This small town of Columbus, NM had significant moments in history.
I had no idea of what to expect, other than a pleasant place on the southern border of New Mexico where we would camp, ... and just 3 miles from the actual border with Mexico. We took an arranged tour of the railroad station, (just across the road from our State Park location). It is now a museum filled with valuable and impressive memorabilia and other artifacts of days gone by. We were all enthralled with the docent, Lee, who regaled us with the historical significance of the US Army Fort Furlong . It was the 1st location of an air force base, and had the 1st licensed pilot with #0001 and was taught how to pilot an airplane by Orville and Wilber Wright, (who later became the commanding general of the Allied Air Force in WWI, and who had joined the US Army at the age of 14 ... (he had used his older brothers birth certificate to enlist),. Other notables assigned to the Fort furlong were, "Black Jack" Pershing, George Patton, Douglas McArthur, Lt. Lucas and Dwight D. Eisenhower, to name just a few! This was also the last place where the US Cavalry was utilized, on mounted horse back, to engage an enemy force! I have included a link, below, that has a nice feature. It will play an audio accounting of the history of the attack of the fort and the town of Columbus by "Pancho" Villa. I hope that you will 'cut & paste the link into your browser for the audio. (Your browser's back arrow should get you back to our Blog).
http://www.mevio.com/shows/?mode=detail&episode_id=53120
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