Exploring Truth or Consequences - The City

Truth or Consequences (T or C - as the locals call it), New Mexico, has a colorful history.  The city was originally named Hot Springs, NM, after the natural mineral hot springs discovered in the area.  The city actually developed around the hot springs.

In the 1950's, Ralph Edwards, the MC and producer of the radio show "Truth or Consequences" ran a contest to celebrate the show's 10th anniversary.  He wanted to name a city, Truth or Consequences, in honor of the show.  It is said that Hot Springs won the contest because of the unique hot springs and Ralph Edwards also liked that there was a veteran's home located there.  Ralph Edwards and his wife returned every year for over 50 years for the Fiesta Celebration.

The original post office is designated as a historial building.  There is another post office in town as their needs outgrew this building.

The Geronimo Springs Museum was an outstanding museum.  The displays were well done and covered many, many areas of history for the local area.  The museum is located on a historic site where Native Americans and early cowboys came to rest and bathe in the hot mineral water.

There were a number of outside exhibits.  We loved this adobe oven.

The room adjoining the gift shop displays a mastodon and a mammoth skull as well as rocks, fossils and gems also found in the area.

The Apache Room has a life size wax statue of Geronimo and a lot of information about the history of his life.

The Native Indian room has an awesome display of arrowheads.  A local rancher's wife put the arrowheads together in amazing designs with colorful backgrounds.  The pottery display includes artifacts from the Mimbres, Tularosa, Alma and Hohokam tribes.  Other displays included jewelry, tools and effigies.

There were many displays in the museum about the local farmers and ranchers.  Tools, hats and branding irons were just a few.

The Hispanic Heritage Room gives a history of the Hispanic settlers in this area.

The history of Sierra County is well represented in every nook and crannie of this building.

There was a special corner with the history of the post offices of Sierra County.  We spent quite a bit of time reading all about their postal history.  We especially enjoyed the poster about the post office being the hub of the community.  This was certainly true at the post offices where Bill spent his career - Enumclaw, Buckley, Wilkeson, Ashford and Eatonville, WA.  He met and worked with a lot of great people who are still friends.

We visited this local military museum.  We were humbled and awed by the effort behind all the displays.

The uniforms and caps of many branches and eras of the military were everywhere. 

There many historial war items to see.  The button collection was extensive and was amazing in the information that was included in the displays.

The personal displays were really special.  In the one display, there was a plaque that a veteran returning from Vietnam had made for his wife for her devotion to their family and home while he was serving our country.  There were pictures of both the veteran and his wife inlcuded in the display.  Other displays featured veterans from New Mexico

Outside the building, there is a walkway in the shape of the congressional Medal of Honor.  Along this path are monuments representing each conflict the United States has been involved in since 1775 up to and including Afghanistan and Iraq.

This museum has one of a handful of half-scale replicas of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.  The replicas traveled all over our nation and in February 2003, this one made its permanent home in T or C.  The original wall in Washington, D.C. was constructed in 1982 to honor not only the loss but the lives of the 58,420 men and women named on the wall.  We had the honor to see the original wall in Washington, D.C.  in the middle 1980's.  This replica was just as humbling.  A classmate of Teri's, Jeffrey A Schweikl, was the first one from her high school graduation class to lose his life in Vietnam.

The solitary United States flag and the replica of the Statue of the Liberty were solemn displays to honor the freedom of the U.S.

We visited the hot springs district of T or C. 

There are many spas and resorts that have based their business on the healing powers of the mineral hot springs.

We spent an afternoon enjoying a soak in an private pool that included a view of the river at Riverbend Lodging and Hot Springs.  We would repeat this experience.  It was so relaxing and refreshing.

We have really enjoyed our stay in the Elephant Butte and T or C area.  We hope to return.  On April 1st, we left to explore several more states - Oklahoma and Arkansas.