For those who might care, here is part 1 of our trip. Instead of taking the direct route - down I-25 to pick up Highway 152 that goes directly into Silver City, we went the long way. We drove west on I-40 to Grants, NM. From there we picked up Highway 53 which took us to the El Morro National Monument (pictures below) and then to the Zuni Pueblo where we had lunch at a great place called Chu Chus. Then we drove South from there through Reserve, Glenwood and then into Silver City. Instead of a 5 hour trip we made it into a 10 hour trip with our stops.
The El Morro (Spanish for 'bluff') National Monument is a neat place. It's a large hunk of rock in the middle of nowhere. What made it special in the old days is there is a permanent pool of water at its base. This made it an oasis in the midst of very dry land for prehistoric Indians, Spanish explorers, Calvary troops, railroad surveyors, and other odd and assorted travelers.
They left their 'Kilroy Was Here' marks from prehistory petroglyphs to inscriptions as early as 1607 (Don Juan Onate) up until 1906 when it became a National Monument. Many of the inscriptions are just crude renderings of a name and date where others are elaborate or extremely precise renderings.
It's a fascinating place in the midst of a beautiful, if harsh, land. Here are a few pictures from our visit.
El Morro National Monument in the morning sun...
Yours truly at the pool that has refreshed thousands of travelers over hundreds of years...
One of several petroglyphs showing bear paws, human hands, snakes, spirals, thunderbirds, and other unknown symbols...
An elaborate script done by 'E. Pen Long of Baltimore, MD'...
Here we have an incription by 'F. Engle, Jr. New Jersey, 1859' - most likely an engineer given the precision of the lettering...
An elaborate cross, probably done by a Franciscan missionary priest...
Probably another engineer - 'F. Gilmer Breckinridge, 1858'...
If you look closely, you'll see a mis-spelling - 'Lt. J. H Simpson, USA & R. H. Kern, Artist visited and copied these insciptions, September 17th & 18th, 1849' They tried to add an 'r' to the word 'insciptions'...
Margie and Betty at the entrance sign to El Morro...
It's a fascinating place to visit and we had a great time. More tomorrow.
Today is October 28 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Joaquin Phoenix (actor, "Gladiator"), Julia Roberts (actress, "Pretty Woman"), Bill Gates (world's wealthiest man - started Microsoft), Bruce Jenner (Olympic athlete), Charlie Daniels (country singer), and Jonas Salk (microbiologist who developed a vaccine for polio).
On this day in 1636 Harvard College was founded. In 1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin. In 1886 the Statue of Liberty was dedicated. In 1919 Congress enacted the Volstead Act which created Prohibition. And in 1940 Italy invaded Greece.
5 comments:
Do you suppose that contemporaries of those named on El Morro would have considered the folks who boldly carved and became historic to be vandals? Grafitti artists? Entitled to their hubris?
On a lighter note, how did the water taste? mark
No, I doubt if they thought it was graffiti. I guess in the time when there were few villages, let alone cities, and there was so much wide open, lonely spaces, it was probably comforting to see signs of someone else having been there.
I guess if you had just gone through the dry desert that water would taste pretty good, but since we had our own we didn't try it.
Dan
I think that is amazing seeing marks left by others so long ago. I seriously have chills from it. I read this last night and then reread it and still loved it. Cool stuff. Perhaps we should venture from our little neck of the woods occasionally. Wanna watch the kids? ;) I kid, I kid. What kind of mother wouldn't want to bring along her offspring to also enrich their little minds?
I've always enjoyed saying Eli Whiney's name--yes! he did the cotton gin. The sad thing is that I'm still waiting to learn what a cotton gin is. (Machine that removes cotton from bush??) love, the ignorant one.
Michelle, a cotton gin removes the cotton fibers from the husks and seeds and other trash.
Either that or it's a drink made from cotton. Take your pick.
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