Find of the Day

The Painted Pony Resort is bounded on the north and east by New Mexico State land and with state land also comes grazing leases and cattle.  New Mexico is a "fence out" state and requires land owners to protect their property with fences, see Article 16. Fences.  The rational for "fence out" as opposed to the English common law approach of "fence in" may be found at this link.  To ensure cattle stay off the property requires fence, gate, and cattle guard maintenance on an regular basis.   An afternoon of walking fence line between the east side of the San Simon Riverbed across the Painted Pony Resort to Amigos del Cielo air park checking for downed and broken fence resulted in the following surface find.  A nice 2 inch stemmed projectile point of a fine grained black material.  Eroded out of the ground it was not found in association with other materials making dating difficult.

Stemmed projectile point

Only 2 areas of weak/partially downed fence line were discovered on the adjacent land to the east.  Cattle had pushed down the fence line and crossed from State land onto private property to the south.  All the fence line surrounding the Painted Pony Resort was in good condition but cattle have been congregating outside the gate on several occasions seeking access.  Adding cable wings to the gate and cattle guard along with several hundred feet of fence line on the other side of the road (to take advantage of cattle propensity to walk fence line) deflects them back south and away from the entrance to the property.  The combination seems to have worked and the gate can remain open for guests and deliveries.