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.

Another Good Day of Fishing!!!

This was the beginning of a good day of fishing!!!

Here's the stringer of 6 white bass.  There were 6 fish when I took this picture and by the time the day was over, there were 8 white bass and 1 spotted bass.

A few clouds gathered over the mountains but they passed by without dropping any rain.  The locals say rain is really needed.  There have already been a number of wildfires in New Mexico.

A Day Trip to Cuchillo, Winston and Chloride, New Mexico

Today is Jason's birthday. Happy Birthday, son.  This picture was taken during a successful Wyoming hunting trip.

Shortly after leaving Elephant Butte for a day of exploring, we went by the T or C Municipal Airport.  They have this Air Force plane on display by the entrance to the airport.

As we headed to the mountains, we passed through an area of large cattle ranches.  We thought the spurs on these mail boxes were great.

There is a lot of open range areas in this part of NM.  The red calf was behind a fence but he was curious about us taking a picture of him.

The first small town we saw as we drove on Hwy 52 toward the mountains was Cuchillo.  It is now a small village with some farms and ranches.  During the mining boom of the 1880's and 1890's, it was a stage stop used to deliver goods to the mining towns of Winston and Chloride.  The San Jose Mission is the only maintained building left from that era.

We passed through this area of the Sierra Cuchillo mountain range, a part of the Black Range.   There are lot of pinion (pinyon) pine trees.  You could see forever.

The town of Winston was founded in the early 1880s by miners who found Chloride "too rowdy".  The two towns are only several miles apart.  Once named Fairview, its name was changed in honor of Frank H. Winston, a local miner, businessman and legislator.  Today its a rundown rural community.

Just a reminder that these towns are in a remote area of New Mexico.

After a beautiful drive, we arrive at Chloride. It's a historic mining town that got its start in the late 1870's when muleskinner, Harry Pye, found silver while passing through the area when hauling freight for the army.  The town  was orginally known as Pyetown, then Bromide and then became Chloride after the type of silver that was mined in the area.

All the property in Chloride is now privately owned.  Don and Dona Edmund have purchased many of the old buildings and have restored or are restoring them.This building was built as the Monte Cristo Saloon and Dance Hall as well as a schoolhouse and headquarters for various mining companies.  It is now a gift shop and gallery featuring only local artists.  The ceiling fan is the original fan.

 

The Grafton Cabin is a two-story log building moved to Chloride in 2005 as part of the museum.  It was originally built in a mining camp called Grafton that was about 10 miles NW of Winston.

The restored cabin of Harry Pye.  Pye had kept his secret of finding silver secret until his army contract expired.  He returned with several other prospectors to stake a claim.  Within a few months, the Pye party was attacked by Indians and Pye was killed.

Two necessities - an outhouse and a satellite dish.

Two of the buildings currently being restored.  The adobe cabin was a miner's cabin.  The stone building was originally built as a bank but failed before opening.  Instead, it was opened as a saloon.  It was the ninth saloon in Chloride.

The Pioneer Store Museum was originally opened in 1880 as a company store until it closed in 1897.  In 1908, the building was bought by another mining company and used as a commissary for their crews.  In 1923, the commissary went out of business.  The owners boarded up the doors and windows leaving all the furniture and merchandise.  Don and Dona have spent many years cleaning out the rat and bat droppings but nothing had been disturbed in almost 70 years.  They have done an amazing job of displaying these collections and are the ultimate hosts and tour guides.

The museum is a treasure of artifacts from the era when Chloride was a booming mining town.  We have included a slide show on our blog of all the pictures taken while we toured the museum.

Bill never worked behind bars but he did sort mail in separations similar to these.

Stories passed through generations call this the The Hanging Tree".  However, no one can say for sure that anyone was actually hung from this tree.  It's believed it was used to chain up drunks to get sober because it was too far to haul them to jail.

There are only 9 residents in this old mining town that was once a community of 3000 residents, 9 saloons, 3 general stores, 2 hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, assay offices, a stage line and a Chinese laundry. 

Fishing Update!!!!

The first fish caught in New Mexico!!!  A white bass caught in Elephant Butte Lake.

The second, bigger fish.

Here's the day's catch.  Yeah, it's getting dark.  We'll have a couple nice meals of fresh fish.