June 25, 2010 Pinos Altos, NM

Just six miles from Silver City is another mining town called Pinos Altos (Tall Pines). It's higher up in the mountains but much smaller in population. A group of forty-niners drifting home from CA discovered gold in Bear Creek and before you knew it a town had sprung up. When the gold was plentiful the population was around ten thousand but it's dwindled down to less than a thousand hardy souls. The buildings are somewhat ramshackle, a majority of the population appears to be in the geriatric hippie category. But you have to give the old town some credit as it's hanging in there. I wonder why many of the old mining towns seem to attract the hippie element? Actually I think I could be right in there with them, except Betsy has standards. We stopped at the community art gallery and we bought a small painting and it's found a place on the trailer bulkhead. We also found the US Post Office, ice cream parlor, small cafe, antique and collectible store. All of those enterprises were all in the same building. We had an ice cream cone, Betsy wrote post cards, Tipper presented himself to all the patrons in hopes of being petted, and I sat there and tried to remember the words to The Age of Aquarius. We also saw a great bumper sticker. A great afternoon in Pinos Altos.