R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 169

David Williams Tour Part 12 — Mission Socorro and Mission Ysleta

Mission Socorro

Ursula, David Williams, and I made our way inside the Mother’s Day festivities area headed over to the Socorro Mission. On the outside it may not look nearly as impressive as Presidio San Elizario, but looks can be deceiving. Here’s the inside:

Mission Socorro

As you can see it contains an incredible wood-beamed ceiling inside the thick adobe walls (note the windows for a hint at how thick). Adobe construction is a fascinating feature of the early Southwest. In dry areas such...

Rifleman’s Rifle Video — 1,000 Hits and Counting

I just this afternoon passed a milestone of sorts. My popular YouTube video on how to spin-cock a full-size Model 1892 rifle as well as the Model 1892-based Rossi Ranch Hand just hit 1,000 views. Many thanks to all who viewed that video and helped me reach the 1,000-views mark. As you’ll recall, that video was produced for my blog post Firearms — Television Westerns from the 1950s.

Rifleman’s Rifle (made by Mike DiMuzio using a Rossi M92 rifle with 20″ barrel) and Rossi Ranch Hand Pistol

The...

David Williams Tour Part 11 — Presidio Chapel San Elizario and Mission Socorro

Presidio Chapel San Elizario

We left Hueco Tanks behind and headed south and west for yet another El Paso area attraction — the Spanish Missions along El Paso’s Mission Trail. Ursula drove, I navigated, and our visitor David Williams rode in chauffeured comfort. Since we were already east of El Paso we ran the trail in the opposite direction — starting at the farthest mission and heading west back toward the city of El Paso.

Presidio Chapel San Elizario

When going this direction, the first Sp...

Fun Photo Friday — David Williams at Hueco Tanks 2

Escontrias Ranch House

This Fun Photo Friday is a two-fer. On this last look at Hueco Tanks I’m going to relate another piece of history here before presenting today’s gallery of favorites. You may have wondered why all this wetland wasn’t put to commercial use. Well, it was. In 1898 Silverio Escontrias purchased Hueco Tanks from previous owner Juan Armendariz, who had purchased this land in 1895 and began to do some ranching. Silverio Escontrias wasted little time settling in and for nearly...

David Williams Tour Part 10 — Hueco Tanks Continued

There was a time, not so very long ago, when access to Hueco Tanks was unrestricted. Hundreds of thousands visited every year. But, as usual, there are always a few idiots who ruin a good thing for everyone else. Now visitation is tightly controlled, with a maximum number of visitors allowed into the park at any given moment. It’s best to call ahead to reserve a time, or you could face a long wait. Our wait was around an hour or so, but we went during the off season on a school day.

Ancient P...

David Williams Tour Part 9 — Hueco Tanks Continued

Last week I hinted to you the importance of the wetlands located within Hueco Tanks. Beginning over 10,000 years ago this oasis supplied critically needed water to the Clovis and later Folsom Paleo-Indian cultures. Later cultures supported here were the Mesilla and Doña Ana phases, stretching into the Mogollon Culture which I detailed in my series on the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site (links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) . Eventually the Mescalero Apache moved into the area

Sand Verbana

More r...

Fun Photo Friday — David Williams at Hueco Tanks 1

Bench and Boulder

This Fun Photo Friday and next I’ll be presenting to you some of my favorite shots from this outing with David Williams to Hueco Tanks. Here is today’s photo album:

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted. The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links ba...

David Williams Tour Part 8 — Hueco Tanks Continued

Hueco Tanks Wetland

Hueco Tanks State Historical Park holds an incredibly diverse set of attractions. Divided into four distinct “mountains” — North Mountain, East Mountain, West Mountain, and East Spur — only the North Mountain has unrestricted, unguided access. There is however a trail that skirts the northern edge of East Mountain that also grants limited unguided access, but not to the mountain itself.

Hueco Tanks Trees

One of the attractions in the Hueco Tanks park is it’s wetland, a oas...

David Williams Tour Part 7 — Hueco Tanks

Hueco Tanks State Historical Park

Just beyond the El Paso city limits to the east and just north of the Carlsbad Highway — the combined highways U.S. Route 180 and U.S. Route 62 — is the site of a rather mystical place called Hueco Tanks, a Texas State Historical Park. Here at Hueco Tanks, which lay just west of the Hueco Mountains, the visitor will find world-class bouldering, incredible birding, Mogollon pictographs dating back over 700 to 1,700 years, and even the adobe and rock wall remna...

Fun Photo Friday — David Williams at Cloudcroft, Mexican Canyon, and the Franklins

View from Transmountain Pass

Don’t go away from the past two weeks’ worth of blog posts thinking the only things to see in the El Paso area are outside El Paso. Far from it. El Paso is a major city — 19th in the country in terms of population, and fifth largest in Texas. And it’s unique. It’s the only major U.S. city I know that is divided by a mountain chain. The Franklin Mountains divide West El Paso from the Northeast portion of town. Only a narrow strip of land between the south end of th...