday morning. It's another gorgeous day with bright blue skies. On the way back to Las Cruces I stop at the New Mexico welcome center on I-10. I am reminded there of the interesting history of that corner of Texas and New Mexico.
The west Texas town of El Paso is featured in Marty Robbins' 1959 hit song of the same name. A young cowboy falls in love with a beautiful Mexican maiden. In Rosa's Cantina he kills a rival cowboy, steals a fast horse and flees across the border to New Mexico. Unable to stay away from his loved one, he returns only to encounter some armed mounted cowboys. He sees the white puff of the rifle, feels the bullet going deep into his chest, and dies with a final kiss in the arms of his lover.
At El Paso, the Rio Grande that rises in Colorado and flows the length of New Mexico, takes a sharp bend to the southeast, becoming the international border between the U.S. and Mexico. It is that point, originally known as "Paso del Norte," that is so historically significant.
American history is taught from east to west, as if it began with the early British colonies in Virginia followed by the Pilgrims arriving at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It's easy to forget, and maybe many American students are never taught, that in 1525, a mere 33 years after Columbus arrived in the western hemisphere, Hernando Cortez arrived in 1525, brutally conquering the Aztecs.
In 1598, Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate was the first New Spain explorer to lead an expedition from Mexico to the Paso del Norte of the Rio Grande. He is reputed to have celebrated a mass giving thanks on April 30, 1598, decades before the "first Thanksgiving" celebrated by the Pilgrims.
The Mexican city, Juarez, was founded on the south bank of the Rio Grande in 1659. In 1680 the small village of El Paso became the temporary Spanish capital of the territory of New Mexico when Santa Fe was taken over by the Pueblo Revolt by Native Americans. In 1692 Santa Fe was reconquered by the Spanish and again became the capital of the New Mexico territory.
Both Texas and Mexico vied for control of the old Paso del Norte region. The Compromise of 1850 designated the present Texas-New Mexico boundary, placing El Paso on the Texas side.
During 1857-61, the Butterfield Stage Line secured the U.S. Postal Service contract to deliver mail from St. Louis to California. El Paso was a major stop on the route that continued up to the Mesilla station (now the site of Mesilla's La Posta Restaurant) and on to Tucson and to California. The route ended with the Civil War. Confederates held the area until it was captured by the Union California Column in 1862.
El Paso itself was incorporated in 1873. The population remained small, less than 200 people during the 1870s. With the arrival of two rail lines in 1881, the population boomed to 10,000 by the 1890 census. With the arrival of so many newcomers, the wild boomtown became known as the "Six-Shooter Capital." During World War I, the Department of the Army pressured El Paso authorities to crack down on prostitution and gambling. The city continued to grow, developing into a manufacturing, transportation, and retail center of the Southwest.
Today the U.S. Census Metropolitan Statistical Area of El Paso has a population of nearly 839,000. The Combined Statistical Area including Las Cruces is over 1,000,000. If we include Juarez, across the Rio Grande, there is a combined metropolitan population of over 2.7 million.
El Paso is closer to four other capital cities: Phoenix, Arizona (348 miles); Santa Fe, New Mexico (272 miles); Chihuahua, Mexico (212 miles), Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (327 miles) than it is to its own capital, Austin (525 miles). As the crow flies, the distance between Texarkana, Texas and Chicago is approximately the same as from Texarkana to El Paso.
El Paso, an interesting historic city.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
