CLOSE CALL: Carol Hoffman’s phone call to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, began seriously enough, but quickly evolved into geographical farce.
“I called to order an engagement calendar, and the woman on the phone was very nice,” says Hoffman, who has lived in Albuquerque for 56 years. “We chatted about weather and the season, then I began giving her information: credit card, address, zip, and state.”
But the museum representative’s first response was a head turner: “And what country is that?”
Hoffman was dumbfounded. “The USA.”
“Really?” said the rep.
“Yes. It’s down by Arizona.”
“Really?”
“Yes—it holds Arizona and Texas apart.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really!” And Hoffman, thoroughly annoyed, hung up. She never received her calendar. “Maybe it was the foreign postage that created the problem.”
Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico
Spring rain in Santa Fe
Garret posted a lovely set of photos of his garden after yesterday’s rain.
Another best New Mexico line of the day
“[Monday] Noon-5 p.m. Live music, dance, artists, lowriders, readings and book signings, Chautauqua performers, and more (museum and Plaza). Throughout the Plaza, characters from the past, dressed in period costumes, will appear and tell their stories.”
Lowriders and book signings. Is this a great place to live, or what?
[This weekend is the opening of the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe (behind the Palace of the Governors).]
Best New Mexico line of the day
“You can tell most New Mexicans, or at least assimilated New Mexicans, by their reactions to rainstorms.
“They’re the ones out standing in them — or at the very least looking out from their porches and admiring the rain and that rich, earthy smell it brings.”
Sue Vorenberg, Santa Fe New Mexican
A rainy weekend. Let’s celebrate!
A Challenge
Mine That Bird wins the Derby inspiring this question: has anything else good ever come out of New Mexico?
Take it away, Ken!
And take it away Ken’s readers; comment here or there!
Ick
I have avoided paying too much attention to local real estate prices because unless I have a for sale sign out in front it doesn’t really matter.
But just now I got the free Zillow app for my iPhone after watching a 4-year-old demonstrate it.
And, once installed the app gave me Zillow’s estimate for my house and the houses in the neighborhood.
As I said, ick.
Vicious fighting marked Taos revolt
Historian Marc Simmons begins his Saturday column:
“During the 1846-47 U.S. conquest of New Mexico, an uprising at Taos against American occupation proved to be one of the bloodiest and least understood episodes of the entire military campaign.”
Ah Choo!
The Rio Grande Cottonwood, a welcome sight to pioneer desert caravans because it often signaled water, typically reaches 50 to 60 feet in height, with a trunk of three feet in diameter. Some of the grand old cottonwoods in the Rio Grande Valley have reached 90 feet in height, with trunks five feet across. In open areas, the tree may divide into branches near its base, producing a spreading crown. . . .
The Rio Grande Cottonwood reproduces by seeding, unlike many other flood-plain trees which regenerate by sprouting. It flowers in the spring, before it leafs out. It releases its seeds, each carried by downy white tuft, or “parachute,” in anticipation of traditional spring floods and winds, the principal mechanisms for dispersion. A mature Rio Grande Cottonwood can produce as many as 25 million seeds in a season, covering wide areas with a blanket of “cotton.”
Good Riddance
New Mexico dumped Arizona on this date in 1863 when the Arizona Territory was established.
In 1861, after March conventions in Mesilla and Tucson, the southern portion of New Mexico Territory followed the lead of the southern states and attempted to withdraw from the Union. The Confederate congress approved in 1862. While all this had no legal meaning in the United States, it probably did influence the decision to create the real Arizona Territory by February 24th the next year.
The Confederate Arizona Territory consisted of the bottom half of both present-day states (dividing the two at 34ºN). The U.S. Arizona Territory in 1863 made the division along the north-south border we have today (dividing at 109º 2′ 59.25″W). Too bad. With the Confederate division New Mexico could have been the Grand Canyon State and Arizona could have had the Deming Duck Race.
The capital of the Confederate Arizona Territory was in Mesilla (near present-day Las Cruces).
Road trips
A New Mexico Valentine
NewMexiKen still has this authentic New Mexico style Valentine cookie I was given last year. It’s too pretty to eat.
The cookie is decorated in Isleta Pueblo pottery style and was from Chiwewe’s Bakery next to Chiwewe’s Smoke Shop, 1831 State Road 314 Southwest, Albuquerque. Click image for larger version.
The End is Near…
You absolutely must read, and more importantly see the photos, at David Cramer’s post on Duke City Fix.
Stunning.
Dry Drier Driest
No measurable precipitation officially in Albuquerque since December 26th — that’ll be 7 weeks tomorrow.
White Sands National Monument (New Mexico)
… was established by President Herbert Hoover on this date in 1933.
At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico.
Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world’s largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path.
The Pit
Along with 15,210 other folk we attended the University of New Mexico men’s basketball game against the Air Force Academy at University Arena in Albuquerque tonight. The Lobos beat the Falcons 78-53.
It was the 750th men’s game at The Pit, designated 13th among American sports venues of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Tonight’s crowd was below average in attendance — the Lobos have averaged 15,559 per game over 42 years.
It’s called The Pit because the arena floor is 37 feet below grade. It’s the loudest basketball venue in America, beating out Cameron Indoor at Duke University in some study done in 1999. One hopes the $60 million renovation that begins in April won’t decrease the noise.
The original cost to build the arena in 1966 was just $1.4 million. Current capacity is 18,018.
This is silly because I don’t fish or ski
But I love living in a place where both the fishing report and the ski report are part of the local news coverage.
New Mexico
… was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on this date in 1912.
New Mexico Favorite Books
“Clear some space on your bookshelf as six of our state’s best authors name the New Mexico books that have influenced them. At the top of the list: A collection of moving environmental essays, a novel with a conscience, a historical diary, and three Southwestern classics.”
El Malpais National Monument (New Mexico)
… was established on this date in 1987.
This monument preserves 114,277 acres of which 109,260 acres are federal and 5,017 acres are private. El Malpais means “the badlands” but contrary to its name this unique area holds many surprises, many of which researchers are now unraveling. Volcanic features such as lava flows, cinder cones, pressure ridges and complex lava tube systems dominate the landscape. Closer inspection reveals unique ecosystems with complex relationships. Sandstone bluffs and mesas border the eastern side, providing access to vast wilderness.
For more than 10,000 years people have interacted with the El Malpais landscape. Historic and archeological sites provide reminders of past times. More than mere artifacts, these cultural resources are kept alive by the spiritual and physical presence of contemporary Indian groups, including the Puebloan peoples of Acoma, Laguna,and Zuni, and the Ramah Navajo. These tribes continue their ancestral uses of El Malpais including gathering herbs and medicines, paying respect, and renewing ties.
Two Years Ago
The view out the window from my computer two years ago today.
El Tratado de La Mesilla
… was signed in Mexico City on this date in 1853. The treaty settled the dispute over the exact location of the international border west of Texas and gave the U.S. approximately 29,000 square miles of land — in brief, Arizona and New Mexico south of the Gila River — for the price of $10 million. In the U.S. it’s known as the Gadsden Purchase Treaty.
The Mexican Republic agrees to designate the following as her true limits with the United States for the future: retaining the same dividing line between the two Californias as already defined and established, according to the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the limits between the two republics shall be as follows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47′ north latitude crosses the same; thence due west one hundred miles; thence south to the parallel of 31° 20′ north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31° 20′ to the 111th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River twenty English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.
Read the entire Gadsden Purchase Treaty.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
At least it’s looking like a classic Christmas here at Casa NewMexiKen, where a heavy snow began within the past hour and has already covered everything.
The Santa Fe Trail
… opened on this date in 1821.
William Becknell, under forced escort by Mexican troops, arrives at Santa Fe. New Mexicans, who are still celebrating their newly won independence from Spain, quickly purchase all of his goods, which he initially intended to trade with the Indians. This marked the birth of the Santa Fe Trail, originating from Independence, Mo.
The 1940 film Santa Fe Trail, with Ronald Reagan playing George Armstrong Custer — and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland — has little basis in historical fact other than that there was a Santa Fe Trail.
The Blue Land of Enchantment
Tom Udall won the senate seat 61-39.
Congressional districts 1 and 2, both currently held by Republicans, went to the Democratic candidates 55-45. The third seat (Udall is the incumbent) went to the Democrat 56-30-14.
Obama won New Mexico 57-42.
New Mexicans approved $14.7 million for senior citizen facilities; $11 million for public, academic and tribal libraries; $57.9 million for health facilities; and $140.1 million for special school and higher education facilities.
In New Mexico, Balm in a Volcanic Landscape
The New York Times visits the Jemez (hey-mess) Mountains. The article begins:
Perched at 6,300 feet and sandwiched between two striking red-rock mesas, the New Mexico town of Jemez Springs has long been a place of uncommon natural beauty and a refuge for all manner of pilgrims. In the 13th century, the Jemez people migrated to the valley, establishing a series of settlements in the area’s canyons; in the 17th century, Franciscan missionaries arrived, forcibly establishing a church in the Guisewa Pueblo — now the remarkably preserved Jemez State Monument. By the 1870s, a bathhouse was built, offering curative soaks in tubs fed by the town’s famous mineral hot springs.
Today, the bathhouse is restored and open for business; down the road, a Zen meditation center promises austere yogic calm. In Jemez Springs, about an hour and 15 minutes north of Albuquerque, there are artists and drifters and refugees from big-city living. It’s also a draw for hikers, bikers and anglers. Lava flows created the area’s rippling rock forms and bubbling fissures, and, as it has been for many over the centuries, the wrinkled landscape is a balm.