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Friday, December 18, 2009 - Fort Stanton Cave Campground, Lincoln NM

Eve Ball roadside marker, Lincoln NM, December 18, 2009
Eve Ball roadside marker, Lincoln NM, December 18, 2009

Today I planned to head up to Valley of Fires Recreation Area, Carrizozo NM. I never made it. I got waylaid by the jaw-dropping beauty of the rolling desert and grasslands along US 380 between Roswell and Carrizozo NM. I stopped to see what this Eve Ball roadside marker was all about and discovered I could camp right here.

With a little Googling (oh, how I do love this modern technology that lets me Google way out here!) I discovered the forest road across from the marker leads into the new Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area and up to the Fort Stanton Cave, the third largest cave in New Mexico. And a tiny little 3 site campground just beyond the entrance to the cave. Well, gee, this was just too good to pass up!

New Mexico State Parks News Release (pdf) issued December 17th, 2009

Contrary to a hearsay report I got this morning, the New Mexico State Parks will be closed December 24th which means no camping will be available in the park system the nights of December 23 and 24.

Official Scenic Historical Marker: Eve Ball (1890 - 1984)

EVE BALL (1890 - 1984)

AUTHOR AND PRESERVATIONIST

A pioneer in the preservation of the history of people in southeastern New Mexico, Eve wrote over 150 articles and numerous books chronicling Mescalero and Chiricahua Apaches, Anglo and Hispanic settlers. Her honesty, patience and determination to learn from them, won the confidence of the Apache elders, saving oral histories certain to be lost without her.

Night camp

Primitive Campground at Fort Stanton Cave, Lincoln NM

Sweet, Rich Hickory Milk

Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, the naturalist William Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred bushels of hickory nuts at a time. "They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid" to make a thick milk, "as sweet as fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corncakes." Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial - fragrantly nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered before.

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