Hatch Chile Festival

New Mexico Border Dreams: Contraband, Cattle, Computers and Space Cowboys

As New Mexico enters its second century as a US state, two big economic developments loom over the southern border county of Dona Ana. While vastly different at first glance, they are both rooted in timeless, science fiction-like human fantasies of rapidly moving humans and their goods from one place to the next.

Promising jobs and prosperity, both are products of long-time state plans and underwritten to varying degrees with tax-payer money. And both exemplify bipartisan border economic development strategies and philosophies that span multiple state administrations as well as the two major political parties.

The first development is actually located in Sierra County but close enough to the Dona Ana County line to garner support from the local powers-that-be.

Situated 45 miles north of Las Cruces, Spaceport America is expected to be in the business of shooting wealthy tourists into space by 2013.

The state-built facility is the realization of an old dream of a commercial space launch site in New Mexico, where the presence of an amiable climate along with White Sands Missile Range, NASA Test Facility, Kirtland Air Force and other federal and state institutions has long made the Land of Enchantment a favorable place for aerospace endeavors, whether public or private.

Indeed, on its website. Spaceport America traces its history to Robert Goddard, the New England scientist and “Father of Modern Rocketry” who relocated to Roswell, New Mexico, to carry out his research.

As the spaceport idea percolated, state lawmakers created and funded a state Office of Commercial Space in 1993.

“Commercial space applications and technology are the next frontier in high technology commerce and New Mexico plans to be at the forefront,” noted a 1994 report by the New Mexico Border Authority (NMBA).

Fast forward a decade later and the spaceport project was rapidly picking up steam. Under the administration of Democratic Governor Bill Richardson, an agreement was reached with British tycoon Sir Richard Branson that resulted in his Virgin Galactic company becoming the anchor tenant of the up-and-coming spaceport.

Although Branson’s company announced it would specialize in taking rich tourists on a space ride for $200,000 a ticket, other interested clients of the spaceport also quickly materialized, including Lockheed Martin UP Aerospace and Boeing.

Stepping up to the plate, the 2006 New Mexico State Legislature appropriated $100 million for the spaceport’s construction. Additional costs were borne by the taxpayers of Sierra and Dona Ana counties, who approved gross receipts taxes in hotly-debated 2008 elections.

Points of Interest | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine

Dawsonville, Georgia—Soon after boarding a safari truck, we spot a mob of kangaroos lounging beneath a stand of tulip poplars. Minutes later, we come upon about 40 more of the animals lolling in a grassy field. During the 90-minute tour, we see scores of them at this unlikely preserve of antipodean wildlife in the foothills of north Georgia, 60 miles from Atlanta.

Debbie and Roger Nelson, who have been breeding kangaroos in Georgia since 1984, opened the Kangaroo Conservation Center in 2000. The 87-acre facility boasts the largest collection of kangaroos outside Australia. All told, there are 300 animals representing 8 marsupial species. Several species, such as the brush-tailed bettong and the potoroo—small rat-like kangaroos—are threatened or endangered. "We don't want to see kangaroo populations follow the way of Tasmanian tigers, Asian tigers, elephants, gorillas and many other mammals who are either extinct or close to it," Debbie Nelson says.

Growing up in Florida, Debbie developed her fondness for wildlife frequenting private zoos that bred penguins and flamingos and rehabilitated injured dolphins and manatees. Roger hails from a farm in Connecticut, where his family raised cattle as a hobby. She was an art historian and he a mechanical engineer before giving in to their passion for animals. It was after breeding deer, llamas and antelope that the Nelsons tried kangaroos, starting with reds, one of the largest of the species. "It appeared that kangaroos generally did not thrive in captivity," Debbie says. "The challenge to change that inspired us."

The center also exhibits blue-winged kookaburras, panther chameleons and 70 other animals native to Australia and the Asian islands. It has supplied about 425 exotic animals to 30 zoos around the world and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The Nelsons "are doing a marvelous job," says Mickey Ollson, director of Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park, Arizona, which has acquired kangaroos from the couple. "They're very, very dedicated to the animals."

Last year, more than 10,000 people visited the Kangaroo Conservation Center. Guided tours are $27.50. Hualpai Reservation, Arizona—Since opening in late March, the horseshoe-shaped, glass-bottomed steel deck extending 70 feet past the western rim of the Grand Canyon has been drawing some 2,000 visitors a day.

Congressional Record

Award winning recipes from the annual Hatch chile festival

The hot empire of Chile, Kent Ian Paterson

Insight Guides New Mexico

Arizona, New Mexico & the Grand Canyon