A Trip of Discovery

My beloved and I hit the road to the lovely area of Ruidoso. Our second day there dawned lovely and cool and we hit the road to see a ghost town by the name of White Oaks (northwest of Ruidoso). The old town was a challenge to navigate. There were lovely old houses perched on hillsides. There was only one open business in town ~ that being a bar. We tried to find access roads to see all of the old houses as well as the downtown. The only building we found with an passable gravel road was an old schoolhouse with a tower and a bell atop it. We walked around it. I saw open slats of the basement and smelled the old musty air.

After we left the schoolhouse, we found no more gravel roads going to any of the buildings. We did see three old homes that were well taken care of and had current occupants. We had some limitations on sightseeing in this ghost-town as we were driving a small Toyota and the gravel roads spreading out to other locations were meant for 4-wheel drive vehicles. It must have been a lovely town during its heyday. We saw many hummingbirds flying around. This old ghost town was very spread-out. The town looked to be a community of some sufficient size at one time. It had been a gold mining town. On our way out, we stopped by a cemetery to walk around and look at the stones. After reading many of the stones with dates of births in the early 1800s and deaths being in the mid to late 1800s; I feel a feeling of sadness for the loss of those people that died and also for those that lost their love ones.

I was very impressed with our discovery of this ghost town. It was exciting .... my only disappointment, with our not being able to go to many of the areas because of challenging roads.

We then turned east at Carizzozo, NM and headed for Fort Stanton. Fort Stanton was established in 1855 to protect settlements against Apaches. The fort was in very good condition. A number of groups have occupied the fort since the 1850s, such as confederate soldiers, Kit Carson and the Union troops and the Buffalo Soldiers. The first building is open to the public and is a museum manned by a volunteer. The volunteer encouraged us as well as others to come back the next day where there were to be events and tours of the fort. Since we were only allowed to go to the first building on this day, I was most curious to see the rest of the buildings in the fort on the next day. The outlay of the fort was very attractive. I understand that they only do this opening of the fort up on one day of the year. Since I have a knowledge of the layout of forts due to my husband's and my past experience as active duty Army & Army employee, I was intrigued to get to know the lovely fort.

History: Fort Stanton was established in 1855 to protect settlers in the area against the Apache raids. In 1861 the fort was abandoned to Confederate soldiers. In 1862 Kit Carson and Union troops occupied Fort Stanton while campaigning against the Apaches. During the 1880s, Billy the Kid was incarcerated at Ft Stanton. 1887, Black Jack Pershing begins first of two tours served at fort. In 1896, the fort was decommissioned by the Army. In 1899, the fort became the Ft Stanton Public Health Office Hospital - dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis. In 1939, it became the country's first internment camp before WWII. In 1953, the State of New Mexico took it over and continued to operate it as a sanitarium for fourteen more years - it was converted to care for the mentally handicapped and known as Fort Stanton Hospital and Training Center. 1966, it became the Los Lunas Branch Hospital for the Developmentally Disabled. In 1996, it was a State Corrections Facility.

After an exciting day up in the beautiful mountains surrounding Ruidoso and the other areas visited, we were tired and called it a night. I spoke to the Fort's volunteer and learned that she moved to Ruidosos from Long Island, NY several years ago and she and her husband absolutely loved living up there with the cool climate.