Frank Wade's Memorabilia, Whitney, Texas

Frank Wade has been collecting memorabilia for many, many years. At 91 years old, he welcomes groups to come and view his collection. It is not open to the public -- he has too many antiques that could be worth a great deal of money, so he is very selective as to who is allowed to come. His collection resides in a very unassuming green building with a stone sculpture of the Baylor Bear out front.

National WASP WWII Museum, Sweetwater, Texas

The WASP program ran from September 1942 to December 1944. The objective of the program was to see if women could serve as military pilots to release male pilots for combat flying and to decrease the Air Force’s total demand on the manpower pool. The program was under the Civil Service Commission with civilian trainees. The National WASP WWII Museum tells the story of the women who made it through the program.

There were 25,000 women who applied, but only 3,000 had their pilot’s license. Of these, 1,830 women were accepted after they met the criteria and passed a physical. In less than 2 years under Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love’s supervision, 1,102 WASP flew over 60 million miles in every type aircraft in the Army Air Corps arsenal.

Fort Union National Monument, Watrous, New Mexico

During our stay in Las Vegas, New Mexico, we took a short trip to visit Fort Union National Monument. The end of the Mexican American war in 1848 expanded the interests and obligations of the United States. As American Indians and Mexicans defended themselves against the invasion of their homeland, concerns for safety increased among settlers, traders, merchants, travelers, townspeople, and farmers. To protect its new U.S. territory and extend its influence and security to travelers on the trail and to newly arriving American settlers, the United States established Fort Union in 1851.

Van Houton Mine, Raton, New Mexico

The Van Houton Mine remains and ghost town is here on the NRA Whittington property. From the main road, you go to the end and turn left, and keep driving. This road takes you past most of the places for shooting, the cabins and primitive camping. We drove to the mine on Thursday, and I would have gone further, except for Jim getting vertigo. I had parked and started walking to look at some things, and he was looking down on the canyon. We should have kept going to the main mine entrance. We probably won't go back as it's supposed to start raining and since it's a one lane narrow road, I don't want to drive it wet. But, I did find a picture of the mine entrance:

Sante Fe National Historic Trail, Raton, New Mexico

The Santa Fe National Historic Trail runs from Lincoln, Missouri, through Kansas into New Mexico, ending in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It linked routes originally followed by American Indians and Frontiersmen, developing into the most important trade conduit in the United States. The trail played a critical role in the westward expansion of the United States as well as trade relations with Mexico. We first visited the NRA Whittington Center back on August 5, 2018. We just visited again this year, so I have taken the blog from 2018 and incorporated it into this post.

Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Our last museum while we were in Monument, Colorado was to the Western Museum of Mining & Industry. All of the machines in the museum work and our guide actually turned them all on; some were pretty loud so he did not run them very long.

In 1970, the Museum of the West was incorporated as a private non-profit with a mission to preserve and interpret the rich mining history of Colorado and the American West. The nucleus of the collection was a group of mining artifacts contributed to the museum by Mr. Frederick McMenemy Farrar and Mrs. Katherine Thatcher Farrar.

National Museum of WWII Aviation, Colorado Springs, Colorado

I read that this museum is one that should not be missed, so we made it a point to visit the National Museum of WWII Aviation. It was not just airplanes in the museum, but a history of World War II.