Northeast New Mexico

Northeast New Mexico

The kicks available along Route 66 are pretty tame these days compared to how they must have appeared a generation or two back when the historic highway was the main artery for Americans travelling from the East to Los Angeles. By the time the road crosses from Texas into New Mexico, it has been absorbed by Interstate 40, which cuts a broad swath through desert which, with its uninhabited canyons and mesas, could be the backdrop for a Road Runner cartoon.

But a couple of small towns in this remote corner of the country do what they can to keep the Route 66 heritage alive-an effort much appreciated by the groups of German tourists and others eager for a shot of American mythology.

In Tucumcari, the old highway ran down the middle of Main Street. The motel signs, many from the 1950s, are still lovingly maintained by the owners. While the town of 6000 is trying to diverse its economics with a cheese factory and a soon to be opened dinosaur museum, beds for the night continue as the town's main source of revenue.

An hour west is Santa Rosa, an unlikely oasis in the desert. For here lies Blue Hole, a natural limestone chasm which attracts ups to 250 trainee divers every weekend from as far away as Denver and Phoenix. During the summer, local fishermen and swimmers come by the pick-up truckload to enjoy the various water holes and lakes around the town.

While I-40 rolls on to Albuquerque and eventually to L.A., motorists heading north cut-off at Santa Rosa towards the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the quirky backwater of Las Vegas, NM. Although excised from history books by American revisionists, Las Vegas was the largest and most important town between St. Louis and San Francisco during the frontier days of the 19th century. Among its other claims to fame was its role as the main military and agricultural center for the Southwest.

Las Vegas provided the first relative civilization encountered at the end of the grueling Santa Fe Trail. But with that civilization came a well-earned reputation as one of the most violent Old West towns. Bad hombres like Billy the Kid, Jesse James and the psychopathic Doc Holiday and numerous lesser known characters all had their shoot 'em up session on Las Vegas streets.

The arrival of the railroad in 1879 brought a fresh wave of entrepreneurs from the East who built lavish Victorian homes. The wealth vanished, however, almost overnight when the railroad moved on to Santa Fe 20 years later, leaving behind the 900 houses listed today on the National Historic register.

Mat Kreitman
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