Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM
< previous day | archives | next day >
Bathhouse, South Monticello Area, Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM, April 21, 2009
What to do at 3:30AM on a restless night?
Why, go check out your new camera's ability to grab a few night shots. What else?
279 Days to Overnight Success
If you have any interest in building a presence on the internet this manifesto, 279 Days to Overnight Success, by Chris Guillebeau over at The Art of Non-Conformity - Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel might be worth looking over.
Dave Pollard linked to this manifesto on his blog yesterday and I found it a good read. This guy's pretty sharp. And making an online living while traveling the world.
Night camp
Site 32, South Monticello Point - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM
- Verizon cell phone service - very good
- Verizon EVDO service - very good
- Find other references to Elephant Butte on this website
- List the nights I've camped here
- Go to the Elephant Butte Lake State Park website
- Get a Google map of this area
- Check the weather here
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.