Mesilla

Mesilla's founding dates from 1848, when residents of a nearby community that had become part of the United States as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo elected to relocate in order to retain Mexican citizenship. They were awarded a Mexican land grant in 1850, but in 1854, a detachment from nearby Fort Fillmore raised the U.S. flag here confirming the Gadsden Purchase and La Mesilla was officially recognized as part of the U.S.  During the Civil War, Mesilla was the capital of Confederate Arizona Territory.

Productive farmland and a strategic location spurred growth. By the time the Butterfield Trail Overland mail route established a stage coach stop in 1858, Mesilla was the largest town in the southern New Mexico Territory, which included preset-day Arizona; El Paso, Texas, and neighboring Las Cruces were mere hamlets in contrast. Only 1.5 miles from our RV park, we walked over to this charming old adobe town today.

Another historical footnote: Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced in Mesilla, the territorial capital. 

La Posta De Mesilla was once a stagecoach stop. The 1840s adobe structure now houses an atrium of shops and a restaurant.

Mesilla Plaza was designated a state monument in 1957.

The Plaza is dominated by the 1855 Basilica of San Albino.

There were two other structures that better reflected reflected the Mexican heritage of the settler. This Romanesque church was dedicated in 1908.