MISSILES ANYONE?

November, 2018

We’re on our way to San Diego for a long overdue visit with Graham and Leigh in their natural habitat…well, for now their natural habitat.  Following our 4-5 hour driving rule the obvious next stop would have been El Paso, but something told us to keep going an extra hour, and to spend some time in Las Cruses instead.  Las Cruses is the second largest city in New Mexico at just a little more than 100,000 souls in far southwest New Mexico, bordering on the Rio Grande and Mexico.

The King of Spain ordered villages be built along the Camino Real (the Royal Road), a path traversing Spanish territory from Mexico City to its northern capitol city, Santa Fe.  Las Cruses was one of those encampments.  Native Americans, Spanish explorers, and Mexican colonists had come in their own time to call this region home, and throughout history, wars had been fought and treaties made for control of the area.  Over the centuries Spain, Mexico, the United States and the Confederacy have all owned this piece of the Sonoran Desert.

Las Cruses is home to 20,000 students attending New Mexico State University (one of the perennial bottom 10 of college football), and the City is jammed packed with all of the chain strip mall stores and restaurants found almost anywhere these days; however, the City has found a way to maintain its old west quaintness and easy slowed down pace of life.

We visited the neighborhoods of the city of Mesilla, which resembled a small Mexican village.  Shops and restaurants around a “town square” are anchored by a mission-style church with residences and schools around the corner from the square.

New Mexico was chosen as a rocket testing ground in 1930 when Robert Goddard brought his research program to Roswell (approximately 185 miles northeast of Las Cruses).   In 1944, the government took over the Alamogordo Bombing Range and nearby lands for the new White Sands Proving Ground.  In August 1945 German scientists who had obtained their post-WWII security clearance joined American scientists and began work at the testing ground.  The scientists had confiscated V-2 rocket components to assist in their initial efforts, and the government selected Werner Von Braun to head-up the Army’s Ballistic Missile project.  The proving ground was selected as the missile testing range, and it was renamed White Sands Missile Range.  Covering 3,200 square miles, it is one of the largest military installations in the country.

The Missile Range is an active US Army Post, and it is generally off-limits to civilians.  An on-post museum  and outdoor display of aircraft, rockets, and a facsimile of the “fat man” bomb casing can be accessed by civilians once cleared.  The process of obtaining clearance took about 15-20 minutes, and included a formal Q&A as well as a background check.

The museum had 2 nice displays; one dedicated to the Army’s role in settlement of the area by the United States, and several rooms displaying the technology of rocket armaments.  Interesting fact: outdoor photography was ok, but only if we were facing the mountains and away from the actual test range.

White Sands National Monument is 275-square miles of desert lying within the area of the Missile Range.  Established in 1933, the great wave-like dunes are made of gypsum sand.  Gypsum is rarely found as sand because it dissolves on contact with water.  Due to the isolation and weather patterns of the region the sands are able to remain and be available for exploring.  We were able to hike on the dunes, observed a playa (alkali flat), and watched a family sled down the dunes.  Barbara remarked that the dunes looked more like snow than sand.

White Sands National Monument also preserves the plants and animals that have successfully adapted to this constantly changing harsh environment.  While we didn’t see any wildlife (snakes, cougars, toads, road runners), more than 600 species of invertebrates call this protected land their home.  We could only imagine that this jewel cannot become a National Park because of it’s relationship to the Missile Range.

We’ve come to believe that we have some kind of masochistic streak when it comes to hiking.  Hikes up the grade to Clingman’s Dome, up the grade along the Appalachian Trail, up the grade in Hot Springs, Arkansas as well as our getting lost and a 3-5 mile hike turning into 7-10 miles – we must actually love our challenges.  Dripping Springs Trail tested our sanity.  The trail to the springs is a 3-mils loop. We arrived at this State Park nestled against The Organ Mountain Range approximately 1 1/2 hours before the gates were to close.   We asked the Ranger if there was time for us to hike the trail and his deliberation was as follows: “it’ll take you about an hour to hike the trail to the springs, but less time on the way back.  You should be ok.”  Puzzled about the Ranger’s comments, off we went and discovered that it was 1 1/2 miles uphill to the springs.  Not a simple uphill grade, but a breath-taking, calf-burning, take-a-break-every-so-often trek up and up and up an incredibly rocky and uneven path.  The springs were less than overwhelming, but the stories of the settlement near the springs and the views along the way were worth the journey…and yes, coming down took about a third of the time.  We were pretty proud of ourselves for completing this hike.  Even the Ranger stated that we made “good time.”

Had to stop at the Space Murals Museum.  On the way to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument we passed a water tank with painted murals depicting the progress of the US Space Program from the early flights of the X-15 to the fatal accident of the Challenger Space Shuttle.  Turns out this is a 1.2 million gallon water tank with painted murals encircling the entire tank.  But the real treat is the museum which is jammed packed with memorabilia.  Many personal items have been given to or are on loan to the museum, and more and more items arrive everyday from people who have collected space-related items since the program’s inception during the Kennedy (Eisenhower?) administration.  Lots and lots of autographed pictures, an actual space capsule, solar fan, radio antenna and tower that had been to space, astronaut suits and items used by astronauts during space flight are on display.  There is also a remembrance of the landing of the space shuttle at White Sands National Monument.  Well worth the visit!

Quite a lot to see and do in this terrific area of the country.  Highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.

Barbara and Brian