Las Cruces, NM
Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico, home to a little over 100,000 people, and is just 40 miles north of the El Paso metropolitan area. It sits on the eastern slopes of the Organ Mountains, overlooking the Mesilla Valley, a large flood plain of the Rio Grande that is now a fertile agricultural area due to irrigation. The primary drivers of the local economy are various government agencies and New Mexico State University.
As I enter the city center I’m a bit puzzled as I’m looking for my Spanish era plaza and adobe buildings, none of which is to be found. Instead I discover the impact of the second most influential factor in the development of the West after access to water, historical access to the railroads. Turns out that the historical center of the valley is not Las Cruces (established as a fort in 1849 and not becoming a city until 1907), but rather the town of Old Mesilla, located at the western base of the mountain slope next to the Rio Grande River. In the picture above Las Cruces is to the left of the freeway, Old Mesilla is just barely visible to the east of the freeway as it turns to the right.
I have to say that I didn’t find Las Cruces particularly interesting. The downtown area is compact and consists almost entirely of banks and government buildings. Two restored theaters from the 1920’s anchor the six block “mall” at the center of town but the pedestrian friendly street is lined with offices and virtually no shopping. Looks like the impact of the third most influential factor in the development of the West, the creation of the federal interstate highway system, also hit here. It’s pretty clear that the city center retail moved east when the interstate (I-25) was built a couple of miles east of the downtown area. I was there around noon on a weekday and Main Street was deserted. This is not “skyscraper” territory, the two buildings that rise above the generally flat skyline are the Wells Fargo Bank building, about 12 stories tall, and the new federal courthouse, a huge modern hulk of a building that is totally out of scale with the rest of the city center. Even the University district wasn’t particularly lively. Maybe it’s the heat… If there’s some great jewels are hiding, I missed them!
I didn’t dawdle long in Las Cruces and headed a couple of miles south to the historical center of the area, Mesilla.
When the Spanish first came to the Mesilla Valley in 1598, the Rio Grande flowed between Old Mesilla and the current city of Las Cruces (the valley was plagued by massive floods until the building of the Elephant Butte Dam across the Rio Grande in 1916 and by then the river had shifted several miles and is now west of Mesilla.) The area remained under Spanish control until 1821 when an independent Mexico claimed ownership. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 found the Mesilla Valley in the hands of the United States. The US Army established a post at present-day Las Cruces, but the town of Mesilla flourished and by 1860 had more than 3,000 residents and was the regional headquarters of the Butterfield Overland Mail and Stage Line, the primary transportation available across the Southwest between the East and California. Mesilla flourished but earned a reputation for being a rough and tumble town. I love this story: In 1871 both Democrats and Republicans decided to have a parade in the plaza on the same day. Each had a band and the famous “Bloody Battle of the Bands” ensued with rampant violence resulting in nine dead and many wounded. Let’s hear it for politics! Mesilla also was a center of life for many famous outlaws of the era. Billy the Kid was tried in the courthouse on the plaza for the murder of Sheriff Brady and was sentenced to be hung, but escaped before the sentence could be carried out. 1881 was the year that the future of the valley was determined when the first railroad reached the area. The landowners around Mesilla refused to sell land to the railroad, while the neighboring settlement of Las Cruces embraced it with open arms. Since Los Cruces was not a crossroads for the railroads, the development of the railroad did not create explosive growth as seen a little further south in El Paso, but Mesilla was eclipsed by the focus on El Paso and entered a period of slow decline. The county seat moved from Mesilla to Las Cruces and Mesilla slumbered on, relatively unchanged.
Mesilla is a world away from time, still centered on the plaza and most of the buildings within the historic district are not “restored”, but have been occupied and since the 1850’s.
The next four pictures are of each side of the plaza, starting with the church on the north and walking around in a clockwise manner. This is the Basilica of San Albino, rebuilt on the original site after a flood in the early 1900’s. Much like the cathedral in Santa Fe, this new, larger church, was built around the old adobe chapel which was then dismantled and carried out through the front doors.
The west side of the plaza is bordered by a number of buildings built in the 1850’s as small businesses and have been in continuous use since then as a succession of businesses operated in the small town. Today these buildings are shops, art galleries, and restaurants.
The south side of the plaza is occupied by the “Transportation Block”, housing a bar, freight and stage line in the late 1850’s. Interestingly enough, in the 1860’s the Bean family acquired the property (one of whom was later Judge Roy Bean, the famous “hanging judge” of west Texas.) The Beans were sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War and their property in Mesilla was confiscated in 1864 for “armed rebellion against the Government of the United States.”
The eastern side of the plaza is anchored by the old county courthouse, now the “Billy The Kid’ gift shop. Built in the early 1850’s, this is the courthouse where Billy the Kid was sentenced to death. The building was used as the courthouse and jail until 1882, when the county seat moved to Las Cruces.
The historical district extends a couple of blocks in all directions from the plaza as people and small business continue to occupy these old homes, most of which were built in the 1850’s and 1860’s.
My day is not over as I still have about 20 miles to go to my home for the week, the El Paso West RV Park in Anthony, New Mexico. Anthony is about half way between Las Cruces and El Paso, so I figure it will be a good base for exploring the neighborhood. Instead of getting back on I-10 and heading to Anthony, I take the old highway, Highway 28, and the surprises continue. The approximately 20 miles between Las Cruces and Anthony is lush, irrigated cropland with the major crops being pecans, chile peppers, and corn. This region is only about 2-3 miles wide along the river bottom with the desert rising on both sides. This picture has pepper fields in the front, then pecan orchards, and Las Cruces in the background.
The orchards are so old and prevalent that for a distance the highway passes under a canopy of pecan trees.
Then, suddenly I turn a corner and my last remaining illusions about the great Rio Grande River are dashed. The river is COMPLETELY dry, simply a sandy scar running across the bottom land.
A little research tells me that the river customarily goes dry above Las Cruces in early fall and will remain dry until spring for over 100 miles the other side of El Paso. Clearly a stark reminder that, despite the green everywhere (primarily due to the heavy rains of this September), this is truly the heart of the desert…
Next up: El Paso and “The Borderlands”
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