Skip to main content

New Mexico Route 28

Sometimes a nice drive doesn't have to be a long-distance road trip.  This is the case with New Mexico Route 28 - a just over 30-mile drive from Las Cruces south to the Texas state line.

Beginning in Downtown Las Cruces, NM 28 combines history, scenery, and pecans. (More on that later.)  Just south of Las Cruces and Interstate 10 is the historic town of Mesilla.  Mesilla is the location of numerous key events in New Mexico history.

Mesilla, NM Town Square

Founded in 1848 on the northeast edge of Mexico territory, Mesilla would quickly become part of the United States after the Gadsen Purchase.  The formalized agreement, also known as the Treaty of Mesilla, was signed in the town square in 1854.  During the American Civil War, Mesilla, after being captured by the Confederate Army, briefly served as the capital of the Confederate Territory of Arizona.  By mid-1862, after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Mesilla was back in Union hands.

Mesilla Town Plaza

Mesilla thrived as the center of Southern New Mexico commerce until the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the early 1880s. Mesilla residents did not want the new transcontinental railroad to run through their town.  Instead, the new railroad ran to the north through Las Cruces.

The Basilica of San Albino

In addition to the Town Plaza, Mesilla is home to numerous historic structures.  The layout of the town center remains the same as when first chartered in 1848.  The church for the Roman Catholic San Albino Parrish, built in 1908, was granted minor basilica status in 2008.

When NM 28 runs through pecan farms - it doesn't seem like New Mexico.

As you continue south along Highway 28, you briefly depart from the desert southwest feel while driving under a canopy of pecan trees.  Southern New Mexico is well known for its chiles but is also home to some of the largest pecan farms in the country.  Stahmann Farms, which NM 28 runs through, is one of the largest family-run pecan farms in the country.

There are several small villages along NM 28.  San Miguel, a community of about 1,100, is one of those towns.  The San Miguel Catholic Church is the centerpiece of this community.

San Miguel Catholic Church

Further south in La Mesa is the well-known Chope's Bar and Cafe.  This iconic over 100-year old local restaurant has attracted visitors throughout the region and nationally for its home-cooked Mexican offerings.  Chope's has been owned and operated by three generations of the Jose "Chope" Benavides family.  When I traveled through here in July 2021, Chope's was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Fortunately, in October 2021, Chope's reopened for business.  First, the bar - and later the roadside restaurant.  Chope's is definitely on my list to stop and enjoy during my next visit to the area.

South of La Mesa - New Mexico 28 winds through some of New Mexico's best wineries before entering Texas near Canutillo.  From here, it is easy access into El Paso via Interstate 10 or Texas 20.

All photos were taken by post author - June 2021

Further Reading:

Flickr Link:



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

California State Route 203 the proposed Minaret Summit Highway

California State Route 203 is an approximately nine-mile State Highway located near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Mono County.  California State Route 203 as presently configured begins at US Route 395, passes through Mammoth Lakes and terminates at the Madera County line at Minaret Summit.  What is now California State Route 203 was added to the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 112.  The original Mammoth Lakes State Highway ended at Lake Mary near the site of Old Mammoth and was renumbered to California State Route 203 in 1964.  The modern alignment of the highway to Minaret Summit was adopted during 1967.   The corridor of Minaret Summit and Mammoth Pass have been subject to numerous proposed Trans-Sierra Highways.  The first corridor was proposed over Mammoth Pass following a Southern Pacific Railroad survey in 1901.  In 1931 a corridor between the Minarets Wilderness and High Sierra Peaks Wilderness was reserved by the Forest Service for po