Two recent stories about Texas wanting to grab some of New Mexico’s southeastern counties prompted me to look at some historical facts about our state’s boundaries over the years. And in particular, I wanted to look up Texas’ oft-repeated claim that The Lone Star State once included much of New Mexico.

Texas in fact wanted to “claim” a large chunk of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, the watershed for that river into Colorado and beyond, and for some unknown reason, a thin strip of land all the way up into Wyoming at the 42nd parallel.

They key word here is “claim.” As far as I could research, there was never an official document granting Texas those lands when it joined the United States. Texas apparently argued that it got the right to those lands through a sketchy treaty signed under duress by Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana of Alamo fame after his stinging defeat at San Jacinto. There has been much written about New Mexico’s borders and the West’s shifting state lines and I’m sure many Texans will continue to stand by their bogus claim.

The Texas story is as if I could just suddenly “claim” to own the New Mexico State University pecan orchard just down the street from our home without any legal authority to back me up.

What is interesting is that when Texas “claimed” much of New Mexico and Colorado, it basically wanted all the water rights to the Rio Grande and the Pecos River. The most recent attempt by Texas to poach New Mexico’s lands appears to be the desire to fold our rich Permian Basin oil fields into that state’s ownership and control. After Texas, New Mexico is the second largest oil producer in the continental United States. Texas would apparently like to strip New Mexico of that resource.

The latest salvo in the Texas Land Grab came recently when the speaker of the Texas House, Rep. Dustin Burrow of Lubbock, proposed legislation to study feasibility of adding certain southeastern New Mexico Counties to the Lone Star State. He apparently made the “Texas once owned much of New Mexico” claim in an attempt to justify his proposal. The counties being sought are Lea, Eddy and Roosevelt, all rich in oil and maybe nearby Curry County, also part of the area long known in New Mexico as “Little Texas.” The action by Texas follows a recent failed attempt by a New Mexico State Representative, Randall Pettigrew of Lea County, to allow those counties to transfer to Texas.

Pettigrew says he introduced his proposal mainly to generate conversation about how he thinks the southeastern corner of the state is often neglected while providing much of the state’s revenue from oil and gas production in the Permian Basin. For those of residents living far away from the power centers of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, we’re all too familiar with being neglected by the folks north of Interstate 40.

To continue along this train of thought, I’ve seen the map below of how the United States at one time considered establishing the boundaries of New Mexico.

Had that division stuck, Texas likely would have lost its claim as the biggest state in the continental United States, since the propsed territory included all of New Mexico, all of Arizona and sizeable chunks of Colorado and Nevada. It would have been a truly spectacular single piece of real estate, including the Grand Canyon, some of the Rockies’ tallest peaks, the Mogollon Rim, the Sonoran Desert and yes, that other Las Vegas and Lake Mead.

So if Texas continues to “claim” most of New Mexico was once part of that state, we can just as easily claim that New Mexico was once bigger than Texas. Take that Lone Star State!

Many New Mexico residents, including me, have been receiving scam mailings or e-mails regarding pending punitive action because we have not paid for recently traveling on a state toll road.

SPOILER ALERT: There are no toll roads in New Mexico.

The mail I got wanting me to pony up my credit card number and other personal information was pretty sketchy. It was sent from an out-of-state address, did not specify what toll road was involved, did not identify my vehicle and except for a fuzzy rendition of the state seal, did not have any appearance of an official state legal document. And my fine for not paying the toll was due Feb. 4 — oops, I missed that deadline. “:^{

On various recent social media postings I’ve read, people have been laughing about how lame this so-called “smishing” expedition is. Below is a link to the New Mexico Department of transportation warning state residents about the scam:

Scam alert: New Mexico has no toll roads

But hold on a minute — there was actually an attempt to establish a toll road along New Mexico 285-84 in northern New Mexico about 1978.

It seems that the Nambe Pueblo, between Santa Fe, Espanola and Los Alamos, felt the state owed the Native American pueblo money for allowing U.S. 285 and U.S. 84 to cross their lands. The conflict revolved around tribal sovereignty and the pueblo’s claim that the state had not lived up to its requirement to compensate it for the right away across their sacred lands.

I was a journalist with United Press International at the time and remember seeing photos and hearing stories of people being stopped at tribal roadblocks on the highway as it passed through Nambe Pueblo lands, with officers demanding toll money from motorists. The route is heavily traveled, with employees at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and workers from Espanola who had jobs with the State of New Mexico flooding the route at rush hour. I don’t recall the temporary toll road lasting for very long before the state realized it needed to renegotiate the right of way agreement with Nambe and other northern Pueblos along that route.

Negotiations over the right of way continued for years and things mostly calmed down until in 1995, when a federal prosecutor threatened to shut down gambling casinos operated by the various pueblos along that heavily traveled stretch of highway.

Pojoaque Tribal Leader Jacob Viarrial was adamant in his intention to close the highway because of the threatened shutdown of the casinos.

“It’s to show our frustration,” Viarrial said of the road blockade on Christmas day in 1995. “It’s to show that we have come to the end of the line. We’re backed into a corner. We’ve become a wounded animal and we need to fight back.”

Working with then Gov. Gary Johnson, the state was eventually able to negotiate a deal between the tribes and the federal government which allowed the casinos to remain open.

For years, mostly when my son and daughter were younger and still in college, I’d send them random e-mails about funny things I’ve sighted in my travels through the state or had read about in local newspapers.

Things like a State Police officer having his way with a woman on the hood of his cruiser while a pet Chihuahua looked on and the security camera was rolling. Things like a ghost wandering through an Espanola public services parking lot. Things like the sign on the Navajo Nation offering to sell live goats and Avon products at a roadside stand.

These e-mails were incubators of my current Aero-Cordero blog, which reports on topics historical, hysterical and just plain weird about our 49th state. My son once said that Espanola’s slogan should be “Espanola never disappoints.” I think that could be expanded to say “New Mexico never Disappoints.”

A couple of things showed up on my radar last week that fall directly into the “never disappoints” category.

First, did you know that the only time in current history* that the United States mainland has been invaded by an organized para-military force was right here in New Mexico — just about 60 miles west of us in the town of Columbus on the U.S.-Mexico Border 110 years ago.

Villa, a self-appointed defender of the agrarian poor in northern Mexico, organized the raid because he was angry at the United States for supporting the incumbent Mexican president, Porfirio Diaz, in a major escalation of the ongoing Mexican revolution.

On March 9, 1916, Villa led roughly 500 of his supporters known as “Villistas” in a raid on Columbus, New Mexico, and the adjacent U.S. Army camp, killing 17 Americans (10 civilians, 8 soldiers). The attack, prompted President Woodrow Wilson to send a “Punitive Expedition,” led by Gen. John J. Pershing, into Mexico, though they failed to capture Villa after nine months of searching. It also marked the first time American aircraft were used in a tactical mission in another country.

Approximately 70 Villistas were killed during the raid, including some who were captured and later hung.

As an aside, I worked with a woman in one of my previous careers who had grown up in El Paso and said her grandmother had done Villa’s laundry when he was in the city just across the border in Juarez. By all accounts, Villa was very kind and paid her grandmother handsomely for her work.

Last week I wrote about the efforts of Robert Goddard, the pioneer of liquid fueled rockets who did much of his early research in the high plains of southeastern New Mexico near Roswell. His first experimental rocket was launched just a little over 100 years ago on his aunt Effie’s farm in Massachusetts.

Because of his efforts, Germany began further development of liquid fueled rockets which led to the formidable V2 rocket used toward the end of World War II on England. After the war, the United States captured several of these rockets and began deconstructing and testing them at our own White Sands Missile range just across the Organ Mountains from Las Cruces.

On May 29, 1947, one of the V2 rockets being tested at White Sands went off course and flew south toward Juarez, Mexico, crash landing in a cemetery.

The El Paso Times reported that between 1946 and 1950, about 60 captured V2 rockets were launched at White Sands for testing. The impact in Juarez on May 29, 1947, was a little too late to highlight a “Cinco de Mayo” celebration, but the El Paso Times said it did happen to “interrupt a nearby Mexican fiesta.”

So there you have it. We were invaded by another country in New Mexico and we conducted the first launch of a military rocket into a neighboring country from inside our own borders. That’s why I love New Mexico and its oddball history.

*To be clear, the War of 1812 involved multiple invasions by England into certain areas of the east coast of the United States. In those cases, the invasion was launched by sea. The Pancho Villa invasion was the first time a neighboring country crossed the border on land.

Saying that weather has been unusual this year has become a boring conversation starter these days. Everyone knows it. The only thing we don’t know is what’s going to get thrown at next us by mother nature.

One good outcome in our part of the desert Southwest this year was an unusually heavy four-day rain event in January that dropped almost two inches of precipitation. That was followed up by two fairly good soakers, leaving us with precipitation ahead of normal for this time of year.

That apparently helped trigger a desert super bloom of Mexican poppies along the edges of the Organ Mountains in our Chihuahuan desert.

Mexican poppies are cousins of California poppies which also are apparently appearing in a super bloom this year in southern California’s deserts.

I found this online:

“The Mexican poppy (Eschscholzia californica ssp. mexicana) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) are closely related, often treated as subspecies, but differ mainly in habitat and appearance.”

California poppies apparently have more orange than the Mexican poppies which are mostly yellow with an orange center. Their blooming cycle appears to be between five to seven years, according to various sources online.

My wife and I had been reading about the poppy bloom on recent online posts so while our daughter was visiting from Austin, we decided to take a trip out along roads bordering the Organs to see for ourselves. The flowers were a bit thin when we first veered off Dripping Springs road to Baylor Pass road, then became more and more frequent as we headed north. We decided to take a quick hike up the Baylor Pass trail, but before we got there, our trip was temporarily interrupted by a pack of javelinas and a lone coyote darting across the road.

Along the trail, the flowers became more and more numerous, causing us to stop frequently and snap photos. Then when we looked back to the northwest, we could see large fields of yellow in a mostly rural neighborhood near the southwest corner of U.S. 70 and Baylor Pass road.

We decided to see if we could get closer and found this:

I’m not sure how much longer the super bloom will last, but if you’re in the area, take the time to go out and see it.

My wife and I went to our first college baseball game of the year this week. It was an almost perfect game — not in the sense of a pitching gem, but in the overall experience.

The weather was perfect, there was a loud enthusiastic crowd and the home team won. The game was entertaining from the start until the end, with one home run, a great double play and a spectacular outfield catch that ended the game. And as with most college games, there were a few errors to spice up things.

In the end, the New Mexico State Aggies beat archrival University of New Mexico 8-6, handing the Lobos their first loss of the season.

What I’ve always liked about early season baseball games is the memorable smell of the event. It’s an ever changing blend of women’s perfumes, hot buttery popcorn in a bucket nearby, hot dogs cooking in the food truck outside the stands and other olfactory offerings. I never seem to get those same smells at other athletic events.

I think it has to do with the temperature being a little on the chilly side, along with a slight breeze to mix things up and for us in the desert Southwest — maybe a little unexpected spike in the humidity from an intramural sports field being watered nearby.

For me, it’s always made these games more memorable.

The game was pretty good. The Aggies got on the scoreboard first with one run in the second, followed by two more in the fifth, one of them a single home run. And just when you thought we were looking good, the Lobos bombed in three more runs in the top of the sixth to tie it all up.The Aggies got one more run in the bottom half of the sixth to get one run up, but the Lobos came back with three more runs in the next inning. They were ahead 6-5 as we moved into the 7th inning stretch. But the Aggies managed to put together a series of base steals and hits to put three more runs on the board before the last out for the Lobos in the top of the 9th.

It was mostly cheap fun. The tickets were $12 apiece (a $2 premium over regular tickets and another $2 more than I remember paying for them last year), hot dogs were $3 each but water — the essence of life — went for $5 a bottle.

The entire infield AND outfield of the Presley Askew Park is now artificial turf, which as a bit of a purist is not appealing to me. (I mean, for Pete’s sake, we’re an agricultural college — we ought to be able to grow good grass).

And at one point, I spied pitchers in the bullpen tossing around a football — where was the pitching coach???!!!???

But in the end, the game experience was really good. I urge you to try to make it to a college baseball game sometime this spring. Lots of mostly cheap fun (and good smells.)

It was an almost instantly regrettable impulse buy. I stopped by the local Walgreens earlier this week to buy some over the counter medicine. On my way to the cash register, I passed a display of Peeps marshmallow candy.

“Well, how long has it been since I had some of those,” I wondered. “I’ll buy some as a joke for my wife.”

But secretly, I wanted to eat one to see if they were as good or as awful as I had remembered them.

When I got home, my wife predictably was not interested in the “present” I got her.

“They’re so sweet that your teeth will rot,” she observed in her no-nonsense Midwestern way of analyzing the obvious.

So I decided to eat one.

I instantly felt the enamel in my teeth flushing down the back of my throat. But it was good in a nostalgic kind of way. I’ve now eaten three of the five in the pack and I have a dental appointment coming up on Friday. I’m wondering if I will have any teeth left by then.

However, it got me to wondering about this candy that always appears around Easter time. According to Wikipedia, Peeps first appeared in the late 1940s although the date is not certain. They were manufactured by the R.E. Rodda Candy Co. of Lancaster, PA, and were initially called “Rodda Marshmallow Peeps” or “Rodda Easter Peeps.”

The Rodda company was acquired in 1953 by Ukrainian immigrant Bob Born. His company, called “Just Born” still manufactures them today.

Here’s the website:

https://www.peepsbrand.com/

Ingredients for Peeps are pretty simple:”

Gelatin (for the marshmallow part), corn syrup, potassium sorbate (preservative), carnauba wax for the sheen of the Peep’s eyes, various dyes and of course, lots of sugar.

As you might expect with something that’s this legendary, there are Peep’s eating contests and scientific research to prove that they are basically indestructible. I found this tidbit from Wikipedia during my high-level investigative reporting journey:

“Peeps are sometimes jokingly described as “indestructible”. In 1999 scientists at Emory University jokingly performed experiments on batches of Peeps to see how easily they could be dissolved, burned or otherwise disintegrated, using such agents as cigarette smoke, boiling water and liquid nitrogen. In addition to discussing whether Peeps migrate or evolve, they claimed that the eyes of the confectionery “wouldn’t dissolve in anything”. One website claims that Peeps are insoluble in acetone, water, diluted sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide (the site also claims that the Peeps experimental subjects sign release forms). Concentrated sulfuric acid seems to have effects similar to the expected effects of sulfuric acid on sugar.“

And yes, I now really regret eating them.

This got me to thinking about our granddaughter’s recent science fair project in 5th grade for which she earned a blue ribbon in the regional fair in Austin, TX. Her project was to determine if there was any difference in the taste of different colored Pepperidge Farms “Goldfish” snack crackers. She and her seven-year-old brother conducted taste tests and determined that they could tell a difference.

So why not the same experiment with different colored Peeps?” They now are available in traditional yellow, blue, purple and pink. Do they taste the same? Inquiring minds want to know.

So I’m throwing out this challenge out to our grandchildren to conduct this very important experiment for next year’s school science fair.

In the meantime, I just heard the last two Peeps calling my name. I’m heading back for them before the ossify and turn into rocks.

On our daily walks with Chester, our dog, we often let him off the leash to run along the roads which border the large irrigation ditch which threads through our semi-rural neighborhood. It’s great place to walk with only a few other people and dogs and lots of things for Chester to sniff, explore and an opportunity for him to have occasional bursts of the zoomies.

The downside is that the ditch roads are prime breeding grounds for the dreaded Tribulus terrestris, commonly known as goathead weed. And of course, Chester always seems to find one of those nasty stickers from the weed in his paw. When he does, he immediately stops while he’s yards away from us, pitifully holds up the injured paw and waits for us to walk to where he is to remove it. Then he darts off again, only to find another goathead sticker. The cycle repeats.

There are two really really obnoxious weeds in New Mexico, Russian thistle, known as the common tumbleweed, and goatheads. Russian thistle somehow ended up in North America shortly after the Americas became colonized by Europeans, while the goathead weed apparently originated in South America and probably got here by a thorn being stuck in some migrating animal’s hoof or paw.

Goatheads are more prominent in the Southwest, where poor soil conditions and dry climate seem to make them thrive. However, after unsuspectingly landing my balloon one day years ago in what I believed to be the world’s largest goathead patch, a young woman passenger from North Carolina said they have something similar they call “sand spurs.” I’m not sure the two plants are genetically related, but they both are pretty painful when you or your dog gets one or several stuck in their feet.

(After we landed the balloon, my crew and I spent what seemed like an hour getting rid of goatheads in the balloon fabric, in the leather on the bottom of the basket and of course in the soles of our shoes. Had I been able to see what awaited me from the air, I would have picked another place to land.)

What generated my interest in goatheads was an article in last weekend’s Albuquerque Journal that said a new minor league hockey team in that city has decided to be called the “New Mexico Goatheads.” I thought that was pretty clever marketing — naming a team for an almost unique state plant that sticks it to everyone. The hockey team is apparently the equivalent of a Double A baseball farm team and is aligned with the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL in Denver.

The team mascot is “Billy the Billy Goat,” shown below.

We hope the Goatheads will be sticking it to the competition when the season starts.

And by the way, the “Tarantula Wasps” — the official New Mexico State Insect — would be a great name for a sports team in the state. Talk about “sticking it” to the opposing team.

(Read my earlier post on Tarantula Wasps at: https://aerocordero.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=10099&action=edit )

The TV hit series “Breaking Bad” aired its last episode 13 years ago. Although a cult favorite which my wife and I watched and enjoyed, I always thought it portrayed Albuquerque and New Mexico in a bad light, given it focused on illegal drug activity.

More than a year ago, the Albuquerque home of fictional “Breaking Bad” character Walter White was put on the market for $4 million. The home is a nice enough example of the northeast heights neighborhood in which it is located, but not nice enough to fetch that price. At 1920 square feet, the original asking price came out to about $2,083 per square foot.

Of course the listing agent was hoping that the price was justified because of its fame — or infamy.

Once the listing agent realized they weren’t getting many inquiries at the original price, the house was then offered for a mere $400,000 — still a bit overpriced in my way of thinking. But apparently the new price was attractive to at least 20 potential buyers who made offers.

The Albuquerque Journal reported last Friday that the buyer was Adin Ross, who the newspaper said was “known for his livestreaming content on Twitch and YouTube.” Sorry, but I’ve never heard of him, but that only shows that I’m way behind the times on social media.

The new buyer says he wants to turn the property into a “one-to-one” replica of how the home appeared in the TV series. I’m not sure what that means either.

I’m wondering how much commercial attraction this “one-to-one” home will get for a TV program that’s been off the air for 13 years. I suspect you can just drive by it and get as much of a thrill as paying to go inside it, but that’s just me.

At any rate, it got me to thinking about how much $4 million can get you elsewhere in New Mexico and what is the most expensive home currently on the market in our state.

As you might expect, Santa Fe leads the list of most expensive homes on the market.

I found about six houses currently on the market in Santa Fe in the range of $3.8 million to $4.2 million, including home below that only has two bedrooms but a fancy duck pond.

I looked up “Most expensive home for sale and New Mexico,” but I’m not sure that as fluid as the real estate market moves that what I found is current.

Two years ago, this home in Santa Fe was said to be the most expensive home listed in the state at $9.95 million.

The most expensive real estate listing I found on Zillow was for $31.5 million near Lindrith, NM. (Yeah, I had to look on a map too to remember where that was — Rio Arriba County.)

The listing is not really just a home — it’s a ranch with more than 20,000 acres of what is described as the “legendary mule deer area of New Mexico.” However, the house on the property isn’t much to look at unless you fancy a deer antler archway to your front door. And if you want a big ranch, I’m sure there are other listings for that kind of property that don’t appear on the Zillow listing.

Given the choice between these listings, I think I’d go with the home with the duck pond in Santa Fe. It’s within walking distance of the plaza and you probably wouldn’t be overwhelmed with wanna be guests during the city’s annual Fiesta or Indian Market since it’s only got two bedrooms.

In last week’s Albuquerque Journal, there was a sad (to me) story that the Gallup Independent newspaper was ceasing operations. The long-time daily newspaper on the far west edge of New Mexico had been struggling financially, like many other print publications around the nation, and finally faced the realization it could no longer continue.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up working in the family-owned Ruidoso News, a weekly newspaper that my father helped shape into an independent and valuable source of local news in our mountain community. My father sold the newspaper after almost 20 years of ownership, and it changed hands several times after that, finally to be acquired by a national newspaper group. Under that ownership, with profits becoming more important than keeping the community informed, it eventually ceased operations.

The Independent, under the ownership of the Zollinger family, was almost 100 years old. It served not only the Gallup area, but was a source of information for many on the Navajo Nation.

“I grieve, mainly for Gallup,” publisher Bob Zollinger said when discussing the closure of the newspaper. “It doesn’t feel good. It’s a death.”

But in the same edition of the Albuquerque Journal that announced the closing of the Gallup Independent, there was some hope.

Source New Mexico, which brands itself as “Scrappy independent journalism for you” wrote a story which appeared in the Journal about some shady handling of funds intended for victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire in northeastern New Mexico. Source New Mexico is an independent news organization supported by donations from readers and grants. You can reach it online at:

https://sourcenm.com/

The story said that the federal official who was in charge of a multi-billion dollar fund to compensate victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire personally received a six-figure payment from the fund because of “smoke damage” to his Angel Fire resort home. Angel Fire was far from where the actual fire burned.

Many victims of the fire lost homes directly from the fires from the flooding aftermath and many of those are still struggling to secure compensation for their losses. The federal official in charge of allocating those funds received $266,000 in compensation for smoke damage to his home and his wife, a realtor, received more than $250,000 for business losses.

The story did not mention whether the fund manager and his wife were members of one political party or another. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that diligent reporting by a free press uncovered this matter and brought it to the attention of citizens and government officials who I hope will be able to correct the situation. It was journalism at its best.

While I try not to be political in my blog, I make an occasional exception when it comes to freedom of the press and the First Amendment. I think it is important for readers to know that a free and independent press is essential to keep government officials honest, to be at school board and county commission meetings to represent the people who can’t be there and to keep citizens informed about what’s going on in their community. I’m sure most of my readers have had complaints over the years about legitimate news outlets but despite its warts, we’re much better off with a free press than without one. Think of Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, Venezuela and other countries dominated by power-hungry individuals

Our own local newspaper is a shadow of what it once was. It was acquired by the same large media group that purchased my father’s Ruidoso News. The local paper seems to make most of its money on lavish obituaries and mostly publishes outdated wire or syndicated copy. True local interest stories are few and far between.

We need to support good local journalism, particularly in print form.

And remember that Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying that if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”

Yes, Chester our dog got it right for the second year in a row. He picked Seattle to win the Superbowl and the Seahawks came through.

With his winning streak, I’m wondering if Chester next year can come up with a way to communicate the points spread for betting purposes. Maybe I can paint each of my hands the color of the two competing teams and count the number of times he licks each hand. Of course, if I’ve just handled some freshly cooked bacon, I think the results would be tainted.

Anyway, Chester has a year to contemplate how he’s going to communicate the spread to all his followers. In the meantime, he’s content to watch re-runs of the Bad Bunny halftime show.

Yesterday, I chronicled my faithful readers (all four of you, possibly including me) about our faithful dog Chester’s conflicted pick of Sunday’s Superbowl winner.

In my annual highly scientific “toss out two different colored balls and see which one Chester picks” method of predicting the Superbowl winner, it was kind of a tossup. Chester first ran toward and then scooped up the green ball representing the Seattle Seahawks. But seconds later, he darted toward the blue ball representing the New England Patriots, grabbed it, then managed to stuff both it and the green ball into his slobbering and potentially toxic mouth. A clear tossup.

But later that afternoon, as I was playing his favorite “squeaky ball” toss game, he continued to gravitate toward the green ball. Finally, he would not relinquish that ball, even when I frantically squeaked the blue ball in front of his nose and then tossed it away from him.

Nope, not a smidgen of interest in the blue Patriots squeaky ball.

Below is a picture of him with his prized green Seahawks ball in his slobbery mouth.

You’ll note that the blue “Patriots” ball is forgotten and languishing behind him (circled in blue).

I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to interpret all of this.