An Early map of Arizona and New Mexico

New Mexico's rich history reaches back to 9,000 BCE with evidence of the Clovis culture from Playas Valley.  Inhabited by a range of indigenous peoples, the Spanish eventually colonized the region.  After coming under the control of the United Sates as a result of the Gadsden Purchase in 1854,  New Mexico gained territorial status and eventually statehood on January 6, 1912 becoming the 47th state in the Union, followed by Arizona  on February 14, 1912  as the 48th state.  This 1880 map from David Rumsey map collection shows the original counties of both states.  The Painted Pony Resort lies in the southwestern corner of the state in the original county of Mesilla in the vicinity of the early Mexican settlement of Fronteras.  Mesilla county was eventually divided into Grant, Luna, and Hidalgo counties giving rise to the distribution of counties found in present day New Mexico.

Sunrise in the Bootheel of New Mexico

Winding down from another week of a family reunion at the Painted Pony Resort, but managed to get this photograph of the sunrise through Antelope pass in the Peloncillo Mountains this morning.  Even managed to catch a flock of birds headed south in the frame.  Some early morning monsoon clouds obscuring the sun makes a nice contrast and creates nice shadowing as the sun creeps higher. 

The guests spent most of their time by the pool but some hiking and exploring in the Chiricahua Mountains did happen as well as some target practice and evening fireworks.

Sunrise through Antelope Gap in the Peloncillo Mountains

Topographic Maps of New Mexico

Maps are incredibly useful tools when exploring the bootheel of New Mexico, but finding the right map can be time consuming.  Fortunately there are online resources that can help.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing all have satellite maps available but for hiking a good topographic map is invaluable.  Current topographic maps can be downloaded and viewed from the New Mexico Search and Rescue Resources, but another useful resource are historical topographic maps.

When trying to trace place names, historical topographic maps often have information not found on current maps.  For example, this weeks hike with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club was up a canyon know locally as Mouser Canyon.  But in preparation of the hiking map, photographs, and posts it was necessary to know the correct spelling and that required finding any references to the place name.  If you are new to the area or do not have family that homesteaded in the bootheel, place names can often be confusing especially if the place name is used in a set of directions.  Below are 2 topographic maps, one historical and one current showing the same area around this weeks hike.  Note that the historical topographic map, originally made in 1919 shows Mouser Place in the Animas Valley and a trail headed up to the saddle where the hiking club stopped for lunch.  When the same area on the current topographic map is viewed, Mouser Place does not appear.  Historical topographic maps of New Mexico are available through the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.  

It is also interesting to note that the saddle is also known as Antelope Pass.  Highway 9 just a couple of mines to the north also traverses an Antelope Pass on it's way to Animas New Mexico.  The northern Antelope Pass is a much larger pass through the Peloncillo mountains and the location of the first airfield in the San Simon Valley.

Finally, a useful site to find information concerning landownership, specifically public versus private land is GeoCommunicator.  This government site not only displays information on topographic maps but also on satellite images and is useful in locating appropriate access points to federal land. 

1919 topographic map showing Mouser Place name.

Current topographic map with no place name.

Portal Rodeo Hiking Club in the Peloncillo Mountains

Just got back from the weekly hike. This weeks hike with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club was up Mouser Canyon from behind Rodeo, New Mexico. It started on private land (parking with the permission of the landowner) but moves onto BLM and Forest Service land up the canyon. Below is a 360 panorama made from the top of the saddle. Views across the bootheel past the Animas and Big Hatchet Mountains are possible to the east and the Chiricahua Mountains visible to the west.

Standing Stones in Skeleton Canyon

Skeleton Canyon which straddles the New Mexico Arizona border in the bootheel was one of the most scenic hikes made with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club and the opportunity to post another photograph from the hike was to much to bear. The photographic opportunities in the canyon seemed endless and the hiking easy. Below is an image I captured while climbing a ridge toward the back of the canyon. A series of large volcanic tuff blocks are spaced at regular intervals along the side of the ridge, appear as sentinels guarding the canyon below. They resemble the megalithic standing stones found throughout Europe which was the impetus for the photograph and the soft cloud formations above juxtapose nicely with the angular volcanic tuff blocks.  A map of the hiking route may be found on Google maps.

Standing Stones in Skeleton Canyon

Wikipedia Articles about the Bootheel and Southwestern New Mexico (including Portal AZ)

There are a number of Wikipedia articles on southern New Mexico and the bootheel that are in the process of evolving.  Low level aerial photographs under a creative commons license were added to these articles and the  verbiage edited to create user friendly articles.  After realizing that information on the bootheel and southwestern New Mexico (including Portal AZ) was lacking in Wikipedia I began updating, correcting, and contributing new articles but little did I realize that the effort would require a significant learning curve.  Programing is not my forte and I have made more than one mistake, fortunately others with more experience have stepped in and corrected my errors resulting in some nice additions and updates to Wikipedia.

Animas Valley

Animas Mountains

Animas, New Mexico

Hidalgo County, New Mexico

New Mexico Bootheel

Peloncillo Mountains, Hidalgo county

Rodeo, New Mexico

Skeleton Canyon

Chiricahua Mountains

Portal, Arizona

U.S. Route 80

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.