Visit Bode's Pink Flamingo
LIKE A PIECE OF THE EVERGLADES perched in Abiquiú, a 12-foot tropical bird greets motorists as they pull into Bode’s General Store. “It’s a pink flamingo in the middle of nowhere,” says Andria Mae…
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Tag: Backstory
The Medallion Trees Mystery
IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO LOOK, there’s history sprinkled along the trails of the Sandía Mountains. Dollar-coin-size medallions, tacked to the trunks of trees, mark an ecological timeline that roughly ties…
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Questions? Rangers Have Answers
ALONG NM 35, in the southern range of the Gila National Forest, a sign shaped in the National Forest Service’s trademark trapezoid bears a question mark. No words. No arrows. Just that. Puzzled…
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Take a Spin to See the Roto-Sphere
WHEN IT WORKED, the Roto-Sphere above the El Comedor de Anayas restaurant, in Moriarty, lured hungry motorists off I-40 and onto Old Route 66. Neon lights lined its 16 colorful spikes. The ball they…
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The Story Behind Ethyl the Whale
CREATED FROM SINGLE-USE PLASTICS, the 82-foot Ethyl the Whale sculpture raises its dorsal ridge behind Santa Fe Community College. Commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, on the California coast…
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Manhattan Project Leaders, Frozen in Time
IN THE END, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER and Leslie Groves’s time in Los Alamos flitted past quickly. Their legacy, however, lives on—not only in a pair of bronze statues downtown but also in the city’s…
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How Roswell Got an Iron Cross
A CREW OF 50 GERMAN WORLD WAR II–ERA POWs may be gone, but they’ll never be forgotten in Roswell. They crafted an emblem of their nation—an iron cross—in the riprap (stonework used to reinforce a…
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Buffalo Hall Serves Up Historic BBQ
TAKE TWO CONTRACTORS. Add the ruins of a century-old, 10,000-square-foot brick-and-timber building. Combine with a handful of repurposed bits. Dream up a dynamite menu and work the mixture for a few…
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This Rattler Has A Tall Tail
FEW PEOPLE LIVE IN RODEO, a small town between Arizona’s Chiricahua and New Mexico’s Peloncillo mountains. But it’s rattlesnake paradise. “There are probably more rattlesnakes, more species, per…
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This Roadside Standoff Is Huge
RANCHERS MARK AND MIKE MARLEY loom 18 feet high on either side of US 285. One points an accusatory finger at the other, who has adopted a “What, me?” stance. “I’ve always wanted to be larger than…
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