If only I could've found a decent restaurant.
Also, pronghorns really don't like being told to pose for photos.
Your short comment on the restaurants indicates you have been there.
I could sum up a couple of the restaurants in Magdalena by say "it's not a matter of saying that if you go there you might get sick, it's a matter of how soon, for how long and how bad it will be." They weren't all THAT bad, except for one on the west side of town called "Rosie's," a, you guessed it, a Mexican restaurant. At the time I was there Socorro County refused to have a health department, so the state had to step in and do restaurant inspections. Rosie's was either rated a "C" or was shut down, nothing higher. We rarely ate out in town. If we were exhausted, hungry, didn't have any food in the house (rare) and didn't want to drive to Socorro (27 miles from town - 30 miles from our house) we just went home and ate soda crackers or always had spare backpacking food. Actually, there were two places we would eat at, one was at a motel property. When USFS people came down from the Forest Supervisor's Office in Albuquerque for more than a day, they all stayed in Socorro, except for the newbies, it took a few trips until they understood.
The state agency that inspected restaurants was their environmental agency the name of which I can't remember. Yup, this was the agency that inspected toxic waste handling, water quality, chemical manufacturing/distribution, wastewater systems and such. Can you imagine a county that not only lacked a health department, but when the state mandated they did per state law, the county refused? The state charged the county for providing some services, but the county was refusing to pay.
The restaurants in Socorro were fair or above. The Owl Bar in San Antonio was legendary for its chile cheeseburgers. To eat at a very good restaurant required a trip to Albuquerque.
We had some friends who moved in for 2-3 years to teach at the school. Teachers and USFS people were the only college educated people in town, save a couple VLA employees who decided to live in town, rather than in Socorro. The VLA had an school bus painted light blue that transported employees from Socorro. The husband of these friends of ours, experienced a rabid kitty cat attacking their pre kindergarten kid in the yard of the house they were renting right in town. They managed to get the little boy inside without him getting scratched on the skin or bitten. The cat retreated into a tree. They called the sheriff's department to report this and to get some help. They got a long silence and then the dispatcher said, "so, do you have a gun, maybe a shotgun?" When our friend answered yes, the dispatcher said, "well then shoot it" and hung up.
Things are likely better now. Some people have moved in that have opened art galleries and other small businesses. They have brought in money from elsewhere. I think they might be figuring out that they can attract some tourism. The VLA set up something for visitors, a visitor center? I seem to remember they did, but might have closed it after some years.
Why was I there? I was at the beginning of my career and in a lot of government agencies, especially in public land management, you have to pay your dues when you start out. Once you do, you aren't expected to go to the less desirable locations again, as long as you are performing to standards. However, this was a great, formative experience for me. Being immersed in the Hispanic culture was very good for me. I also loved the isolation, especially on the ranger district I worked at. I learned a great deal about self reliance. From to I-40 on the north to Silver City on the south, from the Arizona state line on the west to I-25 on the east, this is one of most isolated areas in the lower 48. West of the Arizona state line the isolation continues all the way west to U.S. 191, with the area to its west being a bit isolated as well.
It is exceedingly rare to get a photo of a pronghorn standing still. There are a lot of them, or at least used to be, in that isolated country.
