Pancho Villa State Park
Portal, AZ to Columbus, NM | Hiking in Portal, AZ | Pancho Villa State Park, NM | December 2023
Now that we had made the decision to go home for Christmas, it was time to begin our long drive back to the Midwest, including a new route, new counties, and new places to see along the way. First, the drive had to begin with driving down the East side of the Chiricahua Mountains into the town of Portal, AZ. We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up that it wasn’t freezing on top of the mountain as we expected, but found it to be much colder when we arrived in Portal and stopped to have breakfast and go for a few short walks.
We had been to this area in August of 2014, but didn’t remember how scenic it was. As we descended down the mountain, we found ourselves in a valley surrounded by rhyolite walls similar to what you see in Chiricahua National Monument. After passing some campgrounds, we found our way to a trailhead that follows the dry creek bed of Cave creek. Here we had a quick breakfast before starting on the trail. The purpose of walking here was to find a letterbox that we had attempted back in 2014, but were missing the last line of the clue so we hadn’t been able to find it. Thankfully the box was planted by a friend who we know plants boxes in a way that they’ll last, so Curtis was able to find it over 9 years after his first attempt. I walked Charlotte while he boxed, until she decided it was time to turn around and return to the van. While the boxing was successful, this wasn’t the most scenic trail to enjoy the area, so we drove back a half mile to another trailhead that promised an overlook.
Sure enough, the other trail was worth going back for — after a short walk uphill, we came to a clearing that gave us a view of the surrounding rocky scenery: the Cathedral Overlook. We enjoyed our last looks at beautiful, scenic Arizona, then returned to our van and began our long drive Northeast. We’re already looking forward to our next trip back, and to finding even more scenic places we’ve missed before!
Today’s drive was just 2 hours long, following NM-9 all the way to Columbus, NM. It was a very remote and quiet highway following the border the whole way. When we arrived in Columbus, we went right to today’s final destination and campsite: Pancho Villa State Park.
Curtis: This park has been on the radar for a while, beginning with some letterboxes I had seen way back when we lived in Arizona. But more recently, we had listened to a book, ‘War on the Border’ by Jeff Guinn, that detailed the events surrounding Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, and General Pershing’s follow on punitive expedition. I highly recommend it.
In short, the first 2 decades of the 20th century were tumultuous for Mexico’s government, with several political factions vying for power across the country. Alliances were being made and broken continuously. And to make things more complicated, there was a sub-plot of German and American intrigue surrounding the War in Europe. By 1916, the Americans were backing President Carranza, who in turn was beating Pancho Villa and his Army in the state of Chihuahua. In retreat, Villa turned his Army North to the border town of Palomas, three miles South of Columbus, NM. While the exact reasons are not fully understood, Villa crossed the border and attacked the town of Columbus and its Army garrison, succeeding in burning several blocks in the downtown area. However, even though they were caught by surprise, the US Army successfully mounted a considerable defense leaving many Villistas dead. So marked the first attack on US soil since the War of 1812 (Civil War notwithstanding).
The American response was quick and effective. The federal government had already been building up defenses on the Southern border because of the frequent battles just South of it, including Camp Furlong in Columbus. General Pershing (who had joined the US Army as a cavalry officer at Fort Stanton) was chosen to lead a punitive expedition deep into Chihuahua territory staged from Camp Furlong itself. In less than a week, Pershing began the chase of Pancho Villa and pushed hundreds of miles into the Chihuahuan desert until they were forced to stop by clashes with Carranza’s army.
Villa was never found, and some viewed the expedition as a failure because of this. But the experience gained by Pershing and the expeditionary force while on the campaign trail proved invaluable as they formed the core group of the American Expeditionary Force sent to Europe a year later.
Today the state park (which is the only park in the US named for a foreign invader) is set up on the site of old Camp Furlong with what few remaining adobe and brick structures that survived the past 100 years. More impressive is the artifact collection inside the museum, both from the raid and from the punitive expedition.
Comically, when I first heard about the Columbus raid (from the aforementioned audio book) they mentioned that the Villistas used ‘Cootes Hill’ as cover to approach the town. From this I imagined Cootes Hill to be a small mountain, maybe a foothill of some larger range. But then we arrive, and parked, and I felt like if I stood on the roof of the car, I could see over the top of the “hill”.
Jess: After finding a campsite, we set up and then went for a walk around the park, to the museum, and up the hill. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the warmth. I timed dinner to be just before sunset, so that we could go for one more walk to enjoy it before settling in for the night. The highway seemed to have consistent traffic through the night, and the lights at the border crossing were bright even from 2 miles away, so we were thankful to be in the van that blocked the noise and the light. Besides that it was a decent place to camp, though it would have been better if the showers were working!
