The History trail for the Lincoln Forest Circuit – The True Spirit of the Southwest

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The History trail for the Lincoln Forest Circuit

December 18, 2019

If you are looking for what to do in Alamogordo, things you can do in Ruidoso, or wanting to visit Cloudcroft and history is your thing, this is the Trail for you. It includes all the local museums, cultural centers, historical locations and buildings, parks and monuments important to our local history.

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A Day Trip for History Lovers!

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What is our area's most amazing feature? I ask locals all the time. Invariably, I get the same consistent answer: being able to go from desert to mountain; from sand to snow; from cactuses to pines, in one single hour. Desertic landscapes, heavily forested mountains, and sub-alpine terrains give us such a sense of wonder and variety. There are 4 separate mountain ranges, and a huge basin in between. Frogs, toads, salamanders, hummingbirds, owls, ravens, roadrunners, the White Sands pupfish, Apache spiders, scorpions, Jerusalem crickets, tarantula wasps, walking sticks, black widows, Badgers, Apache mice, jackrabbits, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, kangaroo rats, bats, gophers, porcupines, lizards, turtles, massasaugas, rattlesnakes, and white moths are all amazing creatures living and thriving within the local ecosystems that make the area such a particular wonder. Spring is here and going out is such a pleasure for the soul...

This is a female, can you see those little white blooms? They're the source of all that cotton-like fluff flying all over our driveway. It's spring and all the cottonwoods know it! Ancestral Puebloans living here collected catkins and leaves for food. Not sure if those were from the female or male trees. But this white fluff that you're looking at was mixed with the white sap from milkweeds and used for chewing gum. Sugar free, 100% organic chewing gum. And free of charge too! As Spanish settlers began moving into the area, they also made use of our cottonwood trees. They treated fevers, arthritis, and diarrhea with a tea made from the bark. By mixing the ashes of the burned bark with cornmeal and water, they prepared astringing poultices to treat abscesses. Diuretics were also prepared from the dried cottonwood leaves by the making of infusions. Looking at all the trees, bushes, grasses, flowers and living things around, I wonder how many other wonderful medicinal secrets they hold. I wish I could live another 100 years to find out about all of them.. Life's too short!

Why are the pine trees in my yard foaming? A couple of days ago; during my morning walk, I saw this foam at the bottom of a couple of the pine trees that line my driveway. The rain we were getting wasn't hard but very steady, and that's not something that happens frequently in our corner of New Mexico. Monsoons is what we're used to, and l absolutely love them although they can be very dangerous. As usual when I want to know something and there's no one around to help me, I Googled. But I'm surprised to find that there's no firm explanation to this, albeit there are a couple of theories about the compounds of the tree itself or accumulated chemical residues in the trunk causing a reaction when combined with the rain. So, does that mean this is a new phenomenon? But you know what was also awesome during this steady rain? The smell. As I was walking under the umbrella I have barely used for the past five years, the morning smell was so pleasantly amplified by the rain; it felt like an explosion of smells in my nose. So pleasant was it, that I lost track of the number of laps I was doing and instead focused on trying to identify which smell was coming from where... Spring is here, and we're all just loving it!

Have you been seeing these blood red things (pods?) in the area? The Alamo cottonwoods (from which these fruits hang) are native to the southwestern United States, and northern to central Mexico. You'll only be able to find them near streams, rivers, springs, seeps, and wetlands below 6,600 ft elevation. Their leaves are not visible as of yet, but are very frequently stained with resin, and only bloom during the months of March and April. Cottonwood trees were used by our Native American ancestors in various ways. The native tribes of Western United States chewed the inner bark to treat vitamin C deficiencies, and along with the leaves it was also used to make a poultice that reduced inflammation and treated wounds. The Pima People of Southern Arizona and northern Mexico liked to use the cottonwood twigs to make fine and intricate baskets while the Coahuilla People of southern California used the tree's wood to make tools. The Puebloan used cottonwood trees for drum making, and the Lower Colorado River Quechan People made used it in ritualistic cremation. The Hopi People of northeastern Arizona carve the roots and create Kachina figures, to instruct young girls and new brides about the immortal beings that bring rain and act as messengers between the material and spiritual worlds.

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