The Good, the Bad, the Ugly...and Beautiful
Originally Published March 19, 2022
While many sites have warranted a full report, some have merely lingered in our mind; honky-tonk bars, small Mexican restaurants, abandoned towns. We find the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Beautiful along the way, and often in the same places. To mention a few:
The Wasteland
We visited the White Sands Monument near Alamogordo, New Mexico, 275 square miles of gypsum sand desert resembling a ski resort in all but temperature. Strangely, below the surface a layer of clay creates an oasis like condition for the cacti, yucca and grasses that survive there. Nearby is the White Sands Missile Range and Trinity, the site of the first nuclear bomb explosion on July 16, 1945, named incomprehensively Robert Oppenheimer, who later declared that the explosion brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
To Infinity and Beyond
We visited Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona which made no more sense today than at the time of its original venture in the early 1990's. Rumor had it that the eight member crew became divided into two camps over the purpose of the mission, and while the cause of the dispute was never fully divulged, personal notebooks on display from the crew indicated disagreement about whether the contained environment was a "survivalist" experiment, focused on how human beings could survive with limited resources (i.e. in space) or whether it was a laboratory, controlled environment in which to study the impact of ecological change on Oxygen and CO2 levels. Today it is the latter that has survived as the University of Arizona has taken over to study exactly such effects. In the meantime, the considerable energy plant that was necessary to sustain the extensive mechanical systems within Biosphere 2, and which belied its sustainability premise, has been reconsidered and re-engineered to today's expectations.
The Prison Economy
We drove through Florence, AZ, home to the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex, a set of state, county, federal and private prisons. There is a courthouse and administrative complex in the center of town, in what could rightly be called a “vertically integrated” industry, as it constitutes the central economy of the region. Lately, a federal order to shut down some of the original prisons and relocate the prisoners to other states has caused the town to wonder about its future.
Dirt and Destiny
We met a 78 year old woman named Tish who runs a donkey sanctuary outside of Benson, Arizona. Toward the end of our visit with the donkeys we asked her about the beaten up racecars in the nearby barn. "Oh, those are mine," she said. One of the first women licensed NASCAR drivers, she grew up street racing in Texas with her favorite uncle, and continues to race on dirt tracks (the most challenging and unpredictable) in the Charger class. Here she's posing with a recent car, Black Jack 21, named for the original donkey she adopted twenty-five years ago, and who still peruses the grounds.
The Theater of Small Towns
The small towns in the West come in an astonishing variety of forms. Some are completely abandoned, with only the shells of former buildings preserved or forgotten. Others, like Tombstone, have Hollywood set like streets preserved, authentic looking saloons, and regularly staged gunfights. Some, like Bisbee, are sophisticated retreats for a class that now works remotely, has retired, or simply decided to live at the edge of, but not off the grid. In these cases the anticipation of tourism merges with the cacophony and spectacle of the original Wild West towns.
Springtime in the Desert
Finally we were able to arrive at our first, true wild horse sanctuary at the Salt River. On our first evening we were able to spot several herds both grazing in the nearby woods and cooling themselves in the river. With each band the lead stallion was having his way regularly with the mares while the bachelors looked on in envy. Fortunately, an ongoing darting effort with the fertility drug PZP has prevented the proliferation of the herd that has led to so many unfortunate consequences elsewhere.
The Magnificence of the Sunset
In the midst of this it must be said that the sunsets in the west are magnificent. The sky is illuminated with the softest shades and the cool complements reflect around the horizon to 360 degrees. One senses that it has always been this way, and at the same time wonders how long it will be.
