Southern New Mexico Travel and Tourism Information: Activities, Attractions, History, and Culture - Articles - Lincoln County

Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium Chuckwagon Cookoff

no@spam.com (Martha Hollis) — Mon, 14 Jul 2003 05:09:31 PDT

Put on your cowboy hat and working pair of boots to celebrate the Old West's restaurant on the range--the chuckwagon. Betcha there will be no microwave ovens in the infield of the Ruidoso Downs Race Track on New Mexico Highway 70 where 40 cowboy cookin' teams will compete over open fires for a large purse for their beef, beans, potatoes, biscuit and dessert creations. Judges points are swayed by authenticity. This competition is the hottest in the West.

Ruidoso's Ski Run Road - scenic switchbacks

no@spam.com (Lyn Kidder) — Mon, 03 Feb 2003 04:59:16 PST

Snow Country magazine called Ruidoso, New Mexico�s Ski Run Road �a 15-mile corkscrew with precious few guardrails.� Well, it�s actually only a little more than 12 miles up to Ski Apache (sometimes it just feels like more) and hey - there are more guardrails than there used to be.

My House of Old Things

no@spam.com (Phyllis Eileen Banks) — Sat, 11 Jan 2003 03:52:45 PST

Located two miles off U. S. Highway 54 to the east, this large eight-room railroad depot displays the history of a thriving town's brief life and economic demise. It was built in 1902, the same year Ancho was established.

Fishing at Bonito Lake - small lessons in life and death

no@spam.com (Greg Holt) — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 04:02:57 PST

Bonito Lake outside Ruidoso in the Sacramento Mountains of Southern New Mexico is a small man-made body of clear water reflecting the blue of the sky behind a dam at the end of a road that follows the Rio Bonito through forested canyons. It lies peacefully in a high country basin north of the sacred Apache peak of Sierra Blanca. It is a fine place for teaching my girls to fish.

Folklore of Lincoln County Post Offices

no@spam.com (Phyllis Eileen Banks) — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 04:00:34 PST

Lincoln County at one time encompassed almost one-fourth of New Mexico and was the largest county in the United States. It was created January 16, 1869, by an act of the Territorial Legislature, and subsequently other counties were wrested from it. They were Chaves, Eddy, and Roosevelt, and portions of Curry, Guadalupe, Otero and Torrance. With a current population of 14,184 and covering 4,859 square miles, Carrizozo is the county seat, changed from Lincoln in 1909. Since its origin, the county has had a total of 70 post offices.

Wildland Firefighter Museum and Smokey Bear Gift shop - a must-see stop in Capitan

no@spam.com (Carla DeMarco) — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 05:15:24 PST

In the summer of 1999, a family of forest service firefighters with an interest in old firefighting tools put together a unique museum in the tiny town of Capitan, New Mexico. Capitan lies at the foot of the Capitan Mountains and rests on rolling wooded hills. It is surrounded by the juniper, pinon, and aspen-studded 1.1 million acre Lincoln National Forest. Capitan's claim to fame is singular: Its forest is the birthplace and burial site of the world-renowned Smokey Bear.

Bob Orlinger - New Mexico's killer deputy

no@spam.com (Bill Kelly) — Sun, 05 Jan 2003 04:36:18 PST

Bob Olinger�s place in New Mexico history roughly parallels Billy the Kid�s, as overblown as that statement may seem. His own mother remembered him with the following unique phraseology, "Bob was a murderer from the cradle, and if there is a hell hereafter then he is there."

A Tree for my Future Ruidoso, New Mexico home

no@spam.com (Greg Holt) — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 05:23:04 PST

The lady at the Forest Service office in Ruidoso said I could take a tree up to ten feet tall, so that's what I was determined to do. Although tempted, I wasn't going to give up on removing this tree and taking it to the land I'd bought a couple of years ago. The land where I'll live someday.

Nogal, Ancho, and Corona - content in peaceful existence

no@spam.com (Phyllis Eileen Banks) — Mon, 30 Dec 2002 04:05:17 PST

Some towns in Southern New Mexico are so small they are scarcely noticed. Nevertheless they exist and have histories. Nogal, four miles off U. S. 370 on NM 37 and eight miles southeast of Carrizozo, is one. Known as Dry Gulch in 1879 when gold was discovered, then Galena, then Parsons, for a miner in 1892 and finally to Nogal. As often happened in the mining areas, when the ore played out the town dwindled or died. Nogal didn't die, although the large hotel that once lodged miners and others is no longer there. Many homes dot the hills, and there are churches and a few businesses - a tiny community content in its peaceful existence.

Ruidoso - a unique mountain community

no@spam.com (Phyllis Eileen Banks) — Sun, 29 Dec 2002 05:44:26 PST

Ruidoso is a place without pretentions and a unique village. A mountain town at 7,000 feet, it is located on U.S. Highway 70. The population numbers about 8,000, more on weekends in the winter when skiers come to town, and up to twenty-five or thirty thousand on summer weekends during horse racing season.