Blogs from Silver City, New Mexico, United States, North America

SHERIFF HARVEY WHITEHILL Harvey was born in Ohio in 1838 and stuck around there until he was 19 years old, then headed off to California Gulch, near what would later become Leadville in Colorado. He got there early enough to strike a fairly nice pocket of placer gold. Within a year he sold his claim for fifteen thousand dollars and then wisely left town before the new owners found out his claim was about played out. From there he ventured into New Mexico and like any prudent miner he kept right on prospecting until the money was all gone. In the meantime he had married a girl named Harriet Stevens, built one of the first homes in Silver City, and started up a boisterous family that eventually included ten youngsters. During those early years in Silver ... read more

We were up early again this morning, but for some reason it took us a while to get moving. Perhaps it was the great breakfast at La Quinta…better than average…cheese omelets and thin and delicately crispy bacon. Just ask Beamer. He had his share of both. We got on the road at 8 AM and attempted to follow the onboard GPS to I-20, which was not far from the hotel, but we missed the first turn and ended up having to find a place to turn around. Steve chose to drive down a side street and, by chance, it took us to a place I had read about but forgot to look for yesterday. The road led to UTPB (University of Texas at Permian Basin) and what did we find, purely by accident? A replica of ... read more

Greetings everyone, and thanks for checking in with us. It's been a little while since our last update, and we've eeked out quite a few miles since Chama. We have a lot of photos that we'd like to share, including ones from our passage through the southern Rockies, into northern New Mexico's red rock desert, then into the stunning rattlesnake haven of El Malpais ('Badlands'), then through the curiously but appropriately named hamlet of Pie Town, through the wind blasted San Agustin Plains, back up into the beautiful and remote Gila (pronounced HEE-la) National Forest, and finally down into the Spanish-western influenced town of Silver City at the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert. Due to the remoteness of where we've been over the last week or two, we've been camping a lot more, often against ... read more

Hola from New Mexico! We are writing to you all from a McDonald's in Silver City. (Thanks again, Mom, for the gift card!) Madison and I let go of a sigh of relief when we walked into this McDonald's to see several other transients with their laptops and no NO LOITERING signs. It can be difficult occasionally to find places to hang out when we need a break from van life. We've relied heavily on the Big 3: McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, and Walmart. Walmart has been our saving grace - we sleep in its parking lots every night. They actually invite travelers to stay. Most Walmarts even provide 24 hour roaming security. Thanks Walmart! So, we've come a long way since Amarillo. We traveled through snow and heavy fog to get to Santa Fe. On the ... read more

Please bear with us there could be pictures that are of no interest to you. These are for our personal friends Bob and Mary Nelson that lived in Pinos Altos). We woke up to a magnificent morning today. It was 60 degrees at 6:00a.m. and we saw some Gambel’s Quail and Jack Rabbits while drinking coffee. (see pictures) Headed up to Silver City and stopped at the Information Center where they had lots of history related stories for us. The woman on duty talked about the cliff dwellings and copper mines (Grant Co./ Silver City is the richest county in NM). Also we were told to check out the “Old City” that has much restoration in progress. Just outside the center was a log cabin that was donated by Ron Howard, used in the movie ... read more