 Disclaimer In 2005 I was commissioned to photograph a big game hunt in South Africa. These are my stories. The Zebra When visiting the Dark Continent, you can order up animals to kill from a menu, like a do it yourself restaurant. When you think of it that way, it’s difficult to imagine going to a steak house and paying $14,000 to go hunt your own steer, even if you do get to keep it’s head, but whatever.
He killed a zebra. That’s right, my employer paid $14,000 to kill a zebra. A zebra. While technically not a horse, it’s pretty much a horse. John Wayne and The Lone Ranger rode horses. The horse is how the west was won. You know, Hi-yo Silver!, and all that. Girls love horses. I’ve seen The Never Ending Story at least 100 times and still cry when Artax sinks into the Swamp Of Sadness. This zebra hunting business didn’t sit well with me. It seemed no different than hunting a dairy goat or a Saint Bernard. Horses, even if they are wild and striped, are a friend of man. Where’s the sport in that?
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 A fading spot on the map According to the New Mexico Office of the State Historian, the town of Cubero was established by Mexican settlers in or about 1834. Remember that New Mexico did not become a state until 1912. Today, Cubero is a census designated place located on historic Route 66 about 27 miles east of Grants. It is also on the route of the Santa Fe Railroad's first transcontinental line through the southwestern United States. I only saw about three people while I was there but the official population as of July 1, 2019 was 287.
To be fair, Cubero is not the ghost town that my photos make it seem. It's just that I go looking for the old, abandoned and creepy stuff and tend to avoid things like the General Store with modern cars parked out front. Cubero is also right next door to Budville, which is famous for different reasons but is also more of a legit ghost town. Funny thing, the whole reason I went to Budville and Cubero is because I was looking for a couple of old churches that I thought were in Cubero.  Fate comes knocking on Route 66 It's funny how things turn out. Budville, New Mexico was the site of a notorious double murder that remains unsolved to this day and the Budville Trading Co. was the scene of the crime.
The town of Budville is named after Howard Neal "Bud" Rice. In 1928 he and his wife, Flossie, opened the general store (Budville Trading Post). Together they also operated a gas station, garage, grocery store, post office and wrecker service. While this might seem like enough for a normal person, it wasn't enough for Bud so, in additional to all that, he also sold bus tickets, owned the local State Motor Vehicle Concession and got himself elected Justice Of The Peace. As such, Bud proclaimed himself the "Law West of the Rio Puerco" and did not hesitate to push his weight around whenever it suited him to do so.  On the El Camino Real Located just west of the General Mills factory on Alameda, the smell of Chex Mix fills the air as you wade through a sea of tumbleweeds at the San Carlos Cemetery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This cemetery has grave stones with birthdays going back to the mid 1800's. There are also an alarming number of children's graves, many only days old, from the 1940's.  Disclaimer In 2005 I was commissioned to photograph a big game hunt in South Africa. These are my stories. An Unlikely Idea I was going to write a story about a zebra. I still will, just not today. I’ve been trying all day to write this story about the zebra and, so far this is all I’ve got, which is to say that I’ve got nothing. The Dark Continent doesn’t want me to think about it right now, maybe Sunday is it’s day off. There’s nothing I can do about that.
I keep dwelling on a conversation that I got wrapped up in the other night regarding whether or not there is such a thing as a soul and further more, if there is, do animals have them? I’m an optimistic type and like to think that there is and they do, respectively. |
AuthorI am DeAnna Vincent, fine art and portrait photographer in Los Lunas, New Mexico. These are the photos from my everyday adventures. Archives
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