Luna Membres Memorial Museum

Today I would like to share a few of the highlights of the Luna Membres Memorial Museum in Deming, New Mexico.  Deming is located just 15 miles from Rock Hound State Park. It is home to an execellent museum, and the price to visit is perfect (free).

The feature title of the museum is a journey in time.  The museum has on display artifacts from Native American settlers to more modern times.

These two photos represent several dipictions of arrowheads that are on display mounted on the wall.  Several shapes and sizes can be clearly seen. Many of the arrowheads were collected from the Membres Valley, located Northeast of Deming about 70 miles.

These two photos are of a display case featuring pottery and arrowheads from the same period. The only negative we found in the museum was the sparsity of information about some of the artifacts, and the lack of a guide.

I had Margaret stand next to this clock to give you the perspective of it's size.

The clock was carved and built by Louis Heinrich Frederick.  There were several Grandfather clocks in the museum, but this one was the most spectacular.

Here is another clock, and there were several china hutches with dinner settings.

Here are a couple of them.

We wandered through numerous displays of Native American artifacts and kept coming back to these. We went to the front of the museum and asked the attendants what they are.  No one seemed to know.  I was sure they could not be part of an animal's  skeleton because they are rings, and no animals that I knew of had such bones.  Finally I located someone who knew what they are.  Can you guess? They had been imported from coastal regions.  They were probably highly valued by the Indians.

This is a war club that belonged to Spotted Eagle of the Sans Arc (Itazipcho) Lakota Sioux. He carried this during the Battle of Little Big Horn.  At the time he would have been 42 years old, and considered "old man Chief."  He probably did not actively participte in the battle.

I include this display case because of the white owl that Margaret paticularly liked.  There was another one outside the display case, but the picture is out of focus.😀

These two display cases feature toys as we transition into the Spanish American part of the museum.

Here is a full size display in an enclosed room.  There were lots of items on display for this period.

One of several such displays.

This area of the museum is on the second floor.  It features medical equipment from the 50's.

This is an old iron lung.  It was used for people who had contracted polio and needed it to breathe.  There was also one on display for children.

There is a nice little business office on display.

The old time camera display was interesting.  I looked to see if they had a Brownie Star-Flash like the one I used to take pictures with, but did not see one.

I am going to conclude this post with this display of World War II memorabilia.  There were so many more items of various things, such as a spinning wheel, knitting, button hooks, nut crackers, high school sports, and the list goes on.  If you are in Deming, NM, and you like museums, don't pass this one up.