At 4 am on 9 March 1916, Pancho Villa invaded the United States and launched a raid on Columbus New Mexico, robbing and looting and killing 10 civilians as well as 8 soldiers of the US 13th Cavalry K Troop. It so happens that Captain Higbee Davidson commanding E Troop of the 13th had just a few months earlier moved his Troop from Columbus to Alpine Texas as mentioned in yesterday's blog post.
As a result of the raid Higbee and the rest of the 13th Cavalry were in the lead several weeks later when several thousand US Army troops departed Columbus and invaded Mexico in pursuit of Villa. Higbee spent the next 8 months in Mexico fighting under General George Pershing until somebody decided the "splendid little war" wasn't so splendid after all and everybody went home.
Since Columbus is more or less on the way to where we are going, it was a must stop for me. I was a little nervous about the 60 mile road from El Paso to Columbus since it closely parallels the US/Mexican border and is uninhabited and lightly traveled (except by border jumpers and drug runners). Additionally, in 2012 virtually the entire city government of Columbus, including the police force, was indicted for gun running across the boarder. As a final straw, Justice Watch just a few days ago reported the following:
"Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm."
An eerie parallel to what I was going there to see in the first place.
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| Ruins of Ft Furlong, Columbus NM From Cobbs Hill Site of the Pancho Villa Raid |
After leaving Columbus, (and passing through a Homeland Security Checkpoint), we continued west to our next stop, with an unsuccessful attempt to reach the ghost town of Chance New Mexico. The Funmobile really isn't built for that.
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| "Which way do you think? |
Finally arrived at Chiricahua National Monument. The campground was full so the lady said just go back up the road 2 miles and take a left. Go another 5 miles up a REALLY wash boarded road and camp wherever you-u-u-u want-t-t-t-t.
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| Not a bad site. But the road is #$^% |
Brad and Val
Nice to travel with your own little hotel room so you can stop wherever, even if you have to bump a bit to get there. (And BTW the map is working fine for me.)
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