Friday morning, we drove out to White Oaks, which was supposed to be a ghost town. Actually, the population was a booming 13, and there wasn't much "ghost" in the town. We did see the old schoolhouse, and I - ever the intrepid adventurer- braved the creepy outhouse nearby. The nearby Cedarvale cemetery was worth the t
rip. We found the gravesite of JW Bell, one of the deputies killed by Billy the Kid during his famous escape from the Lincoln County Courthouse in 1879.After White Oaks, we drove to the Three Rivers Petroglyph site. In the parki
ng lot, we were picked up by artist/archaeological field illustrator/tour guide Lay Powell (at left), who insisted we join his group going into the "Back 40." Not actually part of the national monument, the "Back 40" is government land with a greater concentration of petroglyphs than the park itself. Lay had spent time as a student actually mapping and recording all the rock art at Three Rivers, so his knowledge of the area was vast. We lucked out! We spent all afternoon hiking through the desert, "discovering" caches of petroglyphs on the hillside and listening to mini-lectures on the history of the area. Apparently, the rocks that make up the Three Rivers site are made of basalt. Basalt holds the opposite charge of lightening, meaning that the area is frequently hit during storms. The Pueblo Indians noted this and decided that the rocks in the area w
ould be the perfect place to record their messages to the gods - The messages could travel up the lightening into the heavens. A kind of spiritual instant message! Chris used up an entire camera memory card here - It was truly amazing to see these remnants of ancient cultures.
One of the petroglyphs (above) is thought to represent Sasquatch - Note the monstrous head with the human-like hand! Supposedly there were sitings near Three Rivers just four years ago - That gave Chris pause...Every morning at the cabin, we'd hear elk bugling up the canyon, and Chris would whisper, "Sasquatch!"
Astonishingly, several of the members of the impromptu tour group were faux finishers - Turns out Ruidoso is a booming area for the trade...All those vacation homes...Hmmmm. Hot faux finishing locale, only 1.5 million people in the entire state, good food, mountains...What could the future hold for the new Mr and Mrs Mietus?? :>
Back to the cabin in the dark again. We finished Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Ruidoso is in the heart of Billy the Kid country, and we were bulking up for our drive to Lincoln the next day. (We'd already read everything the guide book and Ruidoso Local History coffee table book had to say.)
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