Highmountain
Hero Member
I have the impression you are a relative newcomer to NM. You haven't said whether you nuggetshoot, coinshoot or look for artifacts. If you're an artifact hunter you might find this one worth some attention:
In 1912 Pancho Villa raided Columbus and held the town for a few days, attacked the army fort there and mostly destroyed it. Burned most of the town, including hotels, bank etc. The old bank vault with the door blown off still stands in a vacant lot on the east end of town. The town's developed a bit, maybe a couple of hundred houses, but most of the burned out area is all mesquite, beargrass and cactus over broken molten glass and half melted kitchen utensils and rubble. I mosey around over that area every time I'm down that way and I've never seen anyone detecting there. Might be you'd find it interesting.
There's a curiosity on the other end of town (west) I've never figured out. You won't find any relics there because the area wasn't developed at the time of the raid, but it's still worth walking around wondering about. It's a Hindu Shrine standing on a few acres of land surrounded by chainlink fence, except at the front, all grown up in creosote and cactus, nowadays falling to ruin. My impression is it was built sometime in the 60s as a gathering place of some sort. There are a lot of RV slots, plumbed with electric and sewer connections and water faucets, but all grown over with desert plantlife now. 5 miles from the Mexican International Border in a little forgotten berg in the middle of nowhere.
A couple of places on the highway between Deming and Hatch might interest you. 7-8 miles out of town on the north side of the road there's a ruin of something that looks an awfully lot like a stagecoach stop... a couple of pieces of chimney still standing and foundations of buildings that appear to be institutional, army or stagecoach. I've always intended to chase down what they were, but never got around to it.
The other site you'll have to drive slowly to find, watching the far side of the railroad tracks on the south side parallel to the road. There's the remains of a community there, probably a water stop for the railroad, but all gone now, mostly just enough still sticking up to let you know it's there. A mile or so one way or the other down the highway there's a two-track that runs under the railroad that will get you back there to the site. As I recall it's not too far from the other one I described, maybe not more than 3-4 miles.
I posted a few pictures of some other sites you might want to visit on http://www.ighunters.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=3774#3774 if you're in to the Civil War in New Mexico.
In 1912 Pancho Villa raided Columbus and held the town for a few days, attacked the army fort there and mostly destroyed it. Burned most of the town, including hotels, bank etc. The old bank vault with the door blown off still stands in a vacant lot on the east end of town. The town's developed a bit, maybe a couple of hundred houses, but most of the burned out area is all mesquite, beargrass and cactus over broken molten glass and half melted kitchen utensils and rubble. I mosey around over that area every time I'm down that way and I've never seen anyone detecting there. Might be you'd find it interesting.
There's a curiosity on the other end of town (west) I've never figured out. You won't find any relics there because the area wasn't developed at the time of the raid, but it's still worth walking around wondering about. It's a Hindu Shrine standing on a few acres of land surrounded by chainlink fence, except at the front, all grown up in creosote and cactus, nowadays falling to ruin. My impression is it was built sometime in the 60s as a gathering place of some sort. There are a lot of RV slots, plumbed with electric and sewer connections and water faucets, but all grown over with desert plantlife now. 5 miles from the Mexican International Border in a little forgotten berg in the middle of nowhere.
A couple of places on the highway between Deming and Hatch might interest you. 7-8 miles out of town on the north side of the road there's a ruin of something that looks an awfully lot like a stagecoach stop... a couple of pieces of chimney still standing and foundations of buildings that appear to be institutional, army or stagecoach. I've always intended to chase down what they were, but never got around to it.
The other site you'll have to drive slowly to find, watching the far side of the railroad tracks on the south side parallel to the road. There's the remains of a community there, probably a water stop for the railroad, but all gone now, mostly just enough still sticking up to let you know it's there. A mile or so one way or the other down the highway there's a two-track that runs under the railroad that will get you back there to the site. As I recall it's not too far from the other one I described, maybe not more than 3-4 miles.
I posted a few pictures of some other sites you might want to visit on http://www.ighunters.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=3774#3774 if you're in to the Civil War in New Mexico.
Upvote
0
