Mesilla is the old town area of Las Cruces, New Mexico. During our trip to NM, we stayed in Las Cruces for a few days, and we spend a full day exploring the city and its old town area.
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| The "Recycled Roadrunner" looks out over Las Cruces from a rest area along the highway, just outside of town. It's something of a local landmark |
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| The roadrunner statue is made entirely of garbage! The eyes are made from the headlights from a car, and when you get close, you can see old sneakers, computer keyboards, crutches, and more! |
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| The roadrunner used to stand in the Las Cruces landfill, but the city moved it to a place of prominence. It's become a beloved landmark of the city. The roadrunner is the official state bird of New Mexico. |
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| It was so cold and windy when we visited, but we had to jump out of the car and take a photo with the bird! |
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| The old town of Mesilla is centered in a city square surrounding Basilica San Albiono. |
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| Built in 1852, the church holds the distinction of having been built in Mexico! When the US bought land from the Mexican government in the Gladsden Purchase, the area of Las Cruces (including the church) became a part of the United States. Daily mass is held in both English and Spanish. |
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| The church was officially recognized as a basilica in 2008. |
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| It was freezing as we walked around the old town, and the icy rain certainly didn't help us feel any more comfortable - despite the cups of hot pinyon coffee that we carried with us! Instead of spending time exploring the old city square with its cool gift shops, we headed somewhere nice and warm and dry: the Zuhl Museum at the New Mexico State University! |
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| The museum is free to visit, and houses a small but impressive geological collection. There are tons of interesting rocks and minerals on display alongside a wide collection of fossils. |
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| Earlier in the day, we had tried to pay a visit to the brand-new Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. It turns out that the monument was so new that they don't even have a visitor's center yet! It's just a trail into the wilderness. We didn't know how far we had to walk to see the dinosaur footprints, so we decided not to try it. Fortunately for us, the natural history museum in Mesilla had a section of the trackways that we could see! |
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| One of the iconic landmarks in Mesilla is the "Eagle Man". This sculpture was created to celebrate the native American culture that is so important in New Mexico. |
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| The most interesting thing about the statue is that its creator is blind. The sculptor lost his sight during the Vietnam war. After returning to the US, he began creating beautiful sculptures. The Eagle Man stands in the Las Cruces museum district. |
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| Most of the buildings in the old town area are in a very classic New Mexico pueblo style. Even the local Methodist church is built to look something like an old Spanish mission! |
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| Las Cruces is a really colorful city! It may not be Santa Fe, but people really ought not to overlook it on their visits to New Mexico. So many people only stay in Las Cruces to visit White Sands. To be honest, that was our original plan until the rain forced us to try to discover the city. In the end, I'm so glad that it did! It gave us the chance to experience a part of Las Cruces that we wouldn't have before, and to learn a lot more about the city, its history, and its culture. |
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| An afternoon in the old town. |
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| Greetings from downtown Las Cruces. |
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| Trying to stay out of the rain! |
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