Socorro

The city of Socorro – the Spanish word for succor or assistance – is 75 miles south of Albuquerque, in the fertile Rio Grande valley. When Spanish colonists traveling north through the area under the leadership of Don Juan de Oñate arrived at the Pueblo village called Teypana, they were welcomed by the Indians and given a large gift of corn. The grateful immigrants bestowed the name of Socorro on the place. The town is the county seat of Socorro County, the third largest in New Mexico. It not only serves a wide ranging agricultural and ranching community, it is also the home of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, widely-known as New Mexico Tech.  The Socorro Heritage and Visitor Center's mission is to preserve, display and maintain the heritage of Socorro.  The Visitor Center is housed in the City Water Commission building.  It was built between 1913 and 1930 and was later used for the Police Department.  It was built of coursed, ashlar stones.  The host at the Visitor was very friendly and helpful.

As we drove into Socorro, we passed the San Miguel Church that was completed in 1821 and the community of Socorro was built around it.  The original dwellings and structures have thick adobe walls, flat roofs and mud floors with only a few small windows and short doors.  These small openings provided security from Indian attacks. 

It was a very beautiful, sunny day so we embarked on the walking tour of Socorro.  The Plaza is the focal point of town so the tour began at the Plaza.

The first picture is the Juan Jose Baca House built around 1870.  The two-story end of the dwelling was used for a general merchandise store.  Mr. Baca was also a rancher and a politician.  The Lupe Torres House (second picture) was originally two dwellings built around 1898 and later joined together.  The third picture is the A. B. Baca house that was built in 1910.  It was the first house to show the use of the Emborregado style of plastering in Socorro.  The Emborregado style of plastering is a special technique that smooths the squared corners and gives the panels a "woolly"looking texture.  Last picture is the Church of Epiphany.  It was built between 1886 and 1898 and is an adobe building in a simplified Gothic Revival style.

Pictured first in this group is the Jesus Maria Torres House which is a square adobe house with a hipped roof of corrugated metal that was built after 1913.  The turned columns on the front porch are the highlight for this house.  The bell was placed in front of the current fire station which was located across the street from the Visitor Center.  The third picture is the Fortune Property and is the oldest structure in existence on the southern side of the Plaza.  Others were destroyed by fire. Patrick and Theresa Fortune were originally from Ireland and were stationed in New Mexico and decided to stay.  The last picture of this group is the Abeytia Block.  This building was built in 1880 and housed the Hilton Drugstore and the Masonic Lodge.  The drugstore was founded by a relative of Conrad Hilton.  It is know for being the oldest operating drugstore in the state.  It was remodeled in the 1930's.  The drugstore is now the Socorro County Chamber of Commerce.

The Capitol Bar is the only drinking establishment still in existence from the mining boom era.  Giovanni Biavaschi, a native of Italy, built the business and sold wine from his own vineyard.  The second picture on the Torres Building was the mercantile block in 1886.  It was once several different business in separate one and two story buildings that sold a variety of items from hardware to groceries.  The buildings have been joined together and stuccoed over.  In the last picture is the Knights of Pythias Hall - a building built in the 1880's.  A metal cornice separates the first and second floors and there are pressed metal hood moldings on the second story windows.  A metal bracketed cornice crowns the front.  The building appears unaltered and the lettering the walls are K of P Hall and Owl Cigar are still visible.

 An interesting display at the end of our walk!!  This piece of steel was a fragment from an explosion in 1945 of the first nuclear device at the Trinity Site which is 35 miles SE of Socorro.  It was fortunate that the fragment landed with no damage or injuries.  The walking tour was a great way to see the historical buildings in this area.  The printed guide was helpful with a lot of information.

Magdalena and Kelly

The Santa Fe Depot building in Magdalena is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings and currently serves as the Village Library.  It was built in 1915 and is Santa Fe Railroad's Standard Frame Depot #3.  The last run for this line was in 1973.  The Boxcar Museum contains many local artifacts and is generally open to the public.  Unfortunately, it wasn't opened the day we were traveling in this area.  The librarian let us roam about the library which hasn't changed much since its use as a depot.  The old timbers were carved with names, dates, etc. 

Magdalena was the scene of a lot of rodeo history.  Many of the old-time rodeo performers appeared there.  Today, roping competitions, livestock judging and the annual Old Timer's Reunion and Rodeo are held at the rodeo grounds.

Magdalena was the "End of the Trail" for the cattle and sheep drives which came from as far as eastern Arizona.  The Magdalena Livestock Driveway ranked in importance with the famous Chisholm and Goodnight Trails and outlasted them by dozens of years. 

Train engineers were instructed to never blow the whistle while cattle were present in the corrals in order to prevent a stampede but it did happen occasionally.  The last cattle drive came into Magdalena in 1970.  The last cattle shipped out through these pens by truck in 1973.  The train rail bed became unstable and was removed in 1981.  The corrals look worn but they are a long way from falling apart.  Interesting history about the cattle drives. 

Lead, zinc, silver, copper and some gold were mined in Kelly, NM.  Because there were so many precious minerals, Kelly lasted a long time for a mining town - 1866 to 1945 - when the post office was closed.  At it biggest, the town had 7 saloons and 2 each of hotels, dance halls and churches.  Ore wagons pulled by horses or mules hauled the ore to Magdalena to be loaded on rail cars to be delivered to the smelter in Socorro.

Over its long history, Kelly produced more than $28.4 million worth of ore.  It is deserted now - a few rock foundations, some walls, a mine super-structure - are just remnants of its colorful history of Indian attacks and gun fights between the miners and cattlemen of Magdalena.

Exploring and Fun in NM

Sometimes we just go for a drive and are surprised to find interesting things.  We came across this section of the Camino Real del Tierra Adento, the Royal Road to the Interior (see post on El Camino Real International Heritage Center for more about this historical road) as we traveled the back roads of New Mexico.

Also, discovered Spaceport America located on 27 square miles in southern New Mexico.  This spaceport, Virgin Galatic, is a private enterprise owned by Richard Branson (yep -  Virgin Mobile, Virgin Air and Virgin Records).  It is the world's first commercial spaceport.  It's a fascinating story and you can find more information about it on the Internet.

Bill enjoyed the fishing in New Mexico so much in 2011 that he wanted to come back to try it again.  This was Bill and Pete's first evening fishing and they didn't catch a fish but it's only the first day of many.

Hee Hee!!!!!!

We had fun doing some geocaching.  Geocaching is a treasure hunting game where you use your GPS to hide and seek containers with other participants.  This activity is done all over the world and there are even some traveling bugs which move from place to place.  We have done this with our family for a few years now and we wanted Pete and Suzy to see what it was like.  The first day we found 3 or 4 different caches.  All you have to do is go to the website - geocaching.com - to get the information.  This activity was super easy with Suzy's iPhone.  We just went to the website which picks up the geocaches near your location and then you follow the directions. 

 St. Patrick's Day dinner at the Elephant Butte Inn.  The RV park and restaurant are owned by the same person and everyone staying in the RV park was treated to a a very delicious corned beef and cabbage buffet.  The waiter was super friendly and made the evening a lot of fun.

Fun in the sun???  That's why we came to New Mexico.  This is pretty unusual for March.  We took pictures of this snow because we couldn't believe it ourselves.

We have been fortunate to meet some really nice people in our travels.  Shown here with Pete and Bill is Rocky Vendrely from Silver City, NM.  He and his wife, Reggie, were staying in the same RV park and Bill asked how the fishing was going.  He took Bill and Pete out fishing in his boat which was a real treat for them.  They caught mostly white bass and we all had a fish fry.  

Monticello

Monticello, NM, (originally named Canada Alamosa meaning canyon of the cottonwoods) was settled by ranchers and farmers in 1856.  More than 1,000 families lived in Monticello Canyon (Monticello and Placita) during its peak.  Now fewer than 100 families live in this area - many of them descendants of original settlers and ranchers.

Pictured here is Old Monticello Organic Farms.  They grow organic, traditional Roman grapes to make a rare balsamic vinegar that is aged in wooden casks for a minimum of 12 years.  No one was available to give us a tour or anything but our search on the Internet told us the vinegar was "out of our network."

Many of the towns original buildings including a school house, a dance hall and several homes still stand.  San Ignacio Catholic Church still stands on the plaza and was built in 1908.