Travel: Postcard from Las Cruces, New Mexico

Overshadowed by artsy-fartsy Taos and Santa Fe, this is New Mexico’s most underrated city.

Las Cruces is situated in the Mesilla Valley and boxed in by the Organ Mountains with their sawtooth spires. This city of 111,385 souls — just big enough to make it the state’s second-largest city — is an oasis within the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert, thanks to the Rio Grande River. A little farther downstream the river forms the U.S. border with Mexico.

If readers know of Las Cruces, it’s probably because of space or New Mexico State University.

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While NASA came first and retains a presence, some 45 miles outside town is Spaceport America. This serves the fledgling commercial space industry. Meanwhile, New Mexico State — the state’s oldest college — with its 22,000 students is an NCAA Division I school.

Admittedly, there isn’t much in Las Cruces proper. The downtown has yet to fully recover from a 1960s urban renewal program that basically destroyed the cityscape. A farmers market every Saturday brings much-needed foot traffic to Main Street.

Everything that downtown Las Cruces lacks can be found in Old Mesilla. Now a quaint suburb, it actually predates Las Cruces.

Mesilla was where the Stars and Stripes was first raised in 1854 after the United States acquired a swath of present-day Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico through the Gadsden Purchase. Think Manifest Destiny. Later, Mesilla was the capital of the short-lived Confederate territory of Arizona.

The town is built around a central plaza, which in turn is anchored by a Roman Catholic church — in this case, the Basilica of San Albino. Built between 1906 and 1908 to replace the original adobe structure, the brick church with its blend of Romanesque and Spanish mission architecture was elevated to the dignity of a minor basilica in 2008. Its dedication is to St. Aubin, an abbot and bishop in sixth century France.

Facing the northwest corner of the plaza at the intersection of Parian and Guadalupe streets is a period building that once housed the postbellum territorial capital and courthouse. Now a somewhat kitsch gift shop, this was where Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid, was tried and sentenced to death in 1881. Today, the shop carries the name of perhaps the most notorious outlaw of the Wild West era. Another period building is New Mexico’s oldest brick period.

A few doors down Guadalupe Street (Calle de Guadalupe) is Double Eagle. The circa 1849 home-turned-fine dining restaurant is practically an art and antiques museum. Of note is the lounge with its ornately carved Second Empire-style bar. The decor rivals that of similar establishments in big cities back East.

If you go

The Mesilla Valley is also home to several wineries and vineyards. New Mexico wine is very much a thing even if the producers aren’t widely known outside the Land of Enchantment. Two yearly wine festivals are held over the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, although connoisseurs will probably opt to experience select vintages in a tasting room at one of the area wineries.

Hatch, widely known throughout the Southwest for its chiles, is an easy day trip. The small town hosts its eponymous chili festival every Labor Day weekend. Other day trips include Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and White Sands National Park. Be sure to also visit the city-run Museum of Art.

I stayed at the Courtyard, a Marriott-branded hotel just off the college campus. In hindsight, I wish I had booked Hacienda de Mesilla, a non-chain hotel featuring classic Southwest design. It’s probably the best hotel in and around Las Cruces.

Besides Double Eagle (reservations are suggested), eat at D.H. Lescombes Winery & Bistro and Hacienda de Mesilla.

The closest airport is 45 miles away in El Paso, Texas. American, Delta, Southwest and United are among the airlines with daily service. For readers planning a road trip, Phoenix is five-and-a-half hours away. The drive from Las Vegas, Dallas and Denver will take just under 10 hours.

Dennis Lennox writes a travel column for The Christian Post.