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	Doña Ana County Historical Society
	Las Cruces, New Mexico
	Committed to encouraging and promoting a greater appreciation and knowledge of the historical and cultural heritage of Southern New Mexico since 1963.

About Us

Membership

Newsletters

Annual Review

Awards Luncheon

Grants

Publications

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ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET - January 31, 2026 (High Noon at La Posta)

The DACHS annual Awards Banquet recognizes people who have made an impact on preserving and disseminating the history of our region through their work and writing, as well as buildings, sites and structures of historical significance. See this year's list of award under the REGISTRATION link. This will be the 59th banquet. The banquet will be held at La Posta restaurant in Mesilla, at noon on Saturday, January 31, 2026. If the group is small, you will be ordering from a special, limited La Posta menu with a number of selections.

Reservations are REQUIRED. Cost is $30, if prepaid, and $35 at the door on the day of the banquet. You can register and PAY using our "Registration via Paypal" link below. Please include the names of all those attending. If you choose to pay at the door, you still need to register before the event. Do that by emailing your info to us at 19dachs63@gmail.com.

REGISTRATON via Paypal

2026 Awards To Be Presented On Jan. 31

1. Hall of Fame: Jim Eckles
2. Heritage Award for contributions to the history of Dona Ana County - Dr. Blanca Araujo, NMSU
3. Building Worthy of Preservation: WC Kruger Bldg - 1st National Bank Bldg and the Manual Gregorio Acosta murals
4. Building and Property with Historical Significance: Ikard's Furniture Store
5. Building and Property with Historical Significance: Site of Eugene Van Patten Hall - a roller skating rink from 1885.
6. Endangered Historic Property: Historic Dona Ana Village Cemetery
7. Noteworthy Restoration or Renovation: Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site
8. Gemoets Prize for Outstanding Review Article: Guinivere Mayse
9. Stoes Prize for Outstanding Writing or Editing in the Review: Hannah Augustyniak
10. Hiram Hadley Prize for Best Article on Pioneer History in Review: Troy Ainsworth
11. Pasajero Del Camino Real Award for Significant Historical Publication: The Dona Ana County Clerk's Office for this podcast "Preserving History and Democracy."
12. Pasajero Del Camino Real Award for Significant Historical Publication: George Matthews

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Calendar Of Events / Programs Meetings are held at the former Las Cruces Good Samaritan Village in the Stucky Auditorium downstairs in the main activites building, 3011 Buena Vida Cir., at 7 p.m. unless otherwise specified. Monthly programs are free and open to the public. DACHS Members will receive a newsletter each month detailing the presentation for that month. Many of the past presentations are available for viewing on the DACHS YouTube Channel and the FaceBook page.
Jan. 31 2026	Annual Awards Banquet	Luncheon at noon at La Posta in Mesilla. Reservations REQUIRED. Cost is $30 if you prepay and $35 for pay-at-the-door. Link to pay via PayPal is just above with details about the event. DACHS email address: 19dachs63@gmail.com
Feb 19	TBA
Mar 19	TBA
Apr 16	TBA
May 21	TBA
Sep 17	TBA
Oct 15	TBA
Nov 19	TBA

MONTHLY DACHS PRESENTATIONS

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The program recordings are available on our Facebook Page and our YouTube channel

Click here to visit our YouTube channel

For a list of recorded presentations, click here.

Quick Links
Join Us OR Renew Your Membership	Membership options. Print a PDF form, fill it out by hand and mail it with your check or bring to a monthly program. OR you can use our link to PayPal and pay now with your credit card.
Donations	You can use this "donate" button to go to PayPal and make a donation to the DACHS in any amount. You can pay with your PayPal account or your personal credit card. If you would like to target your donation to something other than the general fund (like the printing of the annual *Review)*, there is a space to "leave a note" at the top of the page right after you fill in the amount you wish to give. Thank you for your support.
Monthly Newsletter	Newsletters as PDFs going back to 2006.
Southern New Mexico Historical Review	Annual collection of articles covering the history of Southern New Mexico. The Review as PDFs going back to 1994.
Awards Luncheon Program	An event program is printed for the annual luncheon. The luncheon programs as PDFs going back to 2013.
Grants and Projects	The DACHS has a fund to help support area history researchers and projects. An application form is available for the different grants.
Award Categories Plus the link to fill out a nomination	The DACHS has numerous awards that are available for places and people each year. Some have small cash awards associated with them. To see lists of all past awards, GO HERE.
Who We Are	The board of directors and officers.
Our History and Mission	How we started in 1963 and what we do. Logo background.
How To Contact Us	Addresses for snail mail and email.
Reference Materials	Links to other resources and postings of materials by the Dona Ana County Historical Society.
Member Activities/Photos	See what we've been up to

St. Genevieve's Church
DACHS member Morris Drexler created a narrated slide show
of images he took of old St. Genevieve's Church in the late 60s. Everyone has heard of the old
church and now you can see what it looked like. The slide show is in the form of a movie and
is posted on our YouTube Channel at: https://youtu.be/F2qzw339t0o

Donnell Hester's presentations on Ancestral Puebloan culture.
Click here for his Introduction to Ancestral Puebloan culture.

Click here for his tour of Mesa Verde National Park sites.

The Doña Ana County Historical Society's Stagecoach
DACHS stage coach

This coach was identified by Kenneth Wheeling, editor of the Carriage Journal, as a “hack passenger wagon, model 209,” manufactured by the Abbot-Downing Company. The company was most famous for its Concord coach but made over 40 different wagons and carriages.

This one belongs to the Doña Ana County Historical Society and is on loan to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, N.M. The coach is believed to have been used to carry passengers from El Paso (Franklin City), Texas to Parral, Mexico from 1852 to 1871. Hugh Milton believed it was used on the Santa Fe to Chihuahua route.

Around 1972, Dr. Paul Jones bought the coach after it was found in an old army garrison south of Chihuahua, Mexico. The coach was restored prior to its appearance in the 1976 Las Cruces bicentennial parade with money raised by the high school students of both Las Cruces and Mayfield.

The coach was donated by Dr. and Mrs. Paul Jones to the historical society in December 1975.

In 2013, DACHS member George Helfrich spearheaded an effort to repair and restore the coach’s four wheels. Much of the wood was rotten and it was getting dangerous to try and roll the coach from its display position. The work was completed in May 2014.

The cost to repair the rear wheels was $1,736 making the total cost to rebuild all four wheels $3,270. Repair efforts involved complete disassembly of the wheels, replacement of most spokes with new hickory spokes and replacement of the felloes (the wood sections bolted to the steel rims) with new sections made of ash wood. The steel rims and the composition hubs were cleaned and tightened as needed. George painted the wheels locally.

Now the coach can be safely moved in the exhibit hall as needed. Also, it may be possible to move the coach to offsite locations for display in the future.

George and wheel

George Helfrich displays one of the restored coach wheels after he painted it.