February 21, 2005

February 21, 2005

Truth Or Consequences, Cuchillo, Winston, Chloride, & Elephant Butte, New Mexico

DAY 248

 

Today was a nice, sunny, warm day.

This morning I unhitched the truck from the trailer, then did some more catching up on maintenance, including finishing the roof repair.

We spent the day exploring local "ghost towns". We drove about 42 miles up into the mountains, up and down and around and over them, to visit three ghost towns. The road we followed was a stage coach route about 125 years ago. It's easy to imagine riding a stage coach through this "old west" environment. We really like New Mexico, more so than Texas, which in some ways was a bit of a disappointment.

We started right after lunch by driving a couple of miles into Truth Or Consequences to fill up with diesel, and to check out a local RV Park that is one of the nine private establishments that has access to the local hot springs. Truth Or Consequences has been a local hot springs / spa retreat area since 1920. The hot springs only bubble up in 9 locations, and private establishments have existed over all of them since 1920. We were contemplating spending a night at the RV Park with the hot spring tubs, but after seeing the seediness of the place, and considering the price, we decided not to.

Out of town, we found the old road up into the hills. First ghost town, about 14 miles up the road, was Cuchillo. It was founded in the 1850's, and there's not much there today except for a chile farm, and a pecan grove and business. We stopped at the pecan shop, and while Joanne bought a pecan pie and some chocolate coated pecans, I went out back to see the pecan grove. Next town on the road was Winston. It was a decrepit old village with a bunch of old, deserted mobile homes scattered amongst the ruins of buildings from the late 1800's. But it did have a great old General Store that is still operating, looking pretty much the same as it has for many decades. The last, and best, was the town of Chloride.

Chloride started in 1879 when silver was found nearby. A mining town of almost 3000 sprung up within 2 years. The mine, and the town, pretty much died in 1896, when the U.S. Government declared gold to be the standard of monetary measurement. After the mine and the town died, eleven families remained, and the town is now inhabited by a few of their descendants. The town's current population is eleven people. What was once the town's general store has been slowly converted to a private museum. The old general store and some nearby buildings from the 1880's are on a piece of land that was purchased by a visiting New York couple in 1976. They moved to the town in 1995, and opened up the general store building which had been closed and locked since 1923 ! They found the inside of the store to be exactly the way it had been when abandoned 72 years earlier, records and merchandise intact ! They have spent ten years cleaning and restoring, and have turned it into a private museum. It was quite impressive. After seeing inside the general store, we wandered around the area looking at 1880's / 1890's buildings. In the centre of town is the "hanging tree". SHEESH ! As were driving out of town, we decided on impulse to go see the town cemetery. It was amazing ! The graves from 100 to 125 years ago are unmarked mounds of rocks. The cemetery is on a hill overlooking town. To get up there, I had to shift Dee-Dee into 4 x 4 mode, and drive up a narrow, steep trail that at one point is crossed by a shallow, swift moving stream. This was the second time today that we came to a spot where a “crick” crosses the road. A few miles before we got to Chloride we had to drive across a swift flowing stream, or “crick” as they’re called here, as it flows across the road. There are many arroyos here, which are dry creek beds, that only carry water when it rains and the rain water is rapidly flowing down out of the mountains. It has been raining around here lately, so the arroyos are filled with water, turning them into “cricks”. The arroyos are dry so much of the time, that the roads over them are built without culverts, so when the “cricks” run, they just flow over the road. The lady that owns the museum in Chloride said that the road continues on from Chloride, but she discouraged going any further. The road is crossed by “cricks” 118 times in the 11 miles of road beyond Chloride, and already today, a local resident broke an axle on his truck driving up that section.

When I see how necessary four wheel drive vehicles are to the people living in these kinds of areas, it makes me laugh to think about how many spotlessly clean 4 x 4 SUV’s owned by urbanites have never felt anything other than asphalt under their tires.

We left Chloride as the sun set, so by the time we got back to civilization it was dark. As we drove down out of the mountains, we had to stop to let 4 Mule Deer cross the road in front of us. We stopped at a small restaurant in the town of Elephant Butte, and bought some take home fried chicken, slaw, and beans. MMMM-MMMM !

DSK