Back to El Paso, TX

Today Tim and I will be heading to El Paso, TX to pick up our son-in-law, Nathan, who is coming home from a military school in Mississippi. It is a 90 minute drive down HWY 54. During our drive we will see a lot of desert and shrubs. When making this drive you have to make sure you have plenty of gas because there is only one place to stop during the 89 mile drive. That is Orogrande, NM. population 52 that sits in the foot hills of Jarilla Mountains. Jarilla Junction was established in 1905 and was a mining town. In 1906 the town was renamed Orogrande (big gold) due to the Gold strike. Orogrande grew to a population of 2000 almost overnight primarily due to gold rush. Unfortunately, the gold did not "pan" out and the town quickly collasped to almost zero population. Today it has a gas station/trading post, a few homes, an RV park and a few abandoned buildings. There are some nearby towns, now ghosttowns, that also sprung up during the gold rush; Brice & Ohaysi. The abandoned mines are now a part of the Bureau of Land Management or Ft. Bliss military reservation.