Farm, Ranch Heritage Museum
Records New Mexico’s Roots

LAS CRUCES, N.M. —(AP)— The doors open into a large lobby where large plate glass windows frame the craggy Organ Mountains and the purplish air to the east.

On the other side of the windows, Indian, European and modern architecture surrounds an open outdoor patio.

Visiting the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum is akin to being a guest in a home — a ranch home.

"We're pressing the right buttons," said Robert Hart, curator and historian at the museum, a division of the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs.

The museum, which opened in May, sits on 47 acres in the shape of a pie slice east of Las Cruces. The land is leased from New Mexico State University for 33 years. The museum is funded by private and public money.

The lobby simulates a ranch living room, part of the 90,000-square-foot complex that cost $7.4 million to build.

Handmade furniture and Indian designs accent the earth tones of the floor tiles and high wood ceilings.

Footsteps echo. Comfort is emphasized.

"When's the last time you could be in a museum and lean on something like this?" said Hart, his arms crossed over a galvanized metal pipe fence surrounding a large photograph in a massive gallery.

One foot, protected by a work boot partially covered by his striped denim overalls, rests on the bottom pipe.

Hart points to more huge photographs from the early 1900s that hang as flags from the high ceiling. Some have never been seen by the public.

The grainy photos, some tinted, show moments of rural life. In one Silver City scene, a rancher is shoeing a horse as his companion looks on, indifferent, smoking a pipe.

Future exhibits will chronicle New Mexico agriculture over 3000 years from the Mogollon people to modern commercial techniques. Part of that work has just started.

The museum will always be changing, Hart said.

"We're also trying to give people what they don't expect," he said.

One piece is a tree-puller made from a Ford engine, a Chevy instrument panel, two water heaters, a mattress bottom, an Army truck and a beam of pre-1910 Carnegie steel.

The museum will address controversial topics, Hart said. Pesticides, overgrazing and the reintroduction of wolves and mountain lions are some of the things they will talk about, he said.

Outside, a hot breeze accompanies the sound of livestock from a dairy and barnyard area. Visitors can watch a cow being milked then use the milk to feed a calf, Hart said. Longhorns, dairy cattle, burros and Churro sheep peek from behind fences, ready to greet passersby.

The museum has come at a time when Las Cruces is growing.

So it's a good time to give New Mexicans a taste of the state’s original ranch culture, said Stephanie Taylor, marketing director.

People have become more urban, and agriculture has become more industrial, so the museum tries to get people to realize that, she said.

"We have history that people are starting to lose," Taylor said.