Viva VALENCIA
County in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley is a study in contrasts
Straddling the middle Rio Grande, Valencia County is a colorful patchwork of new and old with indoor and outdoor activities perfect for whiling away a day, an evening or an afternoon.
The Belen Harvey House Museum (facebook.com/belenharveyhouse), built in 1910, is the only Harvey House in New Mexico to be turned into a museum and one of only four of the original 13 in the state still surviving, chief docent Heide Green said.
While plans are ongoing to renovate the upstairs that housed the Harvey Girls in dorm-style living, numerous permanent exhibits depict live in the area over the previous century.
“This was an eating house for people riding on Santa Fe railroad trains,” Green said.
The original dining room and lunch counter contains dishes and uniforms from the period.
And the best way to truly get a feel for that era,
Green said, is to call ahead of the visit.
“You can request a docent dressed like a Harvey Girl tour to take you on a tour throughout the entire building,” Green said.
The history and art of the area also come alive at the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage & Arts (loslunasnm.gov/104/Museum-of-Heritage-and-Arts).
A rotating series of displays can vary from local to traveling exhibits. The next several weeks will feature American illustrators from 1890 to 1950 and “Birds of the Rio Grande” — a series of photographs by Chris Tafoya. An exhibit on the Civil War in New Mexico just opened, and beginning next month the work from the fourth annual Juried Student Art Show will be on display.
At other times of the year, exhibits can feature Route 66, train displays and a look into the “Los Lunas Mystery Stone” story that some believe is a hoax and others say is an ancient stone with Hebrew inscriptions.
When it comes to culture, the Belen Art League Gallery (belenartleaguegalleryandgifts.com) and the Tomé Art Gallery (tomegallery.com) are two stops to make.
The Art League showcases a smorgasbord of items from local craftsmen from jewelry to photography, 3-D art and fiber art. In addition, the backyard garden patio is home to special shows, live music and poetry readings.
The Tomé Gallery has a wide selection of pottery. Sculptures and beeswax art are among the items on display and for sale. The gallery also is home to numerous classes for people who like to get their hands dirty learning the various crafts for themselves.
If nature’s beauty is more your style, the 1,500-acre El Cerro Preserve (loslunasnm. gov/265/El-Cerro-de-LosLunas-Preserve) in Los Lunas offers delightful strolls around and up a prominent hill that used to be a volcano, said Pat Armijo of the Open Space Division.
“We have eight miles of trails, and when you climb to the top of the hill, you can see Belen and Tomé Hill, and it overlooks all of Los Lunas and when you look north, you can see Albuquerque,” he said. “The trails are a mixture; some are pretty sandy, some are real rocky, some are wide enough for one person, and some are nice, wider, open paths.”
Another section slices down into a sunken bowl filled with visible layers of the different volcanoes that spewed forth throughout history, Armijo said.
Tomé Hill, a popular destination for Good Friday pilgrimages, also contains about 1,800 petroglyphs.
The nearby Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area (whitfieldwildlife.org) on a former dairy farm is part of the birding flyover area.
The open fields also provide a peaceful spot amid the hubbub of modern life.
Visitors to Los Lunas can dine at a historic site with fine food and some spirits of the nonalcoholic variety. That’s what the Luna Mansion provides; it’s known not only for its food, but also for its distinctive Victorian ambiance and friendly old ghosts.