In
1912 New Mexico was awarded statehood, becoming the country’s 47th
state.
In
1907 Las Cruces, “The City of Crosses” was officially incorporated as a
town.
As we entered the city of
Las Cruces we noticed a roadside oddity; a roadrunner on top of a hill
overlooking the city. Beep Beep. We had to get a closer look at it.
This
sculpture was created in the early '90s by Olin Calk and Dan Smith as part of a
recycling education program. Its home
was the city land fill. In late 1990’s, it
was taken back to Olin’s home for refurbishing due to the elements and
vandalism. It stayed at his farm for
over 2 years. Its final home is a rest
stop that overlooks the city of Las Cruces.
This 20 foot tall and 40 feet wide bird is made from recycled materials;
a hodge-podge of American culture: a child's tap shoe, a small plastic lizard,
the remnant of a plastic rocking horse, a golf club, a bowling trophy. The eyes
are made from two Volkswagen headlights. A slew of used and dissected sneakers
give the roadrunner's chest and belly a feather-like appearance.
Artist Olin Calk
Calk's son, Cameron, placed a pair of ruby red shoes inside
the roadrunner — symbolic of the roadrunner's heart — and scrawled some Wizard
of Oz-inspired words. "He wrote
with a marker somewhere in the chest something like: “Tap your heels together
three times. There's no place like home“. The sentences held personal meaning
for his son, who grew up in the Mesilla Valley and was about to move away.
We
have never been to Las Cruces and decided to make this one stop in
southern New Mexico to check it out. We
spent 3 nights here exploring the town and spent some time relaxing and catching
up with paper work. We had our mail
forwarded here, almost a month’s worth.
We got two Nexflix DVDs, 3 People magazines (gotta keep up with People
chatter), bills (of course) and a rebate check and a dividend check ($$). All important stuff, yeah!
March 31 – April 2: We stayed at the Hacienda RV Park. This is an
over 55 RV park, so it was fairly quiet, except for all the air conditioners
going. It was pretty warm here during
our stay. We had a good strong WiFi
signal, so I was able to get a lot of work done on the BLOG.
FARMER’s and
CRAFT MARKET
We
discovered that there is a farmers market on Main Street every Wednesday and
Saturday. The brochure showed a map that
was 3 blocks long. When we got there it
was only 1 block and spread out on that block...maybe ten booths. One was fruit and veggies, the rest were
colorful Mexican crafts. Probably the
Saturday market is 3 blocks long. We
walked the block and checked out the booths.
In
the same area we also tried to visit the Branigan Cultural Center and the
Museum of Art. The Cultural Center was
closed due to changing exhibits. The
Museum of Art was partially closed due to changing exhibits. They recommended we visit the museums at the
University of New Mexico.
UNIVERSITY
OF NEW MEXICO MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
The
University of New Mexico is a really big campus, several blocks long. The Art Museum was only one room in the Art
Hall. It had juried student’s art work. Some very strange stuff.
The
Museum, in another Hall was very interesting.
It had a lot of artifacts from southwestern Indian tribes, Apache, Hopi
and several others. A small room was
lined with glass shelves full of pottery and pottery pieces from tribes from all over the
Americas; North and South. It was all
very interesting. Unfortunately no
pictures were allowed in this museum.
HISTORIC MESILLA
Las Cruces' neighbor, Mesilla had its official beginning around 1848 when some residents of a nearby community became part of the United States. These residents elected to move the town in order to retain Mexican citizenship. But in 1854 the Gadsden Purchase transferred nearly 30,000 square miles west of the Rio Grande River to the United States. When Mesilla became a major stage stop in 1858, it became the largest town in southern New Mexico Territory (which included Arizona).
We visited the Mesilla Plaza, the state monument. The buildings surrounding the plaza have been restored to their 19th century appearance. These buildings now house unique shops, businesses and restaurants.
We had a tasty Mexican lunch at La Posta de la Mesilla located in a 150 year old building that once sheltered and fed Billy the Kid, Kit Carson and Pancho Villa.
ST.CLAIR WINERY
There are vineyards and wineries with tasting in this area. We did not do any wine tasting, but we did have a very nice lunch on the patio at St. Clair Winery and Bistro.
Next stop; Texas to visit Big Bend National Park!
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