Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town in Wikipedia

The new articles about Rodeo are now live at Wikipedia and Wikitravel

Rodeo in Wikipedia

Rodeo in Wikitravel

LSAM's visit the Painted Pony Resort

About a dozen members from the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) spent 10 days at PPR collecting and identifying insects. They were out in the Chiricahuas during the day setting traps and collecting around the sky islands. In the evenings after dinner the light traps were set up and more collecting took place long into the night since different species would arrive at the lights at different times. The light traps brought in thousands of insects and the goal of 10,000 beetles was easily met. Here are links to some of their photos.

Black light trap

Mercury vapor light trap

Tagline, What's in a Name

The most descriptive and informative yet appealing and interesting phase would best describe a useful tagline. Wikipedia describes it as "memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product". Well, Rodeo New Mexico is a small town, a former stop on the El Paso and Southewestern rail line and a ranching center in the San Simon Valley. But like all things it has evolved and changed with time. New businesses start up, new people move to the valley and in keeping with these changes it seems appropriate to create a new phrase that helps focus attention on these changes. "Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town" is just such a phrase. Rodeo is indeed the most western town in New Mexico and lies less than 1 mile from the border with Arizona on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains in the center of the San Simon Valley and as a center for ranching in the valley is undoubtedly a very western town in much of it's population, values, and lifestyle.


An aerial view of Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town, looking north west.

Painted Pony Resort, The Bungalow

The bungalow at the painted pony resort is a spacious 1 bedroom with a custom king sized bed that is 8' square. The closet and bath match the bedroom in size with a raised tub for 2 and a double walk in shower. Not many people have seen this creation from the mind of the former owner, a silicon valley software entrepreneur, who designed the estate, but here is a photosynth of which allows you to navigate through the building giving you a first hand view.

You will need Microsoft's Silverlight to view the photosynth.

Heritage Days in Rodeo New Mexico

Next month a 2 day meeting with talks about the boot heel. Last years event was really good and this years speaker list also looks good.

Introduction

The 1200 square miles of New Mexico's Boot Heel is the most amazing place to live. With an average of about 1 person/square mile there is a lot of open space. The Bootheel lies at the eastern end of the basin and range region in the southwest and covers the San Simon, Animas, Playas, and Hachita Valleys. Essentially, 4 valleys separated by north/south running mountain ranges. As part of the territory acquired by the Gadsen purchase , Hidalgo county which covers the bootheel is the southern most part of New Mexico. The favorite topics of conversation in the bootheel are cattle, border security, cattle, fences, cattle, feed, cattle, and local gossip. This is cattle country and many make their living raising beef. But things are changing, the San Simon valley for instance has a number of amateur astronomers who covet the dark skies in the bootheel. Artists have also discovered the bootheel and several galleries are found in Rodeo. Biologists have known about the area for years and the American Museum of Natural History has maintained a research station in the area for over 50 years and a the new Chiricahua Desert Museum has opened it's doors. Aviation has also reestablished itself in the bootheel with the Amigos del Cielo airpark.

So the bootheel is slowly moving into the 21st century. New people are arriving with a variety of different interests and rubbing shoulders with the long time residents. The goal of this blog is to document these changes and highlight this scenic part of the country.