Elephant Butte

The area around Elephant Butte has been quite a surprise. We just didn't expect the mountains. We drove through the San Andres Mountains and also the Black Range. There was snow on the ground - but not on the road. The temps in the campground have been in the 60s but it has reached just above freezing at night.

The city of Truth or Consequences (known as TorC) is a cute town - not a lot going on but nice for a few days to rest up. We have had some long travel days. The city was originally named Hot Springs. There are some resorts to get into the hot springs here but we were not too impressed with what you got for $25/hour so we skipped that and used the hot tub at the campground. The name is interesting - in the 50's a radio show called Truth or Consequences (later a TV show) said they would broadcast their 10th anniversary show from any city that would change their name to T or C... Hot Springs did and it stuck ever since.

We took the long drive to Gila Cliff Dwellings. It is only 65 miles from the campground but takes over 3 hours to get there with the mountain curves. It was fun and glad we did it but there were sure a lot of curves and switchbacks. There were over 600 stairs to get up to the dwellings... but we did it. Very interesting history and amazing to think we stood were the ancient Puebloan people stood in 1276.

On the way back we stopped at the Chino Mine overlook. It looks beautiful but it is also sad to see how disruptive it is to the land. They have found gold, silver, tin but mostly copper. We also had to stop and take photos of some of the 'giants' in Hatch, NM. I have no idea why they are there but rather fun to see.

We also visited a few ghost towns in the area. They sprang up in the 1850-60's mostly due to the discovery of silver in the buttes. The Silver Panic of 1893 brought the mining to a grinding halt - the miners left the cities in droves. Our favorite and most informative city was Chloride. The guide was so interesting. She explained that the couple that ran the General Store and owned many buildings in the area did so succesfully for many years. When they decided to move on due from the dying town - they left everything in tact. All the shelves were left fully stocked - in hopes that their young son would someday move back into Chloride and take over the store when the town revitalized. Neither happened and the store remained empty for 60 years. The current guide's parents bought many of the buildings in the city from that son and have worked to bring history to the area as an Interpretive Center. They even brought back an entire cabin from Las Cruces! This was the Grafton Cabin which was moved in 1957 to be a musuem in Las Cruces. When they heard it was going to be demolished 30 years later - the guide's parents held a fundraising to save it and bring it back to Chloride.

It has been an interesting stay here in New Mexico. We have wondered so many times what current life would be like here in these tiny towns - often spread so far apart. Things seem dry and desolute but maybe spring/summer brings more life to the buttes. We saw so little wildlife (a couple of deer and 2 road runners). The towns are small and spread so far out. But it has been fun exploring and learning some history.