3/24/2009 Tuesday Aguirre Springs National Rec Area,NM

Another one of those days of "feeling rough", lots of leg pain from my fall 2 weeks ago. But the weather was typical mountain air. Sun was shining and warm but breeze was cool. I spent quite allot of the day outside just soaking up the atmosphere. It is so quiet here that one can hear the quiet. Al wants to stay here until Friday and I guess we can. The batteries and propane and water are holding good. I am having Walmart withdrawals and don't like it that we don't have phone service. However, my internet works so I am keeping up with the rest of the world. Even watched O'Rielly and Rove commenting on Obama's speech tonight.

I was thinking today about Ft Stanton that we were at last Saturday. The brochure said that fort was still active. That was true. There was a prison there and and a drug rehab center and so most of it was closed to the public. But what I was thinking about was the cemetery that we saw there. There was a sign on it that said "Merchant Marine and Military Cemetery All visitors welcome. No metal detectors allowed." It looked like a very old cemetery with lots of white crosses. I wondered why Merchant Marine and aren't Merchant Marines considered military. If the cemetery was for military killed from the fort, how did the Merchant Marines get involved. Sooo I went back to the brochure and want to copy what the brochure states.

The 24,000 acre area is within the original historic Fort Stanton Military Reservation. The military reserve was carved out of the Mescalero Apache homelands in the 1850s. During these tumultuous times, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 35th Infantry Buffalo Soldiers were sent to the New Mexico Territory to protect the settlers in the area. Historic Fort Stanton is one of the few intact frontier forts in the west. Many of the original fort buildings still stand. From 1855 through 1896, the Fort played host to some of the most colorful military units and personalities of the west, including the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Buffalo Soldiers, Billy the Kid, Kit Carson and General "Black Jack" Pershing. The post was also a Merchant Marine hospital and tuberculosis sanatorium and a World War II prisoner of war camp.

I found this interesting and thought you would also.