On the Road: Post-ALCON Rancho Hidalgo, Day 2

On Monday, June 28, I had the pleasure of spending the day at Rancho Hidalgo, near Animas, New Mexico, with developer Gene Turner, our great host Loy Guzman, and three friends from Celestron, Corey Lee, Eric Kopit, and Rick Garrison. We talked over the whole state of amateur astronomy at great length and also explored the landscape around Gene’s many projects beneath a brief rain, a little cloud, but mostly an azure blue sky, blazing Sun, and temperatures hovering around 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius).

The facility includes the Astronomy Magazine Observatory (which both Gene and I used as a backdrop for our "Where in the World is Astronomy?" photos), the observatories of the Astronomical League and Vanderbilt University, and Clyde Tombaugh’s personal 16-inch telescope. Gene’s ambitious plans this year include at new development at Granite Gap, a few miles to the north, where an RV- and cabin-based community will be constructed that will enable amateur astronomers to obtain modestly priced land and telescope facilities under a world-class dark sky. It is an exciting concept.

After our morning discussions, we decided to set off on a lengthy walk through the desert to several Native American sites thought to have been occupied by Mimbres and other American Indians at least 1,000 years ago. We hiked to caves that still showed faint telltale petroglyphs (depicting mountains, streams, and hunts, we believe) and found numerous other signs of their habitation. Tool points, pot shards, and other artifacts littered areas of the desert floor. Grinding holes used for food processing were abundant in the rocks shelves nearby. And we had a surprise visitor — a diamondback rattlesnake that did not welcome our presence.

After much talking and fun, we headed to one of the great forgotten historical sites of the west, the Shakespeare Ghost Town near Lordsburg, New Mexico. A thriving mining boom town before the railroad bypassed it for Lordsburg, Shakespeare hosted the likes of the Clantons (who later became infamous at Tombstone), Curly Bill Brocious, Johnny Ringo, and for a brief time Billy the Kid. The townsfolk famously hanged two noted outlaws from a joist in the stage building. It stands in an amazing state of preservation, and, again, we saw a rattler greet us there.

We continued our discussions of the amateur astronomy hobby over dinner in Lordsburg as we also met Hollywood elite, including Barrie Osborne (producer of Lord of the Rings, among others) and Vinod Chopra (celebrated Bollywood director), as well as their production crew. They are working, assisted by Gene, on a major film involving Nicholas Cage and others called Broken Horses.

The return to the ranch included a little observing and much more talk about the future before we wound down our visit.

To see pictures from this trip to Rancho Hidalgo, visit our Online Reader Gallery.

Related blog:

On the Road: Post-ALCON Rancho Hidalgo, Day 1