Saturday, March 14, 2009

Deming, New Mexico

Deming is in the far south of the American state of New Mexico. If it were just a little bit further south it would actually be in the country of Mexico. It sits about 34 miles (55 km) north of where Pancho Villa famously attacked the United States from Mexico in March 1916. Deming is visually dominated by the beautiful Florida Mountains just to the East. Deming is in the Chihuahuan Desert and has a mild climate. During the winter the population of Deming blooms as all the snowbirds arrive from the frigid north.

The Deming Luna Mimbres museum, housed in the historic Deming Armory (1916) and Customs House features a world class collection of Mimbres painted pottery, historic period-furnished rooms in the Seaman Fields House, an antique auto collection, and countless other displays. This is one of the finest museums in the southwestern United States.

Nearby are the City of Rocks State Park with interesting volcanic rock formations and the Rockhound State Park. The area offers vast mineral & rock collecting opportunities. Each year the Deming Gem & Mineral Society hosts a mineral show called the Rockhound Roundup which attracts visitors from all over the world. I was talking with a man at the show in 2009 only to find out that he was from Barcelona, Spain.

The Florida Mountains is pronounced “Floor-Reed-Ah” not pronounced the same as the phallic shaped American state that so many New Yorkers hope to retire to. The Floridas are beautiful wild, young, rocky mountains. Geodes, chalcedony, calcite and other minerals are found in abundance.

Using the Giga Pan process I recently took a 1,740 mega pixel picture of an interesting area in the northern part of the Florida Mountains which is called Castle Rock.
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To view the full size high resolution picture go to: http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?id=18903

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