Mason's Fort - New Mexico State Trust Lands

 

We revisited Mason's Fort. After nearly twenty years it still looks pretty much the same. The corner of the wall along the draw has lost a few more stones. The adobe walls are a little lower. I noticed many little holes all over the grounds, and finally clicked on that they are probably from metal detecting hobbyists. I'm not sure if it's legal at this spot at all. I'm going to say that it's probably illegal to keep anything that you find.

 There are some histories out there of this "fort." I'm not going to repeat them here, but they do make for interesting reading. Recently I've read that it was not associated with the original Butterfield Trail,  which I had indicated in my original blog, but I couldn't verify this through any of the other sources available. It probably only takes about 40 minutes to get there from Las Cruces and although you can't drive right up to the fort, it is a very short walk after parking, so go check it out if you've got a morning or afternoon free for another impossibly lonely and forgotten place.