from mesilla to missiles

after leaving my college cafe near new mexico state, i headed to nearby mesilla, which with the exception of parking is almost exactly as it was 150 years ago. it's a small new mexican town, with an emphasis on mexican. it used to be a stop on the butterfield overland trail around 1860, which was a forerunner of the pony express, running mail from st. louis to san francisco. why it came this far south, i don't know. another historic tidbit: the mexican government, which owned the land in 1848, sent people to settle the town and the area--by 1850 it had 800 people. the u.s., while it got most of the southwest in 1848, did not get mesilla and areas to the south and west until the gadsden purchase in 1853. it was a great little town with a fantastic square, including many shops selling depictions of saints, and the bookstore to the left. there were a few people selling their wares (again, mostly saints and wood or tin) as well as a couple of people playing spanish guitar. i wandered around, going into the shops and looking at things and people, and eventually decided to head to the church of san albino, a beautiful brick church on the northern side of the town square. while a church has been there as long as the town has, the present structure was built in 1908--not surprising that it is that recent, considering that it is made of brick. the inside of the church was downright stunning. beautiful, bright wood and a wonderful alter piece. they even had a recording playing of some monks chanting. i popped back outside for one more quick look around and then headed back to my car, since it was time for me to get a move-on.

my next stop was about 20 miles to the east of las cruces on the white sands missile range--that's it from the road. now, this was not my first time entering a secure military facility, and i think there are few things which freak me out as much. i had to park my car outside the base and then walk to the missile range museum, where i was headed. and i was instructed to only take pictures that face west or north--in other words, no pictures down range. in case i wanted to sell any of the secrets of the military. eventually i made it to the museum, which i walked through kind of quickly. i'm not really a military history person, but i wasn't going to pass up the chance to see the missile park. i did learn some interesting things, though. like that the missile in the awesome texan picture at right, the wac-corporal, was the first missile shot from white sands and the first man-made object to leave earth's atmosphere. and that on march 30, 1982 the space shuttle columbia landed at white sands--it's still an alternate landing site today. the northern part of the range is also where the trinity site is, where the first atomic bomb was tested. who knew all of this was done in new mexico? i suppose it had to happen somewhere.

after looking around the museum, i headed back outside to the missile park. now, if i had had some knowledge of missile before hand this might have been a very informative part of my trip. as it was, i mainly looked around, though i was struck by a few things. first of all, the most recent thing in the area was the patriot missile from the early 1990s, and after that the most recent missile was from the 70s--most were from the 50s. so they weren't giving away any secrets. secondly, there was this: a literaly flying saucer. the caption states, word for word, 'this spacecraft was a section of the voyager balloon system which was launched near roswell, nm, and landed on white sands missile range. these bright, shiny aeroshells projected an illusion of flying saucers. aeroshell was designed for slowing down a missile for a landing on mars. this display is believed to be the only one 'in captivity.' no wonder the people in roswell got freaked out. the other thing is that you really don't realize until you see all of these missile together how much money we have spent on this over the years. a lot. from white sands i headed north to alomogordo, where i will be spending the next couple nights as well, and will be learning more about space.