“New Mexico’s historic bars reflect the lives and times of the common and not-so- common people who made our history. They include rough saloons that catered to miners, polished hotel bars for traveling merchants, and flashing-neon honky-tonks to attract Route 66 tourists.”
Click the link to read about the five:
The Buckhorn Saloon & Opera House, Pinos Altos
No Scum Allowed Saloon, White Oak
Hotel Eklund, Clayton
Silva’s Saloon, Bernalillo
The 49er Lounge, Gallup
From New Mexico Magazine, The Top 10: definitive tunes from the state’s first 100 years.
Hey, where’s “Lights of Albuquerque“?
Here’s Ten centennially quintessential New Mexican flicks.
I’d have included Crazy Heart.
And an essential reading list of 10 titles from the last century.
Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of New Mexico statehood.
… was established in 1916 and renamed on this date in 1987.
Mammoths, giant bison, and short-faced bears were witness to the first tremblings of the earth and firework-like explosions of molten rock thousands of feet into the air. Approximately 60,000 years ago, the rain of cooling cinders and four lava flows formed Capulin Volcano, a nearly perfectly-shaped cinder cone, rising more than 1000 feet above the surrounding landscape. Although long extinct, Capulin Volcano is dramatic evidence of the volcanic processes that shaped northeastern New Mexico. Today the pine forested volcano provide habitat for mule deer, wild turkey, and black bear.
… 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.
Those bags with sand and candles that are a New Mexico Christmas Eve tradition; the correct name for them is farolitos.
Often farolitos are called luminarias. Lumanarias traditionally were actually small bonfires.
Farolitos (literally “little lanterns”) replaced lumanarias (“altar lamps”) as towns became more densely populated. The purpose of both was to light the path to midnight mass.
Farolitos are the coolest Christmas decoration ever, especially when whole neighborhoods line their sidewalks, driveways and even roof-lines with them. (Electric versions are common and can be found throughout the season. The real deal are candles and displayed only on Christmas Eve.)
Buy some sand (for ballast), some votive candles and some lunch bags and bring a beautiful New Mexico Christmas Eve tradition to your neighborhood this year. Get your neighbors to join you. You could become famous if it’s never been done in your area. And the kids love it.
[First posted here five years ago today. Like any list, not every one is LOL funny, but if you live in New Mexico you’ll be nodding in agreement with most.]
… was established by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 105 years ago today (1906).
Paso por aqui . . . A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a massive sandstone bluff made El Morro (the bluff) a popular campsite. Ancestral Puebloans settled on the mesa top over 700 years ago. Spanish and American travelers rested, drank from the pool and carved their signatures, dates and messages for hundreds of years. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins.
On this date in 1702, the Duke of Alburquerque, Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez, arrived in Mexico City to become Viceroy. In a kiss-ass move four years later, some folks around here named a settlement after him.
19 degrees, very windy, blowing snow. Not nice, not pretty, not welcome.
Wind gust of 64!
Update: 67 mph gust.
Latest report from weather station four blocks away: 74 mph.
You’ve heard about the prolonged drought in the southwest. Here’s an illustration. That is Elephant Butte dam and reservoir. You can see the bleached areas revealed as the water level has dropped in the reservoir (the right side of the dam in the photo).
The dam was begun 100 years ago and completed in 1916. The dam is 306 feet high and 1,674 feet wide. Elephant Butte is an island in the 40-mile long lake. The river dammed is the Rio Grande.
Photo taken November 13th. Click for a larger version.
Today’s photos were taken November 13th at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge about 100 miles south of Albuquerque. Among the most populous of the many bird species that stop over at Bosque del Apache are the snow geese, some 30,000 of them this mid-November.
These photos were taken with a Nikon D7000. Click for larger versions.
Today’s photos are really yesterday’s photos, taken with an iPhone 4S and unedited except for cropping of the first. It was a wonderful fall day, as you can see. If you click on either image you can see a larger and even prettier version.
Over Veterans Day weekend Donna and I took a New Mexico road-trip. This is the first of a few photo essays from our travels.
The Very Large Array, one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter.
Click on any image for a larger — and better — version or an album of all five.
Pretty photo.
[Red River is a tiny, mostly resort town at 8,700 feet in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Taos.]
In 2003 with my brother John and his dear friend Fran, I made my one and, alas, only visit to Chaco Culture National Historical Park. I need to return.
This post was published in a different form eight years ago today.
According to the National Park Service, “Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area – unlike anything before or since.”
“Chaco is remarkable,” the Park Service continues, “for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams, and mounds, required a great deal of well organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering, and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture – one that still amazes and inspires us a thousand years later.”
NewMexiKen visited Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the first time Sunday and Monday. More than anything Chaco resembles — in concept, not appearance — an assemblage of European monastaries. Relatively few people lived there, yet the dozens of “Great Houses” were extensive with hundreds of rooms, scores of kivas and large plazas.
Is New Mexico the best place?
And she replied:
But the real reason this is Today’s Photo is that it was taken with an iPhone 4S. 🙂
It seems I posted this before but I can’t find it.
Besides I love it and a friend sent it today.
¡Orale! is a Chicano word that translates loosely as “Awesome” or “Right on, Homes!”
And no, that’s not Governor Susana Martinez.
If I have to get up at zero-dark-30, you have to scroll through four more Balloon Fiesta photos.
The winds on the ground weren’t bad, but aloft they were too much for balloon flying, so the special shapes just stood up today. (The weather has been a problem three days in a row now.) Once again I was on the crew for Iwi the Kiwi representing New Zealand. These were taken with an iPhone 4 when I had a second of not holding Iwi open for inflation or helping weight down the gondola. Click images for larger versions.
Few balloons flew Tuesday and all events were cancelled this morning as Albuquerque had the rainiest day in nearly a year — a lousy quarter of an inch yesterday, but heavier early today. And probably an inch-and-a-half up here at 6,000 feet.
Another front with strong winds and much colder temperatures is on its way, but the sun is shining now and clouds are few. Temp in just mid-50s though.
If my memory is correct, the weather is almost always unsettled during Balloon Fiesta week. Perhaps the event should be held a week or two earlier. Just sayin’.
Still the funniest thing I’ve ever read about Balloon Fiesta week in Albuquerque.
‘Burque Babble: Ten Reasons I Don’t Heart the Balloon Fiesta
Scott posted more reasons in other years, including 2008, but added this.
Ten Reasons I Like Albuquerque, Really:
A. The 50 weeks of the year in which the Balloon Fiesta is not held.
B. The River Bike Path
C. The weather during the two-weeks of the Balloon Fiesta, especially the rare cloudy, rainy Sunday morning.
D. That newish bike path along I-40 going from the Big-I area uphill. It’s fantastic.
E. The Chama River Taproom on 2nd between Central and Gold.
F. That a bus driver let me carry my bike into the bus recently when the bus-front rack was full.
G. The Sandias.
H. The fact that very few people hike in the Sandias, especially given how close they are to a rather sizable urban area.
I. My life down here in the South Valley, even when the wife and I are hiding out in our home to avoid opening the door to balloonist guy who is stuck in the alfalfa field behind our house.
J. The Phở at Cafe Trang, followed by a grocery visit to Talin Market.There, that should even up the cynical negativity/positivism quotient…well, at least a little.
‘Burque Babble: Ten Reasons I Hate the Balloon Fiesta: 2008 Edition
Conditions for this morning’s mass ascension at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta were nearly ideal with a great Albuquerque Box. That’s the name for the condition when the heavy cool air flows south down the Rio Grande Valley while the warmer, lighter prevailing wind flows north. By changing altitude the pilot can maneuver in different directions. On TV just now a few balloons were landing back on the field that they left. That is so amazing — and considered a matter of pride for a pilot.
I wasn’t able to go out this morning, but last evening I joined the crew for Iwi the Kiwi, a gorgeous new balloon from New Zealand. Yesterday was the first day out of the bag for this aircraft (this morning, as I write, it’s on its maiden flight). The new shark and butterfly shaped balloons are getting all the attention on TV but Iwi was a big favorite with the crowd last night. He’s 80-some feet high with feet and a very long beak.
Photo taken with iPhone while working crew — just before I was required to add my weight to the gondola to keep this flightless bird on the ground. The twilight makes the balloon appear purplish, but it is actually dark brown.
Every year on the eve of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta we meet on the West Mesa and “Howl at the Moon.”
And the Balloon Fiesta is off to a great start this morning thanks to our pagan festivities — at least it looks good to me on TV (I’m not much of an early riser). It may or may not sound like much to you, but I have to say it’ll be a damn shame if you never get to see this marvelous event. Nothing like it. 555 hot air balloons were expected to launch this morning and the Albuquerque Box is in effect.
Photo taken with an iPhone 4.
It isn’t likely to rain today and local science and weather writer John Fleck is reporting a water year final total at my house: 4.94 inches (12.55 cm). 50.5% of normal. I believe John lives near the University of New Mexico in the central part of Albuquerque.
“Water Year” is a U.S. Geological Survey term running from October 1st through September 30th. This is because stream flows in the U.S. are usually at their lowest in October, therefore less variable from day-to-day.
