~ Est 1983 ~
Touring Roswell, New Mexico - UFO Capital of the World!
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About Roswell
1947 UFO Crash
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Roswell, New Mexico—East and Southeast
Some of Our Attractions:
“The Silver Dome” Bargain Barn (301 East 2nd Street). From 1939 to
1964 the Roswell Cotton Oil Company used this structure as part of a
cottonseed processing operation located in several buildings in this
area. Cottonseeds “ginned” from the cotton (separated from the white
fibers) were stored in this huge space while waiting to be processed in
the next building to the south where machines crushed the seeds,
extracted the cottonseed oil, and compressed the remaining hulls into
solid cakes to use for cattle feed. The imposing “Silver Dome” has
served many purposes over the years. Today’s owners use it as a second
hand store for furniture, appliances, and miscellaneous “stuff.” It’s
worth a visit just to step inside the cavernous dome—or to check out
their selection of deer and elk antlers. 627-7411. Open M-Sat 10-6,
closed Sun.
Hagerman Canal (5 miles—8 km—east of Main Street). Lincoln County
Sheriff Pat Garrett became famous after killing Billy the Kid in
1881—partly because of his own book, The Authentic Life of Billy the
Kid—but many questioned the way he had shot Billy. Leaving law
enforcement, Garrett moved his family from a ranch near the town of
Lincoln back to his ranch (not currently accessible to the public) four
miles (6 km) east of downtown Roswell that he had previously homesteaded
in 1880. Here he and his wife reared their seven children.
In 1888 Pat Garrett joined Carlsbad wheeler-dealer Charles Eddy and
several others to begin constructing the Northern Canal—now called the
Hagerman Canal—as a part of a grandiose scheme to make a fortune by
bringing irrigation water from the Hondo River to farmlands south of
Roswell. They built a diversion dam on Garrett’s ranch and began digging
the canal using plows, graders, and scrapers pulled by horses and mules.
The expense proved too great however, until wealthy Pecos Valley
developer J.J. Hagerman finally invested in the company, but even he
didn’t finish the canal that eventually stretched southward thirty miles
(50 km) until 1895. Although Pat Garrett had conceived the idea,
Hager-man gradually took over the company and forced Garrett out, but
Hagerman ended up losing much of his own fortune in the scheme. Today
the canal endures, still providing irrigation water to Pecos Valley
farmers south of Roswell.
When Chaves County split off from Lincoln County in 1889, Pat Garrett
hoped to return to law enforcement by running for Sheriff of the new
county. He lost the election so he continued to concentrate on ranching
in Roswell and Texas for several years, with variable success. In 1896
he moved to Las Cruces and be-came Sheriff of Dona Ana County, then
Teddy Roosevelt appointed him Customs Collector in El Paso in 1901.
Garrett returned again to ranching when he lost that job. He died in a
controversial incident in 1908; his alleged killer, Wayne Brazel—cousin
of the man who would first report finding the 1947 UFO crash—was
ac-quitted of the murder.
Currently, plans are underway to erect a statue of Pat Garrett by Texas
sculptor Robert Summers in the area across Virginia Avenue from the
Chaves County Courthouse.
Pecos River (7 miles—12 km—east of Main Street). The
900-mile-long (1,450 km) Pecos River begins as a clear mountain stream
in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico. It flows due
south, picking up silt as it travels through the High Plains down to
Roswell. One small dam near Fort Sumner, 85 miles (137 km) north of
Roswell, interrupts its flow and farmers divert much of its water for
irrigation so that most of the year shallow channels of muddy water wind
between banks and bars of red mud here near Roswell, but it can fill up
during spring runoff.
Although they brag about him much more in Texas than they do here (isn’t
that always the case?) the Southwest’s “rootin-est, tootin-est cowboy,”
Pecos Bill, whose exploits rival those of Paul Bunyan in the North
Woods, took his name from this muddy river. Some say his legend grew out
of tales told by cowpunchers trying to outdo each other around evening
campfires.
The first bridge over the Pecos River in the Roswell area was built in
1902 about one and one-half miles south of where the highway crosses the
river here. Prior to that, the only nearby way across the river was on a
ferry operated by Juan Chaves y Lopez (1826-?), or by fording the stream
during low water—both dangerous undertakings because of currents and
quicksand.
Double-ended quartz crystals called “Pecos Valley Diamonds” are found in
the weathered Permian rocks just east of the Pecos River. They come in
all sizes, from tiny single crystals to fist-sized clusters. Sandy areas
along the river are the best places to hunt for them—watch for
rattlesnakes! The best places to find them are in the Historical Center
Gift Shop or at the Chaparral Rockhound Society’s Gem and Mineral show
in June.
In frontier days the Pecos River defined the limits of Eastern
civilization. In fact, “to Pecos” a person became a well-known
phrase—and solution—around early Roswell. It meant to dump a formerly
troublesome fellow, often a rustling varmint, into the river—as a way of
disposing of the body. “Law West of the Pecos” in towns like Roswell was
often non-existent, and when it appeared, Justice was swift and
absolute. One example: In 1878 one of John Chisum’s young cow-boys shot
and killed his crew boss near here for reasons unknown. Chisum assembled
a jury of other cowhands on the spot and presided over the trial
himself. The jury found the boy guilty of cold-blooded murder and Chisum
pronounced sentence. There were no trees in the vicinity so the cowboys
propped up a wagon tongue and tried a rope to it. They sat the boy on a
horse, tied the rope around his neck, and led the horse out from under
him.
Some of that frontier mentality remains today. Not too long ago a young
Chaves County lawyer asked an experienced judge why he had sentenced a
car thief to more time in prison than another man convicted of killing
his neighbor in a water dispute. “Some men just need killing,” the
veteran judge replied, “but there are very few cars that just need
stealing.”
Comanche Hill (8 miles—13 km—east of Main Street). Roving bands
of Comanches, the Shoshone group that gave this bluff its name, moved
south from Wyoming and reached Texas and New Mexico by the 1700s where
they quickly became fine horsemen after obtaining the animals from the
Spanish. Known as fierce fighters, these nomadic bison hunters raided
other native groups, especially Pueblos, Navajos, and Apaches, as well
as Hispanic and Anglo settlers.
In the early days, the Pecos River formed a general dividing line here
in Southeastern New Mexico between Apaches who usually stayed to the
west and Comanches who roamed to the east. Before 1875 when the United
States Army interned the last bands of Comanches at Ft. Sill, Indian
Territory (later Oklahoma), Comanche Hill marked the beginning—or the
end, depending on which way you were traveling—of fearful Comanche
territory.
Bands of white gypsum, some of it grading into harder but easily
sculpted alabaster, appear in the road cut here. This high point on the
edge of the Permian limestone plateau east of Roswell provides a nice
view of the Pecos Valley and the Roswell area, especially after dark
when their lights are twinkling.
Nancy Lopez Elementary School (1208 East Bland Street). Nancy
Lopez, the first Hispanic LPGA Champion, won a total of forty-eight
Ladies’ Professional Golf Association tournaments after becoming Rookie
of the Year in 1978 and Player of the Year in 1978, ’79, ’85, and ’88.
She still plays occasionally in tournaments and exhibitions.
Born in California in 1957, Nancy Lopez was the daughter of Mexican immigrants
Maria and Domingo Lopez. The family moved to Roswell when she was a
child, where her father operated the East 2nd Street Body Shop (615 East
2nd Street, no longer standing) and the family lived at 1103 East 1st
Street. Lopez played golf with her parents at the (then) rather
primitive Roswell Municipal Golf Course, now the Spring River Golf
Course adjacent to Cahoon Park. She later explained to sports writers
that as Hispanics her family was not allowed to join the nicer Roswell
Country Club. She managed to win the New Mexico Women’s Amateur
Championship in 1969 at the age of twelve anyway. It took an ACLU
challenge to the School Board to gain her a spot on the Goddard High
School golf team however—not because she was Hispanic but because she
was female, as there was no girls’ team at that time. When she was
finally allowed to join the boys’ team, they won two state
championships.
In spite of these difficulties Lopez described growing up in Roswell as
“wonderful.” Attitudes have changed some since her childhood. A sign in
the Goddard High School cafeteria now proudly proclaims, “Nancy Lopez
ate here,” and in 1991 the School Board changed the name of Flora Vista
Elementary School that Lopez attended as a child to Nancy Lopez
Elementary School.
El Charro Mexican Food Industries (1711 South Virginia Avenue).
Fresh tortillas and other Mexican food products, as well as a peek
inside a tortilla factory, are available here at Southeastern New
Mexico’s oldest Mexican food company. 622-8590. Open M-F 8-5, Sat 9-2,
closed Sun and holidays.
Antonio Trujillo (1910-1982) and his wife Aida (1915-2008) opened their
first tortilla factory in the garage of their small house on Deming
Street across from Missouri Avenue Elementary School in 1949. At that
time tortillas were hardly known and rarely eaten by Anglos, while
Hispanic families made their own at home. The Trujillos bought a machine
that could produce 80 dozen tortillas an hour. Fortunately for their
business, it also produced a whistling noise that attracted curious
children on their way home from school. The Trujillos gave them free
samples to taste and to take to their families, and before long Anglo as
well as Hispanic families were buying El Charro tortillas to use in
tasty dishes that Aida helped popularize. As the business expanded and
they opened additional tortilla factories in Lovington and Amarillo, the
Trujillos became active in civic affairs and won numerous awards over
the years.
Today, grandson Michael Antonio Trujillo operates the company that now
employs 18 workers and produces 4,000 dozen tortillas an hour from corn
grown in Muleshoe, Texas. Carrying on his other family tradition of
civic involvement, Trujillo serves as Chaves County Commissioner and
even performed his duties long distance while serving with New Mexico
National Guard’s illustrious 200th Air Defense Artillery in Iraq
throughout 2006.
Bottomless Lakes State Park (East on 2nd Street 12 miles—20
km—then south on NM 409 3 miles—5 km). Ground water dissolved gypsum,
salt, and even some of the limestone itself from the Permian limestone
plateau east of Roswell over the centuries, creating passageways and
caverns along fissures in the rock. When large underground cavities
collapsed they formed sinkholes in the flat surface topography. Seven
of these striking water-filled sinkholes make up Bottom-less Lakes State
Park—New Mexico’s first state park—built here by Civilian Conservation
Corps workers from the Bitter Lakes CCC Camp (a New Deal pro-gram to
provide work and training to young men during the Depression) during the
late 1930s.
Cowboys called these small round lakes bordered by red bluffs
“bottomless” because, as Billy the Kid once explained to a curious
newcomer, he and some of his friends could not find the bottom, even
when they tied their picket ropes together and put a weight on the end.
Billy knew this area well. During the Lincoln County War he hid out in
caves here, with help from John Chisum’s nephew Will Chisum, while his
wounds healed after Deputy Sheriff Matthews—later a Roswell
Postmaster—shot him when Billy ambushed and killed Sheriff Brady.
The park provides hiking, camping, fishing and, in the summer, swimming
and paddle-boating. Watch out for rattlesnakes! A small Visitor Center
presents occasional evening nature programs during the summer, and the
Bottomless Triathlon takes place here in July. Scuba classes use 90’
(32 m) deep Lea Lake for training and certification dives. 624-6058.
Dairy Farms (East of the highway). Roswell calls itself “The
Dairy Capital of the Southwest” with more than fifty dairies operating
along the Old Dexter Highway between Roswell and the small town of
Dexter 15 miles (24 km) to the south. Abundant cattle feed along with
low operating costs brought dairy operations here beginning in the
1980s. Now, wealthy dairy operators are rapidly joining ranchers and
oilmen as the “aristocracy” of Roswell.
Throughout the Oil Patch, noxious fumes from oil wells and refineries
have traditionally been described as “the smell of money.” Today in
Roswell, when the wind and humidity are right, a “dairy odor” wafts
through town as the new “smell of money.”
Jinglebob Land and Livestock Company (former South Spring River Ranch)
(at Brasher Road). John Chisum, “Cattle King of the Pecos,” (p 46) moved
his vast cattle empire headquarters here to South Spring River Ranch
along the South Spring River in 1875. He constructed a large adobe
house, along with barns, bunkhouses, and other ranch buildings, then
began breeding short-horned cattle and experimenting with growing
alfalfa and various grains. The “Jinglebob Ranch,” as it was nicknamed
because of the distinctive earmark Chisum used to identify his cattle,
was a social center for all of Southeastern New Mexico. Billy the Kid
worked around the ranch for a time before the Lincoln County War and was
rumored to have carried on a romance with Chisum’s attractive niece,
Sally Chisum, who served as ranch hostess.
After Chisum’s death in 1884 other family members proved to be poor
managers and his cattle empire dissipated. Mining and railroad
millionaire J.J. Hagerman bought South Spring Ranch (he and subsequent
owners dropped “River” from the name) in 1900 after ten years of
developing irrigation and rail-road projects in the Pecos Valley.
Hagerman planted large fruit orchards on the land and shipped railroad
cars of apples to markets “back east,” as can be seen in photos hanging
in the Roswell Public Library lobby. He also raised cattle but his
cattle business was more of a costly hobby than a successful enterprise.
Hager-man demolished most of the original Chisum buildings and
constructed his own three-story red-brick mansion on the property, along
with other ranch buildings. A barn and the mansion—with the top two
stories removed—are just barely visible in a grove of trees about
one-half mile east of the highway a little south of Brasher Road. The
main entrance to the ranch is a little farther south.
After Hagerman’s death in 1909 the ranch passed through several owners.
In 1968 Roswell oilman Robert O. Anderson purchased South Spring Ranch
and family members lived here for a time. The current owner, Tom Visser,
continues to raise cattle that still carry the Jinglebob earmark, but
like most everyone else, he is also planting pecan orchards. Irrigation
wells have dried up the springs that fed the South Spring River, so that
today all that remains are the two dry river beds (one for each of the
two forks that joined between the highway and the ranch house) that
cross the highway between Brasher Road and East Grand Plains Road. Peter
Hurd’s mural Round Up at South Spring 1875 in the Student
Services Center at ENMU-R gives a good idea of what the ranch must have
looked like when the South Spring River was full and flowing. Tours
charge a small fee to visit the ranch during Old Chisum Days in June.
Leprino Mozzarella Factory (5600 Omaha Road). Leprino’s multi-story
factory is visible to the west where the highway crosses East Grand
Plains Road. At night its brightly lit structure looms eerily in the
dark countryside like a freighter arriving from some unknown galaxy.
The large number of dairy farms in the Pecos Valley brought Leprino
Foods to Roswell in 1994. This world’s largest Mozzarella
factory—Roswell’s largest private employer—produces 600,000 pounds of
pre-shredded, quick-frozen cheese each day from six million pounds of
milk. Nearly 500 workers keep the factory operating 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, completing the entire process from pasteurizing the
incoming milk to packaging and shipping the frozen shredded cheese to
commercial buyers. Workers even process waste materials, separating out
clean water to use for irrigation and solid waste to become fertilizer.
No retail sales of its cheese are available but the Leprino Mozzarella
Factory is open for tours for a small fee during the Chile-Cheese
Festival in September. 347-9998.
For more complete information about touring Roswell . . .
BUY the paperback version
(single copies or in bulk) of Lynn Michelsohn's guidebook
Roswell,
Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!
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bookstore, or on
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Also available . . .
Roswell, NM: The Ten Best FREE Things To Do (Plus a Few More)
Your Brief Travel Guide to Fun in the UFO Capital of the World!
$2.99 on
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