The town of Magdalena, NM is about 40 minutes from Socorro so we headed there to look for the ghost town of Kelly, NM. Founded in 1866 by John Hutchason, it was originally named Middle Camp and and formed a hub for the Graphic, Waldo, Juanita, and Kelly Mines. The name Kelly came from Patrick H. Kelley who held a few of the claims. By 1884, Kelly Township was established with banks, churches, saloons, a clinic, and several mercantile stores, while Magdalena was established 3 miles north as the AT & SF Railway terminus to haul away the precious ores from these mines. The Kelly mine headframe is about all that’s left standing. By 1947 it became a ghost town. Today, two people live there. We bet they have stories to tell!

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On our route we found a Very Large Array (VLA) of antennas. It is comprised of twenty-seven (25-meter tall) radio telescopes. Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission. Wow!

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In Springerville, AZ we found a statue of the Modonna of the Trails. It is one of a series of monuments dedicated to the spirit of pioneer women in the United States. The monuments were commissioned by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. They were installed in each of the 12 states along the National Old Trails Road, which extended from Cumberland, Maryland, to Upland, CA.

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In Holbrook, AZ we took the usual pictures of dinosaurs and the Wigwam Hotel. One very hard picture to take was that of a mural map. It is so long! If you drag and drop it onto your computer you may be able to see some details.