There is a cool little church in Kelly (St. John the Baptist), though, and I understand that they still have services there occasionally.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Church at Kelly, New Mexico
Three miles south of Magdalena, NM up in the mountains, is the ghost town of Kelly, NM, which was a coal mining town in the late 1800s till the mid-1900s. Kelly once had a population of 3,000 people but now is completely abandoned and you cannot drive back into the mine area. I have read that when the mine closed and Kelly declined, so did the town of Magdalena.
There is a cool little church in Kelly (St. John the Baptist), though, and I understand that they still have services there occasionally.
There is a cool little church in Kelly (St. John the Baptist), though, and I understand that they still have services there occasionally.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Magdalena, New Mexico
We went through Magdalena, NM ten days ago during our visit to the Socorro area.
Magdalena is 24 miles west of Socorro at 6573' elevation, in the midst of some pretty desolate country, but also very pretty terrain in the area. The mountains there are especially scenic.
I guess Magdalena has been through some hard times and it looks like they are trying to recover. The population for 2007 was listed as 859, down a little bit since the 2000 census. The town looks very poor and rundown, and yet there are some newer art and craft stores, so it appears there are people opening businesses there and probably hoping the town will grow.
Magdalena is 24 miles west of Socorro at 6573' elevation, in the midst of some pretty desolate country, but also very pretty terrain in the area. The mountains there are especially scenic.
I guess Magdalena has been through some hard times and it looks like they are trying to recover. The population for 2007 was listed as 859, down a little bit since the 2000 census. The town looks very poor and rundown, and yet there are some newer art and craft stores, so it appears there are people opening businesses there and probably hoping the town will grow.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Two Days till Tax Day
JUST TWO DAYS TO GO UNTIL TAX DAY, APRIL 15, 2009.
Here in Santa Fe, we are working on the preparations for our city's TEA PARTY:
Wednesday, April 15
At the Plaza
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
In support of smaller government, capitalism, less spending, no more bailouts, no more pork, no more earmarks, no new taxes, NO SOCIALISM!
We are expecting a huge turnout that will make a statement from the grassroots.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
The Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge is located 15 miles south of San Antonio, New Mexico, in a preserve of 57,191 acres along the Rio Grande. It is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are miles of marshes and wetlands, as well as manmade canals which divert the water. It’s really something to see -- an oasis in the desert of central New Mexico with the Chupadera Mountains on the west and the San Pascual Mountains on the east.
The name means “woods of the Apache” and it is said the name comes from the times when the Spaniards observed Apache Indians camped in the area.
Tens of thousands of birds--including sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks--gather each autumn and stay through the winter.
We visited last weekend. There is a very nice visitor center and compound, and you can drive the circuit around the refuge looking for wildlife throughout the bosque, stopping at observation points and taking pictures. Most of the migratory birds had already left when we visited, but we saw many kinds of small ducks and birds, some egrets and geese … and even a skunk meandering along the bank at one of the marshes.
We are looking forward to a trip back when the wildlife population has returned in the fall.
The name means “woods of the Apache” and it is said the name comes from the times when the Spaniards observed Apache Indians camped in the area.
Tens of thousands of birds--including sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks--gather each autumn and stay through the winter.
We visited last weekend. There is a very nice visitor center and compound, and you can drive the circuit around the refuge looking for wildlife throughout the bosque, stopping at observation points and taking pictures. Most of the migratory birds had already left when we visited, but we saw many kinds of small ducks and birds, some egrets and geese … and even a skunk meandering along the bank at one of the marshes.
We are looking forward to a trip back when the wildlife population has returned in the fall.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Very Large Array
The Plains of San Agustin lie about 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico between the small towns of Magdalena and Datil.
The area is a vast area of desert, ringed by mountains in the distance. It's immense and wild .... but then ....
As you enter the plains, you can see the 27 radio antennas in the distance, and as you get closer it is an astounding sight to see! To me it was surreal, seeing all these huge antennas pointed at the sky. (I felt like I was viewing a scene from X-Files or the movie Contact.) To see all this super-technology way out in the middle of nowhere is just an amazing sight.
The Very Large Array (VLA) is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 27 antennas are arranged in a gigantic Y formation, and the images from all of them are combined into one huge picture of galaxies, stars, quasars and other events in space. I don't understand all of it, but I understand more than I did before I visited the visitor center last Saturday, when the NRAO was hosting an open house at the facility.
The Very Large Array -- just another one of New Mexico's interesting sights and relatively unknown treasures.
The area is a vast area of desert, ringed by mountains in the distance. It's immense and wild .... but then ....
As you enter the plains, you can see the 27 radio antennas in the distance, and as you get closer it is an astounding sight to see! To me it was surreal, seeing all these huge antennas pointed at the sky. (I felt like I was viewing a scene from X-Files or the movie Contact.) To see all this super-technology way out in the middle of nowhere is just an amazing sight.
The Very Large Array (VLA) is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 27 antennas are arranged in a gigantic Y formation, and the images from all of them are combined into one huge picture of galaxies, stars, quasars and other events in space. I don't understand all of it, but I understand more than I did before I visited the visitor center last Saturday, when the NRAO was hosting an open house at the facility.
The Very Large Array -- just another one of New Mexico's interesting sights and relatively unknown treasures.
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Owl vs. The Buckhorn
The official State Question for New Mexico is "Red or Green?"
BUT .. in the tiny town of San Antonio, NM, just south of Socorro, the unofficial question for the state is "The Owl Cafe or the Buckhorn Tavern"?
There is not a whole lot in San Antonio, but the dueling green chile cheeseburger restaurants, located just across the street from one another, and in existence since the 1940s, have raised a whole controversy among New Mexicans over which has the BEST green chile cheesburger in town.
I do not have the answer to that because we have not been to both places, only one. And our choice was completely arbitrary -- we chose the one with fewer cars in the parking lot last Saturday morning just before noon, because we thought we could get a seat faster.
We went to Manny's Buckhorn Tavern. It's a very small place, nothing fancy for sure(!) and we got a seat right away, but people who arrived after us had a bit of a wait. Service was not very fast, but it was fun to look around the place - the decor is kind of "tacky Southwest". But the green chile cheeseburgers were well worth the wait -- they were juicy and loaded with green chile, cheese, tomatoes, onions and lettuce. The green chile was spicy -- I would have liked to have had more on my burger. The french fries were REAL fries -- and were hot and crispy. We have to give the place four thumbs up.
The Owl Cafe? That will be for our next visit to town.
(The picture of the Buckhorn green chile cheeseburger was "borrowed" from Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog site. )
BUT .. in the tiny town of San Antonio, NM, just south of Socorro, the unofficial question for the state is "The Owl Cafe or the Buckhorn Tavern"?
There is not a whole lot in San Antonio, but the dueling green chile cheeseburger restaurants, located just across the street from one another, and in existence since the 1940s, have raised a whole controversy among New Mexicans over which has the BEST green chile cheesburger in town.
I do not have the answer to that because we have not been to both places, only one. And our choice was completely arbitrary -- we chose the one with fewer cars in the parking lot last Saturday morning just before noon, because we thought we could get a seat faster.
We went to Manny's Buckhorn Tavern. It's a very small place, nothing fancy for sure(!) and we got a seat right away, but people who arrived after us had a bit of a wait. Service was not very fast, but it was fun to look around the place - the decor is kind of "tacky Southwest". But the green chile cheeseburgers were well worth the wait -- they were juicy and loaded with green chile, cheese, tomatoes, onions and lettuce. The green chile was spicy -- I would have liked to have had more on my burger. The french fries were REAL fries -- and were hot and crispy. We have to give the place four thumbs up.
The Owl Cafe? That will be for our next visit to town.
(The picture of the Buckhorn green chile cheeseburger was "borrowed" from Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog site. )
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range
July 16, 1945.
It was a day that changed our world forever.
And it happened in New Mexico.
On that date at 5:30 in the morning, the first atomic bomb was tested in a remote location out in the desert in central New Mexico in what is now the White Sands Missile Range. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Trinity Site is located approximately 30 miles from San Antonio, NM to the northwest and 85 miles from Alamogordo to the southeast.
Trinity Site is open to visitors the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. John and I went to the open house last Saturday. Visitors are allowed to see Ground Zero and also the Schmidt/MacDonald ranch house two miles away where the bomb’s plutonium core was assembled.
It’s a rather eerie feeling, standing out there at a site bordered by the vast desert on one side, and beautiful mountain ranges to the east and south … and wonder at what the men of the Trinity test must have thought and felt as they witnessed what they had wrought upon the earth.
“The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun.”
~Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell
The Schmidt/MacDonald ranch house:
It was a day that changed our world forever.
And it happened in New Mexico.
On that date at 5:30 in the morning, the first atomic bomb was tested in a remote location out in the desert in central New Mexico in what is now the White Sands Missile Range. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Trinity Site is located approximately 30 miles from San Antonio, NM to the northwest and 85 miles from Alamogordo to the southeast.
Trinity Site is open to visitors the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. John and I went to the open house last Saturday. Visitors are allowed to see Ground Zero and also the Schmidt/MacDonald ranch house two miles away where the bomb’s plutonium core was assembled.
It’s a rather eerie feeling, standing out there at a site bordered by the vast desert on one side, and beautiful mountain ranges to the east and south … and wonder at what the men of the Trinity test must have thought and felt as they witnessed what they had wrought upon the earth.
“The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun.”
~Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell
The Schmidt/MacDonald ranch house:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)