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    New Mexico Space Trail
    New Mexico Space Trail
    New Mexico Space Trail
    Ebook213 pages1 hour

    New Mexico Space Trail

    By Joseph T. Page II

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    About this ebook

    In the Southwestern United States, the skies above New Mexico have provided an amazing stargazing experience for two millennia. Images of America: New Mexico Space Trail catalogs sites within the state that have inspired humankind to reach for the stars. The Space Trail includes various archaeoastronomy locations, such as Chaco Canyon, which Native Americans used to predict agricultural schedules according to the sun s position during the solstice. Rocket development in Roswell, missile launches in the Tularosa Basin, astronomy efforts around the state, and commercial space flights are just a few of the stops along the trail. Join the journey and discover night skies that are so dark that the Milky Way and its millions of luminous stars create shadows over the desert landscape.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 6, 2013
    ISBN9781439643280
    New Mexico Space Trail
    Author

    Joseph T. Page II

    Joseph T. Page II is a longtime resident of Southern New Mexico. Photographs detailing the New Mexico Space Trail were graciously provided by the New Mexico Museum of Space History, the US Department of Defense, various New Mexico educational institutions, and private collections. All of the author�s royalties from the sale of this book will go to the New Mexico Museum of Space History�s education and historical preservation efforts.

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    • 3/5
      It's a photo book. It's in the Images of America series, so it should be no surprise that it's a photo book, full of photos. A lot of these are interesting historical photos, more than the sites today. This is kind of a drawback because it looks like this is a book of sites you won't see in the same way. There's no indication of how to get to some of the sites, The lack of current photos for some of them means you might not know when you are there that you are there. It's where you can find more information about some of these sites. It's all a bit of a tease.If what you want are historic images of America, like the series title suggests, then this is excellent. If you want more information about the New Mexico Space Trail, this isn't it.

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    New Mexico Space Trail - Joseph T. Page II

    author.

    INTRODUCTION

    The Mescalero Apache people of southeastern New Mexico have a very strong connection with the universe through ethnoastronomy. Described by Morris Opler, the dean of Apachean scholarship, the Mescalero live the sky on a daily basis. So strong are their beliefs that, as with other Native American tribes in the Southwest, characteristics of their culture have remained through present-day New Mexico symbols. The individual threads of the New Mexico Space Trail have similarly permeated through almost every inch of this southwestern state.

    The roots of the trail start with mankind’s emergence in the Southwest over 11,000 years ago. The Clovis culture, named for their discovery near Clovis, New Mexico, were a group of hunter-gatherers. While primarily hunters, they did show evidence of rudimentary agricultural knowledge as gatherers. This next step in evolutionary anthropology, advanced knowledge of agriculture, would become a founding reason for the earliest sites on the Space Trail.

    Chaco Canyon was a great center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo peoples. Collection of foodstuffs and storage made it imperative that the peoples knew when spring planting and autumn harvest would occur. The key to this schedule became the solstices and equinoxes. The culture’s complex knowledge of celestial events is documented in evidence found at Chaco Canyon, seemingly from generations of astronomical observations.

    Other archaeoastronomy sites around the state provide incontrovertible evidence of ancient humans’ knowledge of the universe with practical applications. Two sites in the Sacramento Mountains dubbed Wally’s Dome and Wizard’s Roost form two nodes in an intricate network of solstice observation posts. The draw to New Mexicans of viewing the heavens has continued into the present day with technologically advanced instruments. Astronomical observatories are present at all major educational institutions, such as New Mexico State University (NMSU), New Mexico Tech (NMT), and the University of New Mexico (UNM). The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), run by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), is splayed out on the Plains of San Augustin, in the west central part of the state. Observatories atop the Sacramento Mountains monitor the solar system’s favorite thermonuclear heat source, the sun.

    Breaking the stereotypical paradigm of astronomy research, two entities located within the Sacramento Mountains have taken an entrepreneurial spin on astronomy education for the masses. The Tzec Maun Foundation and Earthrise Institute have created an impressive collection of telescopes and very desirable locations for gazing at the heavens. Tzec Maun’s telescopes are accessible through the Internet, allowing anyone with access to steer the scopes.

    Once humankind’s technical ability to reach the stars synchronized with the universe’s entrancing draw, the first steps to space began—right here in New Mexico. Highlights along the trail, such as Dr. Robert H. Goddard’s rocket experiments, V-2 missile launches at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), medical tests for Mercury astronauts, training of the first chimpanzee in space, and the creation of the world’s first commercial spaceport, are best summed up by New Mexico’s state motto, Crescit Eundo—It grows as it goes. This succinct motto is a perfectly apt description of the continuing legacy of New Mexico’s contribution to space exploration.

    One

    ORIGINS OF THE SPACE TRAIL

    As travelers cross the New Mexico state line, they are welcomed by the words Welcome to the Land of Enchantment on highway signs along the edge of the interstate. Additionally, visitors are also welcomed into New Mexico’s storied history by various historic highway markers commemorating famous dates within the state’s history or prominent geographic features within view of the marker. The markers give pause to the new visitors—instead of speeding through the Southwest at breakneck speeds, the markers encourage one to reflect on the activities of the past.

    The origins of the New Mexico Space Trail took seed in the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Historic Preservation Division’s simple, yet effective, tourism program: the highway historic markers. Starting in 1935, New Mexico tourism gurus used simple signs mounted inside wood frames to entice highway travelers to stop and admire the sites while spending some money on souvenirs and food. These original markers were simple, hand-cut wood with the informative text scrawled onto them.

    In the intervening decades, the Highway Historic Trail grew to over 300 signs around the state, and it is viewed by millions of highway travelers per year. On one of these highways, New Mexico Museum of Space History curator George House passed by a historical marker and asked, There are no space-related historical markers anywhere in the state. Why not combine the two and have a space trail?

    Imagining roadside markers denoting the state’s space legacy and promoting tourism, House envisioned a family-friendly summer vacation driving through the state and visiting each site. Budget constraints, however, precluded the state erecting new roadside markers. Through due diligence, the Space Trail idea didn’t die, it flourished. Using information he researched for a 1990 presentation to a historical society, House developed maps outlining the trail, while the museum’s savvy research and marketing team expanded on the educational efforts of the trail’s legacy.

    In 2010, working with the museum, New Mexico representative Dennis Kintigh (R-Roswell) introduced a memorial bill designating the trail, completing a task that had been compiled over the span of two decades.

    All the sites on the New Mexico Space Trail are approximate locations. They include: 1. Wizard’s Roost; 2. Wally’s Dome; 3. Tenuco Observatory; 4. Three Rivers Petroglyphs; 5. Chaco Canyon; 6. Scholle Crab Nebula Supernova Petroglyph; 7. Zuni Pueblo Crab Nebula Supernova Petroglyph; 8. Sand Paintings, Navajo Reservation; 9. New Mexico State University; 10. Robert Goddard Rocket Research Site; 11. Kirtland Air Force Base; 12. Holloman Air Force Base; 13. Los Alamos National Laboratory; 14. Walker Air Force Base; 15. Cannon Air Force Base; 16. Sandia National Laboratory; 17. White Sands Missile Range; 18. Trinity Site; 19. NMSU Physical Science Laboratory; 20. Alleged UFO Crash Sites; 21. Sacramento Peak, Sunspot, New Mexico; 22. University of New Mexico Campus Observatory; 23. New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired; 24. Lovelace Medical Center; 25. McGregor Range; 26. New Mexico Tech; 27. Atlas Missile Silos; 28. White Sands Test Facility; 29. Bradbury Science Museum; 30. Valles Caldera National Preserve; 31. Philmont Boy Scout Ranch; 32. Tzec Maun Observatory; 33. Zuni Salt Lake; 34. National Museum of Nuclear Science and History; 35. Roswell Museum and Art Center;

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