December 10, 2008

December 10, 2008

From Las Cruces, NM we drove the short distance to El Paso, TX. Before leaving we had to scrape a thin layer of frost from the car. I guess I should be happy we are getting an opportunity to re-thicken our blood and ease our way back into Chicago winter weather.

In El Paso with some difficulty we found Chamizal National Memorial. I had no idea what to expect at this historic site. The small park sits on the Rio Grande River and is supposed to celebrate the friendship and goodwill between Mexico and the US. The interesting history of the site illustrates how contentious the relationship actually was. After the end of the Mexican War, in theory the international border west of El Paso was land-based and eastward was the Rio Grande. In reality river borders are fickle and a dispute arose over a valuable parcel of land in the city of Juarez, called Chamizal. After the Rio Grande shifted course this small acreage ended up north of the river in downtown El Paso. This tract of land was a bone of contention between the two countries for years and years. It was not settled until Latin American relations became paramount during the Cold War in JFK’s administration. A new border was drawn, El Paso citizens uprooted, and a concrete river channel constructed to make the decision permanent. Peace and harmony at last.

From El Paso we continued east on I-10 for several hours before making a detour south to Fort Davis National Historic Site. This fort built in 1854 sits in a scenic box canyon and protected travelers on the San Antonio to El Paso Road from attack by Comanches and Apaches. Because of the brisk temperature, we made our tour of the large grounds extra-quick. We watched a short film about the fort and were surprised to see Kareem Abdul Jabbar narrating it while dressed in a cavalry uniform.

From Fort Davis we drove north till we connected up with I-20 and spent the night in Midland, TX.