New Mexico refers to itself as the Land of Enchantment.  That is a pretty bold claim, not entirely unjustified. It is a beautiful state. Yet it has some places that are evidence of serious decline in the United States.  I stopped at one of on this trip.

Before this trip to Arizona began my lovely wife Christiane, who thinks she really is the boss of me, told me—clearly and unequivocally—that no stops for photographs would be tolerated on the journey down south. I could take photos on the trip back north at the end of winter but now she wanted to get as far south as fast as possible.  She wanted to get out of the cold. She thought she had been very clear. I shrugged. In other words, I did not evince acceptance or rebellion, but in my heart of hearts I knew I would stop if I saw something compelling, Today, I found compelling.

We drove through the high plains of Kansas and Oklahoma as well as west Texas We saw some lovely fog and resulting hoarfrost but I dutifully resisted stopping. Frankly, we were in a hurry to get to Arizona because we started out on the trip and the weather conditions appeared excellent.  This turned out to a wise analysis when we arrived later in New Mexico we learned that we were 1 day ahead of the storm

However, when we drove through the tiny town of Nara Visa New Mexico I could not resist.  The town sits in the midst of the Canadian River Breaks, a strip of rough and broken land extensively dissected by tributaries of the Canadian River. This was a town in a serious state of decline. If Donald Trump ever drove into it he would have to admit that this was a shithole town. Worse even than those countries from Africa he described as “shithole countries.” How is that possible? Is it true that Donald Trump was the president of a country with a shithole town for 4 years?

I stopped and eagerly climbed out of the car right along highway 54. There some fantastic dilapidated houses and buildings and I took a number of photographs. It love towns on the way toward ghost towns. I am not sure what my attraction to them is, but it is real.

The first school in this town was built in 1906.  By 1910 it had 4 active churches. Reminds me of Steinbach. By 1919 it had 8 saloons, at least 3 dance halls, more than 1 drug store, a barber shop, general stores, butcher shops, millinery shops, and believe it or not auto suppliers! There were garages, hotels, and one bank. Sounds like a pretty thriving community before the 1920s.  Prosperity did not last. By 1968 there were only 7 students in the school.  That was the year the school permanently closed. By 2020 the census said there were 212 residents! According to Michael Harding’s blog by 2022 less than 100 people lived there.  It certainly is declining and you can see it in the buildings sinking into the earth.

The Japanese have built a philosophy on the idea of appreciating old things that are deteriorating.  They call it Wab-Sabi. I have posted about it before and you can find it under the category of Wabi-Sabi.I find it a very congenial philosophy. Perhaps because I am old and deteriorating.

On the other hand, I have also been blogging about the decline of western civilization which is not necessarily a good thing, although western civilization has often been responsible for much grief.