New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces

We spent a few days with Raymona's parents in Las Cruces, NM last week (Mar 18-22). Actually we were about 16 miles north of LC at Leasburg Dam State Park near Radium Springs. What a great little park - terrific views, good campsites, clean bathrooms & shower house, nice 'hiking' trails throughout the park. Bryan & I spent one night there on our way back from Texas a few weeks ago.

While in the area we took in a few sites - the weather got pretty warm and we both had our dogs with us so we were limited on site-seeing to the early mornings before it got too hot to leave the dogs in the vehicles... but we did see a fantastic museum and the farmers market.

I think one of the highlights of the trip was the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum (http://www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org/). What a fantastic place to visit. It detailed out 3000 years of the farming & ranching in the New Mexico from the Mogollon First Nation to present day cotton, pecan, etc farmers. Lots of detail about how the early Indians and pioneers farmed the land from the arid high-desert near Chaco Canyon to the Rio Grande river valley.

New Mexico Farm and Ranch
Heritage Museum

Mogollon Pit House

Sign explaining the Mogollon Pit House

There are also lots of antique (& new) farming equipment on display, it was neat to walk through and have my Dad point out implements that they either used or still have lying around their ranch. Being on a ranch, they had to scavenge parts from one piece of equipment to another so sometimes he'd say - "we have part of that, had to take the wheels, cogs, insert part here, off to fix that machine over there".

Old Farm Equipment (Dad told me what it was
but I can't remember now)

A great exhibit inside the museum is the "Farm Life in New Mexico: Then and Now" this beautiful new exhibit features four major sections: “Moving Around,” “On the Farm,” “Home Sweet Home,” and “Going to Town.” This exhibit had antique carts & wagons as well as modern harvesting equipment on display. There were excellent storyboards outlining the history of farming/ranching in NM from Chaco Canyon to present day. There was also a nostalgic look at home life on a farm - display farm house rooms and a recreated country store & post office. I really enjoyed it but my parents really liked it, pointing out items from their childhood & early adulthood. It was great to share that with them.

Milk separator

Recreation of an old country store

Old timey post office

Surrey and buckboard

Stagecoach

While we didn't go out to the milk barn and animal corrals, there are extensive live animal displays on the premises. There are picnic areas and great visitas from the museum. The back courtyard is outlined with paver stones with New Mexico brands embedded in there - my brand (my grandpa's old one) wasn't there of course, as it was/is a fundraiser for the museum and costs $250 to have one set for you.

Back courtyard of Museum

View of Organ Mtns from museum courtyard

Sample of brands in courtyard

My favorite brand (other than my own)
The "Two Lazy Two P"

The museum also has part of the old Green Bridge, the oldest steel highway bridge in NM. This bridge spanned the Pecos River east of Roswell, NM.

Check out the website listed above for current & upcoming events - the museum hosts a variety of "seminars", such as dowsing (witching) for water (or whatever, there's a whole listof things you can witch for). Anyway, this is really a great museum and if you are ever in the Las Cruces area, I suggest you check it out. (Cost is $5 per person, $3 for seniors)