The Spirit of the People of Artesia, New Mexico

Drive down the main street of Artesia, New Mexico, and you will see some of the most incredible sights: sculptures that tell the story of Artesia in a most wonderful way.
There is the sculpture of the oil well with crew that is representative of the discovery of oil in southeastern New Mexico in 1924. There are people around the well who all played roles in the discovery and development of the petroleum industry in Artesia and southeastern New Mexico. One of those statues represents a woman who used her own intuition to select the place to drill that discovery well after a geologist gave up.
Down the street are statues of a woman reading from a book and two children looking up at her, obviously listening. The first thought is the woman is a teacher, but no, she is reading from a book about " Billy the Kid. " The statue is of a woman who helped develop Artesia, Sallie Chisum. The famous outlaw was one of her admirers. The title of the sculpture with the two children and woman is " The Spirit of the Pioneer Woman. "
Then on down the street is a raring horse with a the wonderful figure of a vacquero or Mexican cowboy, and how wonderful to see, so much life in the horse and so much joy in the man in the saddle.
There also is a statue of a cowboy running some cattle not far away.
There is a lot of information on all of these scupltures and the individuals they represent, and it is inspiring. But what all of these sculptures together represent is the wonderful spirit of the people of Artesia.
I met a man in the town the other day who said the people in Artesia are friendlier than anywhere he'd ever lived.
Oh, in case you did not know, you can double click the pictures to fill your entire screen! What joy and life in these sculptures--and the joy and life and pride they must give to the people of Artesia, New Mexico.