Saturday, March 7, 2009 - Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus NM
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Grumpy, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009
Sixth Annual Camp Furlong Day Celebrates Cross-Border History March 7 at Pancho Villa State Park
From the New Mexico State Parks Press Release [pdf]:
COLUMBUS, N.M. – Folklorico dancers, mariachi music and a parade led by 100 Mexican Cabalgata horseback riders highlight Pancho Villa State Park’s 6th Annual Camp Furlong Day, scheduled from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. The annual event promotes friendship and goodwill between both countries.
“Camp Furlong Day honors the strong ties between Mexico and New Mexico in this historic commemoration,” said State Park Director Dave Simon.
The multicultural festival commemorates the March 9, 1916 attack by troops of Mexican General Francisco “Pancho” Villa on the village of Columbus and adjacent U.S. military camp, and the United States' response with the Punitive Expedition into Mexico by General Pershing and his soldiers.
“Camp Furlong Day unites New Mexico residents, visitors and citizens of Mexico in commemorating this significant historic event,” said Victor Trujillo, Pancho Villa State Park manager.
Nearly 100 horseback riders from the Cabalgata Binacional Villista will join the celebration – the culmination of a 14- day ride from Guerrero, Chihuahua to Columbus, N.M. At Palomas, the Cabalgata will be joined by American horse riders.
Night camp
Site 29 - Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus NM
- Verizon cell phone service - good signal
- Verizon EVDO service - good signal
- Go to the Pancho Villa State Park website
- Locate Pancho Villa State Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Five Trillion Spiders
Spiders begin their hunting with a few handicaps. They're often smaller and weaker than their prey, and they have no wings to give chase in the air. Some species extend their legs by hydraulic pressure, using the same liquid that carries oxygen from their lungs, so they have a hard time running and breathing at the same time. Even their poison may be no match for their victim's: a crab spider's bite is to a honeybee's sting as "an air-gun compared with an elephant rifle," John Crompton wrote. Yet spiders kill at an astonishing pace. One Dutch researcher estimates that there are some five trillion spiders in the Netherlands alone, each of which consumes about a tenth of a gram of meat a day. Were their victims people instead of insects, they would need only three days to eat all sixteen and a half million Dutchmen.
From Spider Woman by Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker magazine, March 5, 2007, page 69