Hi Ho, Hi Ho

 The drive to Raton was windy as ever, fortunately some of it was a tail-wind. We arrived at the campground, and it was windy and cold.

The photo of our site was taken a couple of days after we arrived, the wind was not blowing. The first few nights were exceptionally cold, and I mean in the mid-teens. I had to disconnect the water hoses because of freezing. Normally I would have used our heated water hose, however, there are not enough receptacles for two sites and the water line heater. Even though I turned off the water, I put us on our water tank, but I forgot to drain the hose, and guess what, it froze. The following morning I put it in the sun to thaw a bit. In the meantime I attached another hose for water from the campground.

We are not going to waste our time away here in Raton, so we headed out to visit one of their museums.

The first museum we stopped at was the history of the region. We opted for a guided tour of the museum, which definitely was a good option. 

When the Spanish arrived in the area back in the 1600s, they were met with a surprise at night, herds of mice would come out at night to hunt for food from the piñon (pine seed). The way the Spaniards solved their mouse issue was by building fires around their camp sites at night. When the Spanish left the area, they gave it the name Ratón, meaning mouse. Today the acute over the "ó" has been removed.

In our society today we like to think we are the most imaginative and innovative, but we are really copiers of the past.

This safe from the First National Bank in Raton is really a safe within a safe, built around 1873. What made this safe extraordinary was its time lock device...

Like the big safes in banks today, a time delay could be set as to when the door would unlock.

The First National Bank of Raton also had the distinction of printing its own money, and this was because they handled all the payrolls for the mines in the area. Really what I am saying is that the government printing office printed the notes for

them, with the bank's name and charter number. The First National Bank of Raton was one of over 14,000 banks that issued currency notes between 1863 and 1929. If you zoom in on the note, you can see that it says "National Currency".

In the day, it was the coal mines and railroad, that made the area around Raton what it was. The area around here was/is rich in coal. During its peak years there were nine coal mines in operation, and with each mine a community was built around it. Many of these little communities had schools, stores, and a hospital.

This was the community around the Koehler mine, which operated from 1907 to 1957. This mine actually had a small hospital inside the mine.
Their hospital was 2,600 feet inside the mine entrance. The mine was named after Henry Koehler, and was eventually sold to the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Coal Co., who owned the mine for 60 years before selling it to Kaiser Steel in 1955.

Imagine working a coal vein like this one, 18 feet high.

Probably the most famous coal mine in the area was the Dawson mine, named after two brothers, and operated from 1900 to 1954.

Dawson was the largest coal camp in the coal field, and the only one not owned by the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Coal Co. 

This community touted the fact that they had all the before mentioned facilities, in addition to a hotel, sidewalks, swimming pool, and golf course. 

This photo is the inside of their mercantile store, with three branches, employing 60 people. The community boated a population of 9,000, and purported to be the largest town in the southwest supported by one industry. With being the largest mine came bad times. In 1913 an explosion killed 263 miners, and ten years later there was another explosion killing 120 more miners. 

The coal from this mine was make into coke, which was then used in the process for making copper.

Sadly, when this mine closed down in 1954, the whole shootin' match was sold off to a salvage company. Only a few homes survived, and moved elsewhere, as far as Oklahoma. Today the only hint of the town is the cemetery where the 383 miners lay at rest.

What was left of foundations were buried in a ditch and covered up by the owner of the land.

One of the other mining camps was the Swastika Coal mine. This community established in 1904, operated until 1953, was a smaller community of roughly 500. They had a school and mercantile store. Here is one of the accomplishments...

Just before WWII the name of the town was changed to New Brilliant, making it similar to their sister city of Brilliant.

Let's talk a little about a swastika.

The swastika dates back somewhere around 13,000 years, and started in Eurasia. The word swastika comes from the word Sanskrit, meaning "conducive to well being or auspicious". It was a religion icon in Eurasia, and a symbol of divinity and spirituality in the Indian religions.

In Hinduism, the clockwise swastika represents surya (sun), while the counterclockwise sauvastika represents night, or tantric aspects of Kali.

Jainism, a swastika is the symbol for Suparshvanatha, the 7th of 24 Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers and saviours).

In Buddhism the swastika represents the auspicious footprints of the Buddha.

Here in the Western World it meant auspiciousness and good luck... until the 1930s, when Hitler turned it into a demonic symbol for the Aryan race. Today it is now associated with racism and antisemitism.

Back to the mines. In the early days of coal mining equipment was pretty basic, and hazardous. For example, lights to see what one was doing were dangerous. The miners would head into the mine equipped with a headlamp that was an open flame... not good if there was explosive gases in the mine. Over time they came out with lamps that were not open flame and could detect if gases were present.

This device was used by supervisors walking through the mine shafts. The supervisor would hold it in front of himself and read the amount of air flow through the shaft. If there was sufficient movement, no problem, if not, get fans blowing.

There was always a certain amount of danger working the mines, and the miners were prepared. These are examples of personal rescue devices.

They provided the miner a short amount of air so they could get out of the mine.

Let's move on to other displays in the museum. If you remember, I mentioned that the railroad had its hands in the area growing.

The railroad bought Raton Pass, and later became valuable when it came to passengers. One issue was schedule. The problem with stopping periodically was food. Passengers would get off the train and look for food, but orders could not be filled quick enough to ensure passengers could get back on the train before it left the station. This issue was actually nationwide on the rail system.

Visit this site to get a better understanding of the Harvey Girls. https://www.xanterra.com/stories/who-were-the-harvey-girls-and-why-do-they-matter.

Fred Harvey was a visionary regarding the creation of hotel/restaurants along the rail system. One of the Harvey Girls lived in Raton, and worked at the hotel/restaurant by the train station. The Harvey Girls were generally young ladies. The hotel/restaurants were staffed with chefs, not cooks, and the floor staff were trained in the proper service of customers. Customers ate off China plates, silverware, and linen napkins.

FUN FACT:

What is this?

For those of you that traveled by stagecoach, like myself, you may know what this is. Here is a hint... it is a woman thing.

ANSWER: This is an "underwear safe", from the 1880s. Women would wear it under their garments to keep what money they had safe. Seeing it in person, it doesn't hold a lot of money.

How many of you have had some kind of dental work done? Over the early years there were several doctors and dentists in the area. I have had some dental work done, which included bridges and a couple of crowns.

This is a crown making kit from the early 1900s. There really much information as to how they made, or secure the crowns, but I'm glad they are made different today.

How many of you have ever heard of the Fireballs, probably more of you than you think. If you listened to rock and roll in the 60's, you may remember "Sugar Shack", or maybe "20 Bottle of Wine". If you're not sure, go on the internet and call up these two tittles.  I bring these guys up because they are from Raton, and there is a survivor still living in Raton.

When the coal industry went away, the town did not die off, just changed industry. You might be surprised which industry they moved to...electronic entertainment.

The TVs they manufactured, all three models, were named after areas in the region. The two shown in the photo are the Ratonia (on the left), and the Mt. Capulin (on the right). What home would be without a stereo console. All this technology unfortunately went away when companies like RCA and Sony came around. The town still was not ready to die, they had a company dealing with electronics for the space shuttles. Of course after the shuttle program went to sleep, so did the town.

The museum also had a collection of dolls from around the world. The dolls were donated by one of the residents. They a section displaying fossils found in the area. One in particular is a footprint from a T-Rex, found on the Boy Scout ranch.

DO NOT get the idea that Raton turned into a ghost town, there is a lot to see in the area.

Our next day took us out to the Whittington Center (https://www.nrawc.org). The facility is run by the National Rifle Association, but it is all about guns.

Unfortunately we could not visit the museum, it was under renovation, but there were other sites to see on the property. We took a drive up the road to check out the campgrounds and the remains of the Van Houten mine.

The campgrounds did have sites that are full hook up, and some had a nice view. From the campgrounds we headed up to the mine. The mine is not accessible now days, but visitors can at least see one of the entrances to the mine. I am going to work our way backwards, it was over a mile drive back from the mine entrance.

Besides a locked gate, the entrance is walled up about 100 feet in.

Along the road is the remains of some of the buildings that supported mining operations and the mining community.

Keep in mind that when the mines were in operation, their form of automation was mules.

This structure was the for the mules that worked the mine. The first photo is looking down from the road, and the second is an opportunity to hike a trail and get closer to the barn.

This little town was fortunate to have a doctor living in town.

I suspect by the size of the doctor's house, it probably functioned as the local hospital too. 

This is the one room that was not attached to the house, that is why they called it the outhouse, and this outhouse was located across the road from the doctor's house.

We had to park by the doctor's house and walk the trail through the other foundations of the remaining buildings, ending at the mule barn.

This was the mine office, located next door to the doctor's office.

Working the mine and having a family was not an easy life, and here is a prime example...

This is what's left of the bathhouse, meaning that families had to traverse from their homes to bathe each day. 

The building next to the bathhouse was the powerhouse.

We were not sure what actually powered the powerhouse, but we're thinking it was a good possibility it was coal. In the lower photo it appeared that something may have been built for moving material to the powerhouse. From the powerhouse we headed to the mule barn for the closer shots.

Back down the road we see the Company Store.

This is where the miners and their families owed their souls to the mining company. It was almost impossible for a miner to get out of debt to the mining company... really meant it they were indentured slaves to the mining company until they died, or the company went defunct.

Wonder what the miners and their families lived in...

At least the company provided the homes with heating capabilities, in the form of a fireplace. It appears each home had a root cellar too.

After leaving Van Houten mine, we headed back home for the day.

The next day out we had planned to go to the Boy Scout Camp museum, however, the museum is closed for renovations. Do not despair, we found another place to visit, Capulin Volcano.

The volcano is an extinct cone volcano.

Photo is thanks to Jason C. Photography. This volcano is part of an the 8,000-square-mile Raton-Clayton Volcanic field. This volcano rises 1,300 feet above the plains. After viewing a video at the visitor center, we headed to the top of the volcano.

That arrow is pointing to the road we had to drive to get to the top of the volcano. Once we arrived at the top, I parked the truck, and headed for the 1-mile trail around the rim of volcano. 

This is looking down at the bottom of the cone, which I may hike down to after I finish the rim hike. 

I probably didn't make a good choice making this hike... especially after getting over a cold and sinus allergies.

Great views from the rim, so let me show what I walked to get these pictures...

Fortunately for the less fit, there are stopping points and benches. One of the stopping points explained the importance of the "time stains", better known as lichen.

Over thousands of years these plants breakdown the lava into soil, and because of this, other plants can thrive.

Rangers in the early day thought the porcupines were pests in the volcano, later they realized that the little guys were important to the eco-system.

This is just one of the almost 100 other volcanos in the volcano field, but it comes with a price.

This side of the rim seemed to be only uphill, in a never ending direction. The truth of the matter is that the rim has a 12% grade, rising a total of 300 feet. 

Once one arrives at the peak, there is a lot to see. 

Summer apparently is the time to visit the volcano. The ladybugs, after devouring aphids at lower elevations, come up here by the thousands, and cover the rocks and shrubs. Their major reason for coming up here is to lay their eggs, creating the next generation.

The fact that it only took a short time to create this volcano, it is not surprising that the volcano found ways to continue growing. 

This is a section of lava that flowed from fissures at the base of the volcano. 

This area is not a wasteland, ranchers would, graze their cattle on the plains during the winter, then driving the herds to Colorado and Wyoming. Cattle can still be found grazing today.

The volcano is a spiritual place for the Native American Indians as well. They of course refer to the earth as "Mother Earth", in which all creation comes from. What makes the volcano spiritual is the fact that the lava comes from the center of the earth. So whenever hiking the volcano, one should show respect for the beliefs of others.

I finally made my way on the down slope. There is a point of interest on the downside...

This bench was struck by lightning awhile back. If one is afraid of being struck by lightning, stay off the iron-based volcano. They do warn visitors to head back to their vehicles if they notice lightning within a 10-mile radius of the volcano.

I made it back to the parking lot.

While I was hiking the trail, I was passed up twice by a guy running the trail. This was the starting elevation at the parking lot, it is 8,182 feet at the peak of the rim.

Carol and I climbed back into the truck and returned to the Visitor Center to spend some money on "things". I wanted to get out of there before that guy lapped me a third time.

Our next thrill was stopping for gas, in preparations to make a run to Colorado.