All in a Days Ride

We started out on a day trip to Rosewell, NM & on our way we got side tracked in the nice little town of Atesia. Not only did they have a huge oil refinery but the town had many bronze statues throughout the town. It also had a cute historic district that had many shops and restaurants. "Artesia" is the town's third name. The first was "Miller", which came from a railroad employee. Then they were known as "Stegman" after the first postmistress, none other than Sallie Chisum Robert Stegman. Sallie dropped the "Stegman" from her name soon after her divorce, and with the discovery of artesian wells in the area the fledgling town was renamed "Artesia" in 1903 and officially incorporated in 1905. We could have stayed longer but moved on.

In the early 1920s when many of the area's artesian wells began to dwindle another kind of well was discovered when the Illinois #3 oil well came in, opening up the Artesia oil fields locally and the Permian Basin regionally. Today, the oil & gas industry continues to flourish in the Artesia. With a population of 12,000, Artesia, nestled in the Pecos Valley.

Roswell

We finally arrived st Roswell but did not have time to do all we wanted to do. So I wanted to share the pictures we took around town. Like most of the small cities in New Mexico, Roswell has encountered many challenges over the past 125 years. Billy the Kid, the Lincoln county War, and raids on the Chisum Ranch by the Mescalero Apaches in the 1880s colored the early history. The alien invasion of 1947, the closing of Walker Air Force Base in the early 1970s. Although it has all made this town a huge tourist trap I enjoyed it...

Everything in the main part of town reflects ALIENS! See some of them in these pictures... The mailbox, McDonalds and street lights. Also Ralph, Tiffy & I with our new little friends!

We drove by the Roswell International Air Center just south of Roswell. From 1941 to 1967, the facility was known as Roswell Army Airfield during World War II, and Walker Air Force Base during the Cold War. At the time of its closure, it was the largest base of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. Roswell International Air Center was developed after the closure of Walker Air Force Base on 30 June 1967. In 1966, the Air Force announced that Walker AFB would be closed. This was during a round of base closings and consolidations as the Defense Department struggled to pay the expenses of the Vietnam War within the budget limits. It is also known for the Roswell UFO incident, an event that supposedly happened on July 4th, 1947. It is alleged that a "flying disk" crashed during a severe thunderstorm near AFB at Corona, New Mexico. The site is currently the storage facility for many of Airlines that are either stored or salvaged for parts.

Until Later... Have FUN, Travel Safe & Enjoy Everyday!