Part 16: Mesilla

While planning our trip to the Southwest we asked our friends in El Paso, what is there to see and do in El Paso. They replied…we go to New Mexico. So here we are with our friends from El Paso, having lunch at La Posta in Old Mesilla, NM. La Posta is one of the oldest structures in Mesilla and on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Sam and (Judge) Roy Bean had a short haul freighting service here; it was also a way station for Butterfields stagecoach line, and a lodge known as the Corn Exchange Hotel (guests included Kit Carson and Pancho Villa). In 1939 part of the building became the La Posta Restaurant. The cuisine is New Mexican, not to be confused with Tex-Mex or Mexican. There are subtleties there I can’t distinguish but our friends can. All I know is the food was good. The atmosphere/ambience was lively. I enjoyed looking at the structural elements of the adobe hacienda.

After lunch a tour of the shops was a good excuse to get inside some of the other old buildings around the square. Our favorite to browse in is Mesilla Book Center. It is unbelievably crowded and the shelves impossibly high, but they have an outstanding collection for adults and kids.

Mesilla was founded in the 1500 by Mexican colonists. In the center of the square is a bandstand where the Gadsden Purchase was signed in 1854. This is also the land of Billy the Kid. He and many other outlaws ran wild. Billy the Kid was tried and executed in Mesilla for the murder of Sheriff Pat Brady. Historically Mesilla played a big roll in the Mexican American War, the Gadsden Purchase and serving has territorial capital of the only Confederacy territory.

At the Double Eagle Restaurant we relaxed with cool beverages and enjoyed the Victorian opulence of the bar and dining room. The solid gold ceiling and gilded mirrors glow from the shining light of the baccarat chandeliers. Constructed in the 1840s, this restored building holds an impressive collection of antiques and paintings.