First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now pretty much a twice-a-week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.
Landing number 2010; A Landing A Day blog post number 428.
Dan – I avoided an 0/5 streak with this landing in . . . NM; 74/81; 6/10; 10; 152.8. If it seems like I’ve been visiting NM a lot recently, I have – this is my third landing here since landing 2000. Here’s my regional landing map:
Closer in, you can see that I landed in the boonies:
Joffre and Cardenas don’t really exist; Pastura is incredibly tiny, so Vaughn is the big winner, even though it’s more than 20 miles away.
Here’s my Google Earth (GE) shot, showing (as expected) that I sure ‘nuf landed in the boonies! The photo’s not very clear, so it’s kind of tough to say much except that it looks like an empty, scrubby landscape:
Moving further back doesn’t add much; it looks more arid, it’s all pretty flat and there are few signs of civilization:
It took a little work, but I figured out that I landed in the watershed of the Salado Creek (Salado means “salty” in Spanish); on to the Pecos R (13th hit); on to the Rio Grande (38th hit). FYI, the Rio Grande ranks 17 on my list of river hits.
I fear that isn’t much to say about Vaughn. It was founded in the early 1900s along some railroad tracks, and then got a boost when another set of tracks created a junction near the town. Here’s a StreetAtlas maps, with just railroads & towns (and my landing, of course):
The population peaked at 888 back in 1920 (and is now about 440). Here’s a “Welcome to Vaughn” shot from Wiki:
Here’s a peculiar Wiki entry about Vaughn:
On Wednesday, 26 September 2012, the town’s only police force was disbanded when the police chief resigned due to criminal charges lodged against him. According to a news report, the police dog and a non-sworn officer are the only remaining connection to what the town called the police department.
Poor Vaughn. The national media picked up on the story, and the result is that a Google search for – police Vaughn NM – results in the following items (the first line of each search Google search item copied and pasted here):
Vaughn, N.M., police force goes to the dog. Really (LA Times)
With Vaughn, New Mexico, police chief out over his past conviction … (NY Daily News)
With officers forbidden from carrying guns, New Mexico town’s police … (NBC News)
Police chief resigns, NM force has gone to the dog (Yahoo News 1)
Vaughn, NM, has two police officers, both with criminal records (Yahoo News 2)
Nikka the police dog is only cop in N.M. town after chief resigns … (CBS News)
Nikka, Drug-Sniffing Dog, Only Certified Member Of Police Dept … (Huffington Post)
Vaughn’s police dept run by criminals (KRQE)
Vaughn, N.M. cops not allowed to carry guns (KOB)
New Mexico Town Down to Just One Police Officer: A Dog Named … (Gawker.com)
Phew. Just shows that sometimes the media has nothing better to do. If you have nothing better to do, feel free to check out Vaughn’s police department . . .
Anyway, I’ll close with some Panoramio shots to give you a feel for the emptiness of this part of NM. Here’s a shot of a distant train by Ed Klegg:
I’ll close with two shots by “R Jutte-vander Krogt:”
That’ll do it.
KS
Greg
© 2013 A Landing A Day
A Landing a Day 