Silver City, New Mexico and Gila National Forest
Silver City, New Mexico grew at a bustling city for gold and silver discovery in the decade 1870. One of the most famous citizens was Billy the Kid. We know of his reputation of Pat Garrett's book, "The authentic life of Billy the Kid." Pat Garrett was the sheriff who killed Billy. Billy, I feel, has been much maligned. He moved to Silver City as a child in 1873 with his mother and stepfather, William Antrim. Billy mother was ill with tuberculosis and died in 1874. step-father of Billy spent most of his time to extract gold and silver. So Billy was left alone with his brother lower. Like any rebellious child unattended, got into trouble with some petty theft. Sheriff Whitehill wanted to scare him and teach him a lesson. It put in jail. Billy escaped up the chimney. He was very thin, weighing only seventy-five pounds and was constantly bullied. This came to an end at age seventeen years, shooting a blacksmith, who was harassed at a bar in Arizona. Billy returned to New Mexico and became embroiled in the Wars of Lincoln County Range. Here his legend grew.
Silver City is also famous for its Ditch Park. This was the town's main street and was carved by a series of floods from 1895 to 1906. The Silver City Museum has pictures of the devastation caused by this flood. The museum is housed in the former home of HB Ailman, who made his fortune in gold and lost by a bank. (Mmm!) There was no ransom in those days. The museum features permanent and rotating exhibits. It has an extensive research library about Silver City and its mining history.
The rise of Western New Mexico University has a wonderful museum in Fleming Hall at the end of 10th Street. It houses an extensive collection Mimbres pottery and other artifacts. Pottery designs are beautiful, depicting animals and geometric designs. Many of them have holes in the base bowls. The cups are placed on top of the head of a deceased person and a hole was made. This was to allow the spirit of the deceased to leave for the most there. No photos are allowed inside the museum.
Sixty-five miles northwest of Silver City is the city of Glenwood, who frequently visited Butch Cassidy. The important thing is that the city is the gateway to the Gateway National Recreation Trail five miles east on Catwalk 174.The runs through Whitewater Canyon. Miners erected it in 1893 to process gold and silver ore than two miles in the canyon. He built a pipeline to carry water from above in the canyon to the base where he was the crusher. In the first four-inch pipes were adequate. Later, when a larger generator was installed, pipes Eighteen-inch have installed. Some of them are still visible, along with some of the rigging of the pipe.
The area is called the gateway, because men had to walk through the pipes as cats for maintenance. CCC workers in the 1930s built the present bridge and road. The path is 1.1 miles long and takes between one and one and a half to make the round trip. The first half mile is paved with a degree of 0-10%. After the grade increases, with many steps and bridges. The elevation varies from 4923 meters to 5234 in the parking lot down the road. This does not count the effect of the four or five times the path goes to water and rises after thirty to forty feet above. Little children were able to take the track alongside older people like me. If you have knee problems, I recommend you take paved section only.
There is much wildlife along the way: squirrels, birds, squirrels and lizards. You do not see mountain lions, sheep bighorn, fox, and a wild cat who are trying to catch.
A can not miss a stop on the road is the picnic area Aldo Leopold, twenty miles to Silver City. There are beautiful views of the National Gila Desert, which he helped establish.
The next day we went to the other side of the Gila (pronounced He) Mountains Gila cliff dwellings National Monument. We took Route 15 through the Pinos Altos over the Continental Divide and the Gila National Forest. NO, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES PULL an RV on this road. The road is at best a year and a half wide lanes without median lines drawn. There are more turns into a disco floor full on Saturday night. We eighteen white knuckles whole mile. The views, when I could see was spectacular. After twists and turns of way is to rte 35 and becomes more manageable.
At the end of the road are the Gila cliff dwellings national monument, built in forty buildings seven caves than 180 feet over the floor of the ravine.
The tour guide, taking into account each day at noon during the winter season, said more likely it was ceremonial chambers and meeting places for the Mogollon (pronounced Mugg and Yon) around 1270 during a time of severe drought. There are few pictographs in the caves. According to the astro-historians, one of the highlights of the Pleiades on the summer solstice.
A cave was used for the preparation of food: nuts and the floor is old and maize and beans were being processed. The Mogollon were hunters-gatherers and farmers who plant three sisters: corn, beans and squash.
The cave of the day, the kitchen, which form holes in the rock. Stones are heated and put into these holes. Food put in bowls and heated over the fire.
The third cave is more or less closed, but has a window reminiscent of the Anasazi culture. This window is in the form of a cross Tao. No one knows its purpose.
The cave room has the most buildings. Since there were no written records and the site was stripped of most of the artifacts archaeologists before they got there, most of what is known is speculative. Most rooms seem to be used for different ceremonies. Some of them might have been the home for the clan while seeking medical visions and dreams. The cave is the biggest of them all and is quite impressive.
The National Monument is run mainly by volunteers. The superintendent is paid. These volunteers are very knowledgeable and friendly.
They spoke of the pictographs in the Baja Camp Scorpion, who was on the way back to the visitors center. There were three different beautiful drawing with red paint.
The volunteers also said in the National Monument property is found an archaeological site with over three hundred foundations of buildings. These most likely were the homes of people Mogollon instead of the cliff dwellings, which would have been quite indefensible.
We returned to Silver City via Route 35 and 152. We believe that 152 was a road wonderful and we would take it the next day to go to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
In 152 pass by the Santa Rita Copper Mines, near Bayard, New Mexico. These are open-pit mines, which stretch for miles. They are beautiful in their own way.
The next day we took the Route 152 with our caravan. It was a disaster waiting to happen, forty miles of twisting roads that went his way and to Emory Pass at over 8,200 feet. It took us five hours to go fifty miles and almost miss a transmission. I'm happy because it has a thermometer transmission. It saved the day.
About the Author
John and Maggie Pelley are Geriatric Gypsies. Both of us are retired from the rat race of working. We are full-time RVers, who ran away from home. We began our travels on the East Coast and, like the migrating birds, seek the warmth of the seasons. No more shoveling snow in Chicago. We have discovered volunteering with the National Park System. During our travels we have found that each town has a story to tell: some are more interesting than others. Both of us enjoy good listening music as we go. John has a CD he has recorded of Native American flure music. We have learned that RVing has a learning curve. We want to pass on some advice the help others avoid this trecherous curve. Life is an adventure. We are living it to the utmost.
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