 Anthony
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Anthony
Few cities, towns, villages or
individuals, without moving, find their address and even their country
has changed. The towns named above are some of those few, because that
is what happened to them. In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase changed the
southern boundary of the U.S.
New Mexico and Arizona were not yet
states. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 had vaguely described
the U.S./Mexico border, but President Franklin Pierce wanted to insure
the United States possessed a large strip of land that would provide
the most practical route for a southern railroad line to the Pacific.
Railroad promoter and diplomat James
Gadsden negotiated the purchase from Mexico of 77,000 square miles for
ten million dollars. In 1854, the U. S. Senate ratified the deal by a
narrow margin. This odd-shaped strip of land now forms extreme
Southern New Mexico and Arizona south of Gila. The eastern most
portion of the Gadsden Purchase includes the Mesilla Valley that lies
on either side of the Rio Grande River, where the villages in this
story are located.
Residents had been given the choice,
following the Hidalgo Treaty, of living in Mexico or the U.S. However,
these events in history took that choice out of their hands, and the
Gadsden Purchase set new international boundaries. Thus, those in
these villages who had lived in Mexico, although they had not moved,
suddenly lived in the United States of America, in what is now New
Mexico. The Spanish language is heard there more often than English,
and some do not speak English at all.
On the eastern end of the Gadsden
Purchase, the town of Anthony, that is divided by an
invisible state line, has become known by locals as the "best
little town in two states." The early center of commerce
developed around a flour mill located about 1/2 mile north of the
state line and slightly east of where the railroad now runs. Farmers
would visit and conduct business when they brought grain to the mill
to be ground. The first post office was established in New Mexico in
1884, and still, in 1999, both sides of town are served by one post
office in New Mexico. The post office, as well as other state and
county offices, form the service center for small towns between
Sunland Park and Mesilla.
Anthony, New Mexico was
at one time called Halfway House because it is located half-way
between Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Two stories of how
the post office in 1884 became Anthony exist. One
says a local lady built a chapel in her home and dedicated it to her
patron saint, San Antonio. When a post office was requested under that
name, another city in New Mexico had already claimed it, so the
English form, Anthony, was chosen. The other story is
that it was named by a Catholic priest who had established a church
there. At one time it was a stop on the Butterfield Stage route.
When the Santa Fe Railroad was built in
1881, they located the train depot on the Texas side of the state line
and called it La Tuna. It is said that name was chosen due to the
large number of prickly pear cactus that grew in the area. The Spanish
name for prickly pear is La Tuna. The name was also given to the
Federal Prison built at Anthony in the early nineteen
thirties.
The area between Las Cruces and Anthony
contains some of the richest farm land in New Mexico. Early crops of
cotton, alfalfa and grape vineyards have been joined by large pecan
orchards and onion, lettuce, and chile fields. The many dairies make
insulage, alfalfa, and grain crops popular. Population estimates of
this area are about 15,000 people living in the little hamlets and the
wide open spaces, and encroaching seriously on the farm land in the
Mesilla Valley.
On the New Mexico side, the Gadsden
Independent School District is reported to have more bus miles than
any other school district in the United States. The district extends
from Sunland Park on the southern end to San Miguel and Mesquite on
the north and across the mountain to Chaparral on the east. In
contrast, the Texas side of Anthony makes up the Anthony
Independent School District, one of the smallest school districts in
the state. Anthony, New Mexico is not incorporated
and is governed by Doña Ana County. The Texas side of town was
incorporated under the name of Anthony, Texas in
1953, and is somewhat of a bedroom community for El Paso.
In 1988, Mary Ann Brown, a member of the
Anthony
Chamber of Commerce and born on Leap Year, founded the Worldwide Leap
Year Birthday Club. The Chamber voted to proclaim the New Mexico/Texas
town "Leap Year Capital of the World" and to sponsor the one
and only World-Wide Leap Year Birthday Club and celebration. Then New
Mexico Governor Garrey Carruthers and Texas Governor William B.
Clements joined in the special proclamation. Senator Pete Domenici
read it into the Congressional Record Vol. 134, No. 146, Friday,
October 14, 1988, of the 100th Congress. Quadrennial celebrations were
held in 1992 and 1996. The Leap Year 2000 celebration is planned to be
the biggest one yet. The dates set for it are February 26-29, 2000.
Anyone born on February 29 is eligible for membership in the Worldwide
Leap Year Birthday Club at $20, renewable every leap year by February
1. For information write Mary Ann Brown, P O Box 1818,
Anthony,
TX 79821, 915-886-2540 or
Anthony Chamber of
Commerce, PO Box 1086,
Anthony, TX/NM 88021. One
person's idea for something this unique can make the difference in
tourism for an area, no matter how small the town.
One can take three routes for the
approximately 25 miles to and from Las Cruces to Anthony:
via the old scenic route on NM Highway 28 on the west side of the Rio
Grande; or through the valley on NM Highway 478 (formerly U.S. Highway
80); or if you're in a hurry, Interstate 10 will bypass the farm lands
and villages.
La Union, an agricultural community, is
three miles southwest of Anthony on NM 28. Its post
office opened in 1909, although the ages of the adobe houses indicate
the village is probably older. The population is primarily
Hispanic-American, some of those whose address changed, even though
they did not move.
Chamberino, four miles north of Anthony
on NM 28, was a refuge after the Mexican War for residents who could
choose between citizenship in Mexico or the United States. Known as El
Refugio and Los Amoles, it was in Mexico until 1854, the year the
Gadsden Purchase was ratified, then became part of the United States.
After many floods, the town was rebuilt on the higher, sandy, western
mesa. The chile products have produced a retail establishment known as
the Pepper Lovers' Heaven at Pepper Tree Farm. Grapes and wine are
other products in this area and La Vina Winery, said to be the oldest
winery in New Mexico, is just off Route 28, a short distance to the
west.
La Mesa, four miles north of Chamberino,
is another area founded following the Gadsden Purchase. The tableland
took its name from the nearby lava flow known as Black Mesa, although
the town was originally known as Victoria. When the post office was
established in 1908 it was named La Mesa. Populated with predominantly
Hispano-Americans and a few Anglo-American pioneers, La Mesa is an
agricultural community. The San Jose church was established in 1875,
but was in a state of ruin by 1902.
San Miguel, three miles north of La Mesa,
has a beautiful church. It was originally built in 1880, torn down in
1926, and rebuilt from volcanic rock. The village and post office were
known as Telles until 1917. In 1926, the Stahmans bought 2,900 acres
from the Santa Tomas Farm. Santa Tomas is on the map north of San
Miguel, but apparently no village exists there at present. The
Stahmans cleared the land and acquired more. Beginning in 1936, they
planted pecan trees, with lettuce, cotton, and onions among them until
the trees became so large the crops dwindled. There are so many pecan
trees now they line both sides of the highway for three miles.
Chaparral is eleven miles across the
mountain through Anthony Gap, east of Anthony.
In Place Names of New Mexico it is described as a rural subdivision
whose name means overgrown with scrub oak. Many manufactured homes and
mobile homes are scattered over a wide expanse of land. Its zip code
address is the same as Anthony's. The eastern
boundary is the Fort Bliss Military Reservation in El Paso.
Berino, five miles north of Anthony,
just east of NM 478, is directly across the Rio Grande from Chamberino.
Settled by Hispanic-Americans, this area is also a part of the Gadsden
Purchase. Little historic information is available, but evidently it
was called Cottonwood at one time with its own elementary school. It
is now the home of McAnnaly Chicken Farm, a huge egg production plant.
Vado, four miles north of Berino, has had
many names, among them Herron, Earlham, Center Valley and Vado. The
population of this farming community was Hispanic and some
African-Americans, many of whom moved here in the 1920s from Blackdom,
a dwindling African-American community near Roswell. The proud people
at one time established a negro college at Vado. The Herron family had
opened a broom factory in 1886, explaining the name
"Herron." Quakers from Indiana brought the name of Earlham
that held from 1888 to 1911. Center Valley was named by a postmaster
and existed for the years 1913-1919, then returned to the name to Vado.
Mesquite, four miles north of Vada, was a
farming community established in 1882, named for the many mesquite
bushes growing there. The post office was established in 1913.
East of Mesquite is Bishop's Cap, a park
in the southern Organ Mountains. It contains Conklin Cave, in which
bones of ancient sloths, camels and cave bears have been discovered.
Little other information is available.
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