Welcome to Trails of Enchantment where we travel and discover the diverse cultures and nature of the borderland region.

Where we share the stories of the places, the art and the people that make up this beautiful land.

We are here to preserve and celebrate the uniqueness of the past.

Share a taste of the present community.

and engulf the bright future that awaits.

Trails of Enchantment.

Let's start on the trail.

Our first stop is to Pancho Villa State Park where we learn about the rise and fall of Villa, the troops once stationed here, and a history that still brings people together.

Were here at Pancho Villa State Park.

My name is Armando Martinez Junior.

I am park manager here at Pancho Villa State Park, located in Columbus, New Mexico.

I am second generation New Mexico State Park employee.

The raid of March 9th, 1916, which was when Francisco “Pancho” Villa raided Columbus.

Around 4:20 a.m.

about 450 to 500 of his Villistas came in from the southwestern part of the town.

Headed up this way and raided the town.

Of course, it was 4:20 a.m.

in the morning.

Everybody was caught off guard, everybody was sleeping.

Camp at Columbus was the military camp that was stationed here by President Woodrow Wilson at the time, there was about 350 to 500 troops.

at the time, here at Columbus.

This hill, is very significant because Cootes Hill was the lookout point that the U.S.

troops would use to look south and guard the camp.

It was here, prior to the raid, because the Mexican Revolution was happening at that time.

U.S.

troops that were stationed here, most of them had taken the train up to the nearest, U.S.

Army base, which was by the name and still in existence Fort Bliss.

And we could actually see the old rail bed.

The rails were lifted in 1963, I believe, but that was a means of transportation.

And now, that was overlaid with what we call now highway nine.

We're here in Columbus, New Mexico.

It's a small town, population 1800 residents.

Were three miles from the Mexico border town of Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua.

A lot of history here in town.

And we're proud of it, here at the park, on a day to day basis, we see people from all over the world, and interact with them and eager to learn the history, and that's one thing that we're here for.

That's our mission statement for New Mexico State Parks is to preserve and educate our visitors and protect our natural and cultural resources.

And that's why we're here.

Yeah upon coming into the exhibit hall, you'll be greeted by one of our hosts.

And also upon coming in, you will see this 1915 Dodge touring car, which was actually here at the time of the raid on March 9th, 1916.

It was owned by the Frost family.

They were here at the time of the raid.

The family, it is said that, they were fleeing the raid.

The Villistas has had attacked the town and their residence was being attacked.

So they got in the car.

Hopped in the car.

It was a husband and wife.

His name was Douglas, Douglas Frost, and Mary Frost.

And they had a baby.

The wife had the baby in her lap.

However, you may see the car peppered with bullet holes.

Unfortunately the husband did get hit, but he did survive.

He got, hit twice with bullet wounds, bullet holes, and, the wife at the time, Mary, she had to learn how to drive pretty much on the spot.

Women really weren't driving in that time period, but, she had to learn on the spot.

It was standard stick shift, and, the husband jumped to the back with a baby, and she had to take the wheel and learn how to drive.

Talk about a stressful, second there.

But it was a, survival I guess, survival mode kicked in.

Behind me, you see, the Jenny Curtiss biplane.

Was one of the replicas, of the Jenny biplane.

There was a total of eight that were shipped out to Columbus, to help in the punitive expedition.

The orders were given to General John “Blackjack” Pershing, to find Villa after he raided Columbus.

This was the first invasion on U.S.

soil, and this was the first place where U.S.

troops and forces got to use equipment, to help with U.S.

infantry per se.

They never did capture Villa.

The did run into some skirmishes with the Villistas.

But Villa was never found.

Villa was later assassinated in his hometown, there in Mexico.

We're standing here in the campground here at Pancho Villa State Park.

We're close to 60 Acres, campground itself.

Behind me, you'll see, construction equipment in operation, which we're happy to see.

What's going down right now is they're in the middle of a wastewater construction project, that's going to bring us back up to operation.

Since 2022, our comfort stations, shower houses have been closed, and we lost our dump station.

When we're back in operation, we get what we call our snowbirds coming down.

They come in camp with us.

They frequent, the border town of Mexico.

They pick up on the history, they come in and find a spot, and hook up.

They have, we have water, electricity available.

With this new wastewater project we'll have a new dump station.

We're open seven days a week in the exhibit hall except on holidays.

We're open from 9 to 3.

We do.

Closed for lunch from 12 to 1.

We hope to see you down here.

You come in as a stranger, and we hope you leave as a friend and take a little piece of history with you.

Our next stop is to the Gem Center Crystal Gallery and Museum.

This hidden El Paso gem houses hundreds of stones and crystals from around the world all because of a family discovery 60 years ago.

In Chihuahua, Mexico, my dad's side of the family, they were ranchers.

They had a big ranch.

And, one day, one of their You know, one of their ranch hands discovered these these funny looking round rocks.

They weren't really interested in them, but they let some rockhounds come in and do exploring and do some digging.

They convinced my grandmother, at the time to kind of jump on the bandwagon and do some of her own claims.

And then my mom's side of the family, they, they received a stone collection in trade.

So that's how they got started in the stone business, because my dad was a delivery guy of the geodes, and my mom was the, you know, shipping and receiving person.

So they, they, met and they, they got married and bought the business from, from my mom's parents.

And so they, you know, we've been miners and cowboys since the 1960s.

We have about 20,000 customers worldwide.

So you might be at a touristy spot around the world, and you'll see people cracking our geodes.

My art geodes they're formed in a volcano, 44 million years ago.

And so basically it was a volcano that erupted, there was gas pockets in the lava and the gas pockets filled in with silica, making the crystal structures inside.

So, if you will, it's kind of like the concept of a mini cavern, you know, just a bunch of little mini caverns that formed.

And, and so we, you know, we dig those on our ranch in Mexico and we've, we've kind of tested the mine, they're going to be as deep as 200 feet below the surface.

We're always, wholesale business.

And then we just kind of started playing with the retail.

After Covid, we really experienced like, this massive surge of the young, the young folks coming out here, you know, high school students, college students.

Before it was mostly older folks buying stones, because in the old days it was more about just cutting and polishing and making jewelry.

And now it's kind of transitioned more into the healing properties.

Every stone has, an energy signature, you know, but because of its molecular structure and depending on what books you read, they tell you what the different crystals mean and how they can help you.

For example, green aventurine, because it's the color green, it's supposed to help with fortune and money, you know, and rose quartz, it's the pink, you know, it's a pink color quartz helps with your your romance, and for the stone of love.

We travel the world, purchasing materials for our wholesale business.

So we, you know, we came across these really big pieces, you know, as we were traveling.

And so it was great to start a big, you know, we started a collection of really big pieces.

So that kind of evolved into a museum.

And, you know, it's just it's nice to it kind of helps customers remember us because they'll come in and see the store and see the museum and see the spectacular pieces that are in there.

I mean, you have to travel, you know, like to Las Vegas or the Smithsonian or, you know, those type of places to see these kind of pieces.

And we have them right here in El Paso.

This is a very unique store for the area.

But there is a community here.

There's a general mineral society that's involved.

There's also, gem shows that are involved throughout the year.

I know in December, they put on a gem show here in town that my, you know, folks can check out.

I know, and also in the area like an Alpine, there's a gem show coming up in Deming, New Mexico, so this whole area, there's some really neat places to discover stones and see nice stones.

It's nice to be part of that community.

And it's just such a great experience to pick out a rock that's been forming for 44 million years, and you get to be the very first person to see.

And of course, you know, enjoy our, you know, our museum.

We have really, unique and really big pieces.

And it's just it's a great family entertainment place.

It's my parents and it's four brothers and, so we all work together.

I mean, we're very fortunate that we get to see each other every day.

I'm the oldest.

The second oldest actually lives in Chihuahua City, and he's in charge of the Mexico operations.

And but the rest of us are here managing the retail store and the wholesale operations.

And we all travel together.

You know, we've gone buying trips, go to Brazil, you know, we've, we've done some really nice trips together, looking for stones.

So, you know, it's, it's, just we're very blessed.

Hope you're hungry.

The next stop is Hillsboro general store cafe.

This place has had many lives.

Today, it's a community hub, a place to relax, and reconnect and fuel up for more exploration.

I actually came out here for a sabbatical from the corporate world.

I was running kitchens at a ski resort in Montana.

With maybe, you know, 20, 30, 40 people under me that I had to manage, and I just needed a break.

My family was out here, off and on.

They lived in Kingston and Hillsboro and kind of knew the area, so.

I lasted about a month.

And then I saw the help wanted sign in the window of the cafe, and I was like, I'll work for a little bit.

So and then four years later, here I am and, bought this restaurant from the previous owners in an effort with the community to keep this place alive Ben and Doreen, the former owners were really adamant about keeping a restaurant here.

So, I decided to finally bite the bullet and put down some roots here in Hillsboro.

And, keep the place open and, It's been pretty amazing.

You know, we've got our coffee crew in the morning.

who they're standing outside the door at 8 Oclock in the morning waiting to put our flag out for us and come in and have a cup of coffee.

You know, it's kind of a great community because, you know.

And we miss when they're not here for coffee in the morning.

It's like, oh, what's what's going on?

Where are they?

What?

You know, are they okay?

Our great neighbors across the street, Richard and Gloria, used to come in here, every single day for both meals.

And they still, we, you know, they're the only people that we deliver to.

If it wasn't for the community here, I would have never in a million years thought about opening a restaurant in 2026.

With the climate as it is, the financial uncertainty.

I mean, it's not a great time to be in the food business, but the community for sure keeps us alive.

I know that it was it was an actual general store, a pharmacy, like a doctor's office in the back.

It's been the phone operator, like station, before everything went digital.

And it's been a restaurant for, I want to say about 50 years that it's been continuous.

Ben and Doreen purchased the cafe as a restaurant from the previous owner, who ran it for 20 plus years.

It's kind of been the Hillsboro General Store cafe for a while now.

So.

So it was, historical preservation grant specifically focusing on the exterior of the building, and upgrades.

And so with that, we vamped patio, it used to have, like a plastic wood railing around the outside.

An so we got that done.

And the new door.

We could tell if you were a local or not, If you could open the door.

A lot of times there'd be people standing there rattling, rattling the door, trying to get in, and, kind of difficult, historical old door.

But, yeah, the previous owner, had actually applied, for that.

So he's still in charge of making sure that we follow through on, on all of those things.

But, the community is really appreciated.

The menu that I inherited, I love dearly.

I cooked it for four years before I bought the place.

We really do kind of the red and green chili, really well.

And being so close to Hatch, all of our, you know, our red and green are from their, pinto beans, and, personally, I'm just slowly rolling out some specials here and there.

A little bit more health focused, vegetarian and vegan friendly.

That's kind of a, niche out here that, there are quite a few people who are, you know, eat plant based, who hadn't been in in a long time just, because it wasn't all that friendly.

So just making little tweaks here and there.

You know, it's right now it's just me back there cooking.

So, the community has learned to be fairly patient, and they know that if the restaurant's full and they walk in, they'll be waiting a little bit.

But generally they're in good spirits about it, and they're happy to wait for, for the food, which makes me really proud.

So, that was one of my big requests was don't get rid of the pie.

Doreen was nice enough to give me the recipes, she's been baking for 25 years.

So yeah, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, peaches and rhubarb.

And, yeah, everybody comes in asking like, oh, what is a bumble berry?

I've never heard of it.

It's not any one berry.

It's the mixture of all of them.

And it's, it's pretty great.

Looking towards the future, being open more days, training some people to help in the kitchen.

So that we can be, you know, open more days.

I would love to get an espresso machine and just you know, maybe the days that we don't have the full menu still be open for you know, coffee drinks and pie and muffins and stuff like that.

And then, just getting a few more like special events.

We did a reservation only Valentine's Day dinner that turned out really well and everybody enjoyed.

So just putting a little bit more of me, into the cafe as it grows and just being open more so that people can come and enjoy the space.

Previous owners, they still live in the house next door.

So anytime that I have, a pressing question, I can just run over and knock on the door and, and ask them their thoughts on something.

And they've been instrumental in helping me figure out everything that I need to know to run this place successfully.

I couldn't be happier with how it's running, so.

I mean, come visit, come out here and see us when it's getting too hot.

Yeah, we're a couple thousand feet in elevation, higher than the rest of the area.

Come enjoy our shade and grab some food.

Visit the museum.

We've got some great local artisans with shops out here.

you know, it's a great place to come visit.

The team is strong, the community is strong and yeah, without either of those things this this restaurant wouldn't be possible.

Time for one more stop on the trail.

Well head up to explore the Catwalk National Recreation Trail in the Gila National Forest.

Well will learn more about natural history, wildlife, and how the catwalks were once destroyed and restored back to life.

Hey KRWG.

My name is Nathan Marquard.

I'm the partnership coordinator and former trail manager here at the Catwalk National Recreation Trail.

And my name is Elizabeth Hemphill, and I do public affairs on the Gila National Forest.

And today we're going to go on a hike at the catwalk.

I have my water, a snack, some sunscreen and a hat.

Let's get ready to go.

Oh, I'm going to.

We're going to start our journey today at the Whitewater picnic area here at the trailhead.

An interesting fact about this site was that this entire parking lot and picnic area was actually once a town site.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, 200 people called this place home in order to service the mill, which you can still see up on the canyon walls behind me with those rock walls.

Whitewater picnic area and the catwalk is a fee day use site area.

So it's $5.

There's a self-service station right by the, the trailhead, and it's a pack in, pack out area, meaning steward your site and make sure that your trash ends up in those trash cans at the end of the day.

So as we come across this first bridge, you may notice that the trail splits.

If you continue straight, the trail is moderate use, so it's got some steps and some steeper grades.

But if you go through the bridge and to the left, this trail is ADA accessible, wheelchair accessible, so that users of all ages and all ability types can enjoy the catwalk further up the canyon.

So the original catwalk was built in the late 1800s to service a water pipe that let high pressure water go down to the mill site, down in the parking lot.

In order to service that pipe, the miners built series of wood walkways in order to service the pipe.

And in the 1930s, the CCC converted it into a national recreation trail.

That original series of catwalks and bridges that the CCC put in, used to extend a mile and a half of this canyon, included steps, bridges, walkways, and even a suspension bridge.

But in 2012, we had the Whitewater Baldy Fire, which burned over 200,000 acres in the high country, here in the Mogollon Mountains.

And in 2013, we had a 100-year flood event.

This canyon, Whitewater canyon, extends 18 miles up to the highest point in the Gila National Forest.

So this huge watershed all drained right into this canyon we're about to walk into and destroyed the catwalk.

So the catwalk we're going to walk in today was rebuilt in 2016, 20 feet higher than the original, and is really a feat of modern engineering.

But unfortunately, it only goes a quarter mile now, as opposed to the old two miles up the canyon.

However, the trail does continue up in the original footpath, and you can still see the old remnants of the original trail from the 1930s.

Just beyond this metal staircase.

The trail is highly developed with some concrete steps, some nice wide walking paths.

But as you progress up into the canyon further, it turns into more of a backcountry wilderness trail.

This canyon, like I said, extends 18 miles up to the highest point.

It's about two miles to the Gila wilderness boundary, which is the, third largest wilderness area in, in the lower 48 is a really special place, and the oldest wilderness.

There's plenty of opportunities for backcountry camping, backpacking, and for extended backcountry travel into the greater Gila Wilderness and the Gila Cliff Dwellings beyond.

A lot of this construction was done, with help from the Great American Outdoors Act, and has seen a great number of personnel hours and labor being put in by young adults, working here through the summer, through the winter, all sorts of conditions, doing whatever they can to repair this trail and bring it back to its former glory.

My job is the trail manager here in Glenwood for a number of years was to oversee that work, to do the designs on these trails, and then to facilitate the crews actually out here doing the work.

And it's been really the honor of my lifetime to do it.

So we've reached my favorite part of the canyon here.

And the reason I love it is with all this, downward slope, there's just a ton of waterfalls embedded in these rocks.

But in the 2013 flood, one of the best examples of the scale and the devastation of that and the power of that flood water is actually this rock right behind me.

And you can see it's a pretty gigantic rock.

And on top of it is a bridge footing from the old catwalk.

But that flood was so big and so powerful, it actually moved that rock over about 20 degrees.

So now you can see the physical evidence of that flood on that rock.

Just a cool thing I always see whenever I walk this trail.

The catwalk is our main keystone trail in this area, and it's really been a privilege to work and to get to know this place so deeply.

This right here is my favorite vista in the entire trail.

My favorite spot to have lunch, which we're going to stop and do right now.

And I encourage you to come out and join me and see this trail for yourself, because it's really a special place.

Feel free to stop us, to ask us questions.

We're here to help, and we look forward to seeing you out on the trail.

All locally produced programming is available online at krwg dot org and Youtube dot com Thanks for joining us on Trails of Enchantment.

Will see you next time on the trail.