Venturing Into The Hinterlands

I guess I will start my writing about Hidalgo County, New Mexico in the northern part of the county. This is the only part of  this desolate county that has any farming, courtesy of the Gila River. This river is 636 miles long and rises in three different forks in western New Mexico.; East, West and Middle Forks. The East Fork begins its journey in Sierra County on the northern slope of Taylor Peak (elevation 8,288) in the Black Range, a few miles west of the Continental Divide. The West Fork begins in the Mogollon Mountains in the heart of the Gila Wilderness in southern Catron County. This was the first federally designated wilderness area in the world. The Middle Fork of the Gila River is considered to be the main channel and it is also the longest of the three forks.It rises on the west slope of the Continental Divide in the Mangas Mountains of central Catron County, five miles east of the tiny village of Aragon. The three forks converge near the Gila Cliff Dwellings near the boundary between Catron and Grant Counties and continue as a unified stream all the way across the width of Arizona before flowing into the Colorado River a few miles north of Yuma, Arizona, which is on the California border.
   The Gila River only goes through the northernmost reaches of Hidalgo County and waters a valley full of farms, an anomaly for Hidalgo County. The river flows past the town of Virden, population 141. At its peak in the 1930s, Virden had 375 people. It, along with the nearby towns of Duncan and Franklin, in Arizona, are the only towns in this long, narrow valley bisected by the Gila River. Virden is a veritable oasis in the desert. There are literally hundreds of trees in this tiny town. There is an elementary school in Virden, but the high school closed about half a century ago. The only operating business the last time I went through Virden, three years ago, was the post office.
  Virden is only 2 1/2 miles from the Arizona border, six miles from Duncan, Arizona and nine miles from Franklin, Arizona. Virden is connected to the rest of the world by State Highway 92, a lightly-traveled, sinuous route that follows the north side of the Gila River. This highway becomes a county-maintained road at the Arizona border, but it is the direct connection between Virden and Duncan. The principal highway through this area is U.S. Highway 70, about five miles south of Virden. In the 36 miles between Duncan, Arizona and Lordsburg, New Mexico, Highway 70 is wide, fast and almost completely straight. It has very few curves in this area and runs in a northwest to southeast direction and it runs through the desert overlooking  the valley of the Gila River.
  The residents of Virden and the surrounding area do most of their shopping in Safford and Thatcher, Arizona; twin towns an hour's drive to the west.