The Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum
The Commercial History of New Mexico
Las Cruces, New Mexico
March 26, 2003
Having
traveled all 50 states, we have seen most of them in a piecemeal fashion as we
wandered aimlessly from one point to another. New Mexico was one of the
states that we covered from side to side and from top to bottom. There are
not a lot of big towns, but it seemed almost every place we stopped had something
of interest to offer. The Farm and Ranch Heritage museum just outside Las Cruces
was not the most spectacular exhibit we had been to but it had a lot of
interesting things. Primarily it dealt with the agricultural aspects of the
state, mostly from the distant past. A brochure explained that there were some
25,000 square feet for the exhibit made up of a combination of permanent and
traveling exhibits. 
One
exhibit uses 33 people to tell the story of 3000 years of agriculture in the
state. There are hundreds of photographs and artifacts along with some full size
dioramas. We
started with an exhibit of a Mogollon Pithouse used by local Indians about 1300
years ago. This half-buried structure would have been part of a village
consisting of several pithouses and one larger structure probably used for
activities involving the entire community. These villages were built on
terraces overlooking the Mimbres River and its tributaries, as well 
as elsewhere
in the southwest of the state. The objects in the pithouse reflect the daily
activities of the local prehistoric farmers. Many of the activities revolved
around food. These people had domestic foods. Mostly they planted a form of
corn which they ground into a maize. With corn being the staple for the
ancient dwellers of this state, there were many photos and artifacts about the
product. Laura found a grinding stone and stone grinder where she tried
her luck at creating maize. It wasn't long before she was back, reporting
that there was far too much work required for the amount of food she was able to
create. In colonial New Mexico, grain and flour
were stored in large chests on legs, protecting them from 
rodent
infestation. Surviving a long winter was dependant upon stored grain and
other food items. The large grain chest was designed with survival in mind
and was an important possession. The grain granero was the largest piece of furniture
a family might posses and was kept outside under a protective portal erected as
common property in the center of the village. From here we passed through
exhibits about pecans, cotton and every other type of agriculture ever developed
in the state. After the inside review was complete, we ventured outside to
see what the surrounding land had to offer. A large portion of the land
behind the museum building was covered with old rusting relics of a day
gone by. Many of the implements were easily recognized, as we wandered
through tractors, hay rakes, harrows, plows, ditch diggers and all kinds of
other devices designed for specific needs that have long since been replaced by
the modern, more sophisticated, electronic devises used today. Our final
tour was through the animal pens which contained the usual assortment of horses,
cows and sheep. Laura wandered around until a particular sheep took a
liking to her and wandered over to say "hello". Although
the exhibits stayed fairly close to the theme of New Mexico agriculture, I felt
that it was well worth the time and effort to visit.
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