La Mesilla, New Mexico, has changed little since Billy the Kid and Jesse Evans died at the end of its lusty frontier atmosphere. Thick-walled adobe buildings erected by the remarkable men who trekked the heels of Don Rafael Rules from the heart of Old Mexico to settle in the spawning Rio Grande Valley are much the same as they were when 10-year-old Mary Maxwell, the daughter of one of La Mesilla’s forthright citizens, was carted off by a hungry mountain lion while gathering wildberries.

Tucked into an old stucco wall on Calle de Guadalupe just off the Plaza in Mesilla, NM, is the facade of the Fountain Theater, probably the oldest movie theater in New Mexico. Early records are hazy, but since about 1913 when vaudeville acts shared the stage, the Fountain has been showing movies. These days the Mesilla Valley Film Society rents the theater from the Fountain family of Las Cruces. In an old-fashioned setting that is so retro it's becoming fashionable again, cutting-edge cinema winds down the century.

Events always have a precursor and the Gadsden Purchase is no exception. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war with Mexico. It confirmed U.S. claims to Texas and set its boundary at the Rio Grande. Mexico also agreed to cede to the United States, California and New Mexico. This included what is now California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah as well as parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. The purchase price was $15 million and assumption by the United States of claims against Mexico by U. S. citizens. The U. S. Senate ratified it on March 10, 1848 and the Mexican Congress on May 25.