Travel: Postcard from Las Luces, New Mexico

Shadowed by Artsy-Fartsy Taos and Santa Fe, this is New Mexico’s most underrated city.

Lasruces is located in the Mesila Valley, surrounded by organ mountains with sawtooth spires. Thanks to the Rio Grande River, this city of 111,385 souls is large enough to become the second largest city in the state. A little downstream of the river forms the US border with Mexico.

If readers know Lasluci, it is probably for space or New Mexico State University.

Space Pillar America is located about 45 miles outside town while NASA first came and retained its presence. This is useful for the fledgling commercial space industry. Meanwhile, New Mexico (the state’s oldest university) with 22,000 students is an NCAA Division I school.

Certainly not very suitable for Lasruces. Downtown has yet to fully recover from the city updates of the 1960s, which essentially destroyed cityscapes. Every Saturday, the Farmers Market brings much needed pedestrians to Main Street.

Everything you lack in downtown Lasruces can be found in the old Mesila. It is now a quaint suburb and is actually in front of Rathrucci.

Mesila was the first place in 1854 when the stars were raised after the US acquired the present Arizona and New Mexico belts from Mexico through the purchase of Gadsden. Think about the destiny of manifesto. Mesila was then the capital of Arizona’s short-lived Confederate territory.

The town is built around the central square, in which case it is fixed by the Roman Catholic Church, in this case San Albino Cathedral. Built between 1906 and 1908 to replace the original Adobe structure, the brick church was raised to the fusion of Romanesque and Spanish mission architecture and in 2008 the dignity of a minor basilica. Century France.

Faced on the northwest corner of the square at the intersection of Paian and Guadalupe Avenues, is a building from the era that once housed the post-Velum territorial capital and courthouse. It is now a somewhat kitschy gift shop, where Henry McCarty, known as Billy the Kid, was tested and sentenced in 1881. Today, the shop has the name of perhaps the most famous outlaw of the wild west period. The building for another period is New Mexico’s oldest brick age.

Some doors on Calle de Guadalupe are double eagles. The fine dining restaurant, which transformed into a home around 1849, is essentially an art and antique museum. What’s worth noting is the lounge with a gorgeously carved second empire style bar. The decoration rivals the decoration of similar facilities in a metropolis to the east.

If you’re going

Mesilla Valley also has several wineries and vineyards. New Mexico wine is so much, even if its producers are not widely known outside the fascinating land. Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends feature two wine festivals each year, but appraisers will likely choose to experience the selected vintage in one tasting room at the local winery .

Hatch, widely known in the southwest of Childs, is a simple day trip. The small town hosts its eponymous Chile Festival every Labor Day weekend. Other day trips include Chihuawan Desert Natural Park, Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument, and White Sands National Park. Check out the city-run art museums as well.

I stayed in the courtyard, a Marriott brand hotel just off the university campus. In hindsight, I wish I had booked the Hacienda de Mesilla, a non-chain hotel featuring classic Southwest designs. Probably the best hotel in and around Las Luces.

In addition to Double Eagle (reservations are proposed), dine at DH Lescombes Winery & Bistro and Hacienda de Mesila.

The nearest airport is 45 miles away in El Paso, Texas. American, Delta, Southwest and United are one of the airlines that offer daily service. For readers planning a road trip, Phoenix is ​​five and a half hours away. Drives from Las Vegas, Dallas and Denver take just under 10 hours.

Dennis Lennox is a travel column for Christian Post.