the end of a hundred year waltz the voices sound sad as they're singing along
another piece of America's lost
He rides a feed lot and clerks in a market
on weekends selling tobacco and beer His dreams of tomorrow surrounded by fences But he'll dream tonight of when fences weren't here
He blazed the trail with Lewis and Clark And eyeball to eyeball Ol' Wyatt backed down He stood shoulder to shoulder with Travis in Texas And rode with the Seventh when Custer went down
This is the last cowboy song
the end of a hundred year waltz the voices sound sad as they're singing along
another piece of America's lost
Remington showed us how he looked on canvas And Louie L'Amore has told us his tale And Willie and Waylon and me sing about him And wish to God we could have ridden his trail
The Old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete now And they truck 'em to market in fifty foot rigs They blow by his marker never slowing to read Like living and dying was all that he did
This is the last cowboy song
the end of a hundred year waltz the voices sound sad as they're singing along
another piece of America's lost
This is the last cowboy song
the end of a hundred year waltz the voices sound sad as they're singing along
another piece of America's lost
This is the last cowboy song....
KELLY, NEW MEXICO
The town of Kelly New Mexico, which thrived here, was more than a mining boomtown.... it was home to about three-thousand citizens. The mining operations sent huge shipments of lead, zinc, and silver ores to smelters, which helped build America during the industrial westward expansion. These great shipments made Kelly the foremost mine in New Mexico's 19th century past. John S. Hutchason arrived here in 1866 after serving in the Civil War to prospect this area at the invitation of his partner Pete Kinisinger. The early town on this site was called "Middle Camp," and formed a hub for the Graphic, Waldo, Juanita, and Kelly Mines.
The name Kelly came from Patrick H. Kelley who held a few of the claims. By 1884, Kelly Township was established with banks, churches, saloons, a clinic, and several mercantile stores, while Magdalena was established 3 miles north as the AT & SF Railway terminus to haul away the precious ores from these mines. The last residents of Kelly departed in 1947, and most of their homes were painstakingly hauled down to Magdalena.
You can get your pass to enter the Kelly Mine
at Tony's Rock Shop in Magdalena.
Look for their sign on the left about a mile south of U.S. 60
on Kelly Road (turn at the corner where the Forest Service is).
$10 allows you entrance and gives you the right to take
home ten pounds in rocks. There's a liability release
A Smithsonite specimen from Kelly Mine, Socorro County, New Mexico.
Millions of small, needle-like crystals form each mound on this specimen.
The distinct mineral smithsonite was named in 1832 by François Sulpice Beudant
in honor of English chemist and mineralogist, James Smithson (c.1765–1829),
whose bequest established the Smithsonian Institution and who first identified
the mineral in 1802.
There is an old story of the mines which relates
that a pack-train of eleven mules came in one day,
ten loaded with whiskey and one with flour.
"What the h---," asked a waiting miner,
"will we ever do with all that flour?"
Above - The Catholic Church is the only intact building left.
There's a church fiesta, with religious ceremony, music, and food, held every June
on the weekend closest to the feast of Saint John the Baptist (June 24).
Below - A brief video clip about Kelly's history.
The Very Large Array is about 20 miles west of Magdalena.
It's been the leader in radio astronomy research in the world,
and was the filming site for much of the movie CONTACT,
with Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, and James Woods,
based on a Carl Sagan novel. Update: Feb 16, 2015 It's just had a $90 million dollar upgrade!!! It's now SUPER-STATE-OF-THE-ART! We'll have more up about this real soon.
The VLA Visitors Center has some neat displays, and a video,
that help to explain this most unusual branch of science -
radio astronomy, and what astrophysicists actually do.
You can get something from their little gift shop to
prove you were actually here, and even saw Jodie Foster!
