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Deming Guide
Last updated on Friday, February 21, 2003
I have been hearing about Rockhound State Park near Deming, New Mexico for nearly nine years now, but I never seemed to get the opportunity to go down and see it in person.
My wife Jeri and I both love to look for unusual rocks and stones. We have specimens all over the place, inside and out.
On a warm, sunny day a short while ago, we decided to take the short trip down to the Floridas and explore the park and its surroundings.
The landscape of Southern New Mexico, West Texas, and northern Mexico has not always looked like it does today. In fact, beginning some 45 million years ago, parts of the region literally exploded, dramatically altering the shape of things. Time after time, volcanoes in the area erupted, spewing forth immense quantities of thick lava and clouds of boulder-to-dust-sized rock fragments. Torrential rains caused mudflows of volcanic debris to surge off the hillsides, drowning valleys and basins in mucky layers of debris. Lava oozed into horizontal and vertical cracks in the older layers, doming up whole areas, forming peaks, and hardening in rooster-comb-like dikes. It catches you by surprise. Unseen from the state highway, down a two mile spur of blacktop, the City of Rocks State Park rises, suddenly, from a vast yellow plain of waving grama grass. The columnar, pastel stones make an uneven and disheveled skyline. Some tower as high as fifty feet. Others hunker to the earth like brooding trolls. In the interior of "the city," the rocks meld and merge to form arches, curvaceous streets, and dark alleyways. Off to the side, isolated on the yellow plain, small groups of standing stone look like gentle giants - caught in a gossipy conversation. "Deming is rich in heritage tourism," says Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Dorothy Victor. "It has a good mix of ingredients. The buildings tell the story of the late 1880s." A walk through downtown Deming is a living historical tribute to turn-of-the-century architecture and Deming's heyday as an important stop on the railroad. Many buildings are on the register and house stops, plus they hide a secret labyrinth of underground tunnels.Thirty miles north of the Mexican border, set against the backdrop of the Florida Mountains, rests Deming, New Mexico, an Old West outlaw and railroad town known for its pure water, prime rock-hounding and annual duck race.
Once a stage stop along the Butterfield Trail, Deming was founded in 1881 at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroad lines. Deming was named after Mary Deming Crocker, the wife of a Southern Pacific magnate. With a population of 14,200, it is the seat of Luna County.
I used to lug rocks home. I saw a work of art in the form of an easily pocketed little rock, and just had to claim it for my own. In the Southwest one finds so many interesting rocks, this is a common response to a stroll in the country. You can't do this just anywhere, believe it or not - the Park Service doesn't permit it in the National Parks, for example. There are places where rocks should not be picked up: At Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated, a green glass, 'trinitite,' was created by the blast, and though visitors were begged not to pick it up, they did, and it's all gone.John and Darliene Hertweck lived for ten years in their RV, wintering in the South and touring in the North during summers. Then they put a mobile home in an RV park to continue their association with RVers and snowbirds. For the last eight years, as volunteers at the Deming Chamber of Commerce, they regularly talk to snowbirds. They could be considered "snowbird experts." So you've decided to explore Southern New Mexico. You have your road maps, a cooler of food and beverages, and jugs of water in the back just in case. You set out across broad basins under an ocean of blue sky, wandering over rugged mountains rising up from the surrounding plains. The rolling massiveness of the Cooks Range, the rocky needles of the Organ Mountains, and the lofty heights of the Mogollons inspire you. You're an idealist. But no matter how romantic your impressions may be, no matter how much the bright sunshine makes the expansive scenery glitter, the chances are what you won't be thinking about is a fortune in gold. As you gaze out over the enchanting vistas, odds are you won't be imagining a long, trailing caravan of Spaniards and Indians trekking over ridges and basins in search of a golden legend.The history of humanity is a long and complex one. When stripped of all the manifold facts and figures, it really comes down to two key fundamentals: food and sex. Food sustains the living, while sex insures the continuity of that living.
Mildred Cusey spent most of her life engaged in the professional aspects of both basics. She was early caterer for the former and later entrepreneur of the latter.
"House of cards" has a whole 'nother meaning when it comes to St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Deming, New Mexico. According to legend, in 1892, the original structure of this frontier church was financed by $40,000 of winnings from a poker game with Doc Holliday in attendance and hosted by the notorious Lottie Deno. And, for a fact, Lottie Deno made one of the altar cloths used by St. Luke's.
The church's design was an architectural triumph of sorts and one popularly celebrated in its day - train station modern. The land for the church was donated by the old Santa Fe Railroad in 1890. The plans for the original structure were those of a train depot. Compare it with the local chamber of commerce and visitor center which occupies an old train station and you can see the resemblance.
It's no secret why we call New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. Our state possesses some of the nation's most beautiful natural wonders, including Carlsbad Caverns, Taos' Moreno Valley and White Sands National Monument.
Having grown up in Silver City at the doorstep of the Gila National Forest, I have always felt very lucky to have come from such a special place. During my time as a Senator, I've worked to help promote New Mexico and its splendor as a tourist destination - because it's important to our people, our economy and also our sense of pride in our home state.
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