Deming and the City of Rocks

For me, staying in Deming was really all about visiting the City of Rocks State Park, about a half hour away. I've been seeing interesting volcanic rock here and there in the Southwest, but it hasn't seemed very accessible. Finally in this park it looked like I'd be able to get up close and personal with it. I looked at the possibility of camping at the park, but according to the website, the campsites were all booked. So I decided to make a day trip of it. When I got out there, I learned that they only reserve a small fraction of their campsites and if I didn't need an electrical hookup, I'd have no trouble getting a campsite. I thought about returning the next night with all my stuff to camp, but the terrain is a bit difficult for my sore foot (which continues to improve! yay!) with steep parts of the paths covered in crumbly, loose rocks. So I'm filing this info away for next time. The park is lovely and quiet, and many of the campsites are nestled close to and between outcroppings of the rocks. 

Here are some of my favorite views of the park:






Before 1853, the US/Mexico border was at Deming, when the Gadsden Purchase annexed another 30 or so miles to the South, moving the border with it.  In 1881, the Southern Pacific railroad was joined with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad at Deming to complete the second transcontinental railroad in the United States. The  area is rich with Native American pottery artifacts, including a particularly beautiful and sought-after type of pottery known as Mimbres. To see what I'm talking about, check out this link: https://goo.gl/b6E4BG It's also a mining region with many interesting and valuable rocks and minerals. All of that put together gives this little town of about 15,000 residents far more material than the average small town to fill a museum, plus a historic National Guard Armory building to house it.

I'd read good reviews of the museum online, but it's a small town volunteer-run museum... I happen to like museums like that, but really, how good could it be? Turns out, surprisingly good. I wasn't interested in everything they had, and some of the stuff is in less-than-perfect condition, but they've got so much stuff -- there really is something for everyone. Here's a photo I took in the mineral room at the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum:








Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 7, 2018 at 6:48 AM

    What causes those straight lines on the center, in the last photo?

    ReplyDelete

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