New Mexico L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘Tijeras’

Not terribly far from my house a fire has been burning in the Manzano mountains.  I am not sure how long it has been burning now, but long enough to have burnt 275 acres.  It could have been put out days ago, but the DOD (who owns the land) wouldn’t let firefighters in because they said there might be “unexploded ordnances” left over from the 1940s and 50s.  Now, days later, they suddenly change their mind.  What?  Did the unexploded ordnances disappear over night?  It seems fishy to me.  I kind of wonder what might really have been going on over there and if whatever it was actually started the fire, rather than lightening as they claim.

While I was looking for photos of the fire I came across this page which is a pretty good page about Manzano base.  It has several illustrations, like this one -

At first glance it looks right, but having searched the area on google satellite many times there seems to be a lot of missing stuff.  Especially a lot of underground storage areas (or whatever those underground thingies are used for) there are a lot more than that map shows.  That map makes you think there is only 1 mountain with shafts going underground, but that is wrong.  The one shown is the largest and what is known as Manzano Mt, but there are also two smaller ones.  Also missing is Starfire Optical Range -

I am wondering how much land is owned by the DOD because the area where the fire is burning is not on that map.  It is actually fairly far from the base, meaning there is a lot more DOD land than what people consider to be KAFB and Manzano Base.

Just another strange little thing — the area the fire is burning at in the Manzano Mts is called Mars Canyon.  Did the DOD name it that?  While there are places in NM that resemble Mars, that area isn’t one of them.  It is very green, not desert at all.