Travels with Twinkles: Socorro, New Mexico

November 1 - 2, 2017:

A short hop today of about 80 miles to Socorro, New Mexico mostly on I-25 south. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive with mountain views on one side and the Rio Grande valley on the other. We arrive at Casey’s RV Park about noon, get set up and then take a ride to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge outside of San Antonio, New Mexico. The Sandhill Cranes, the Snow Geese and many varieties of ducks are now arriving. We drove around the Tour Loop road and with the blue sky and the golden foliage of the Cottonwood Trees it was beautiful. Many areas of the road are presently closed for grass cutting in preparation of the arrival of the Sandhill Cranes. We saw a good number of snow geese, sandhill Cranes and ducks although the migration period is ongoing. The world renown Festival of the Cranes takes place in about two weeks so the arrival of adittional flocks of Cranes are anticipated daily.

http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/festival-of-the-cranes.aspx

Taken from a rest area off !-25

Sandhill Cranes are amazing long distance flyers

The terrain at the wildlife refuge is well maintained for the birds arrival

They come by the thousands here

They are huge birds when you see them up close

The Snow Geese are also long distance flyers

In the evening I go to the Socorro Plaza to the "Capital Bar" which is a wonderfully restored Saloon originally built in 1896. At one time it was owned by Amos Green, the justice of the peace, who held court in the bar and jailed the guilty in a back room. The present owner has done a great job and there was a lively crowd on hand, of course it also was the final game of the World Series.

The Socorro Square is a must see place when in this area with its beautiful pathway with tiled historical signs and a great wheel of history monument. You also don’t want to miss the Socorro County Courthouse, the old Garcia Opera House and the San Miguel de Socorro Church in the vicinity.

Socorro is a very old town that claims to have been established in 1598 when Juan de Ornate led a group of Spanish settlers across the "Jornada de Muerto" (Desert terrain) that ends just south of Socorro. As they emerged from the desert a pueblo of Pima Indians gave them food and water. The Spainards named the the place "Pueblo Socorro" meaning "help" of "aid". The Spaniards established a mission to convert the friendly Indians, but then with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 the Spaniards were evicted. The Spaniards did not return to resettle the area again until 1815. Socorro seems to have become an official town in 1816 with a Spanish Land Grant. Shortly afterwards in 1821 when Mexico won independence it then became Mexican territory. Then with the Mexican- American War it became US territory 1846. A very complex history indeed ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro,_New_Mexico

https://www.newmexico.org/listing/capitol-bar/2613/

The Capital Bar

The Socorro Plaza is a beauty

Elfego Baca who at age 19 held over 50 angry cattlemen at bay
while trapped in a cabin for several days. He went on to become
Sheriff of Socorro County, a District Attorney, Mayor of Socorro
and a US Marshall

The Juan Nepomuceno Baca house, parts of which may
date back to 1816

The circle of history monument

There is much more to see in Socorro than the old historic square.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Socorro

A field of hot peppers

We do a hike on the Socorro Valley Bosque Trail at
the Socorro Nature Center

The beautiful San Mission Church which recently celebrated 400 years, but I'm not
exactly buying that claim. It seems that this is a newer structure built on the same site that
incorporated a portion of the original mission adobe walls.

The historic Garcia Opera House

You also can’t miss the town of San Antonio and must stop in either the Owl Tavern or the Buckhorn Tavern (or both) for a green chili cheeseburger. They are almost across the street from one another and have both been featured in many publications. The Buckhorn won a Food Network - Chef Bobby Flay throwback competition in 2009 for the best green chili cheeseburger. San Antonio in past years was a much more prominent town with a railroad station and Harvey House restaurant. Except for the two “world famous ”burger joints” there isn’t much else going on in San Antonio these days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio,_New_Mexico

Buckhorn Tavern

The Owl Bar & Cafe a few hundred feet away offers much competition

We take a ride on route 60 about 20 miles away to the town Magdalena in the Magdalena Mountains. On the way there we stopped at the “The Box” which is primarily a rock climbing site in a canyon with sheer rock walls.

A nice view from above "The Box"

Twinkles doing a little rock scrambling

View down inside "The Box"

Magdalena is a few miles downhill from the former Kelly Mine and townsite of Kelly. The Kelly Mine was a very productive lead, zinc and smithsonite mine that operated from 1883 to 1947. At its peak, approximately 3,000 people lived in the town of Kelly. After the mine closed in 1947 everyone left Kelly, it became a ghost town and nothing is left of it today. Anything good was torn down and moved downhill to Magdalena where it was recycled. The only structures remaining at the mine are the steel head-frame, a chimney and a nearby small church.

http://westernmininghistory.com/towns/new-mexico/kelly/

Mine remains along the road

One stone wall is all that remains of this building and an
old safe without doors in the basement

The Mine steel head frame designed by Eiffel and what appears to be a chimney. The open mine shaft with barbed wire fencing around it is said to drop straight down 1,000 feet

A better view of the mine head frame, we had a good time walking around the site looking
for good rocks and old glass. We found little, its been picked clean.

The church appears more recent and still in use

The town of Magdalena has several interesting old buildings including the old Santa Fe Train depot, now used as a library and museum with many old Santa Fe Rail travel ads. It was the "Trails End" for the railroad spur built for the mine. Magdalena is in a remote location, a real dark sky location that has a "Enchanted Skies Star Party" in the fall. It also hosts a "Old Timers Reunion & Rodeo each year. This is a quirky town with its share of artistic types, art galleries and mineral shops. The towns name derived from early Spanish soldiers who saw the profile of a woman on the west face of the current Maddalena Peak. A priest reminded them of a similar peak in Spain called "La Sierra de Maria Magdalena"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena,_New_Mexico