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  It is a neat little "village" as it is called here and some history of Pancho Villa's Raid on Columbus, New Mexico.
 

  In the early morning darkness of March 9, 1916, guerrillas of the Mexican Revolution under General Francisco "Pancho" Villa attacked the small New Mexico border town and military camp at Columbus -- the site of what is now Pancho Villa State Park.

  As the sun rose on the morning of March 9, 1916, the center of Columbus, New Mexico was a smoking ruin. Word of Pancho Villa's attack on the town flashed by telegraph, making newspaper headlines throughout the nation. Camp Furlong, the Columbus military outpost, seethed with activity as fresh troops arrived by train and the U.S. Army prepared to pursue Villa into Mexico.

  Pershing's Punitive Expedition
Led by General "Black Jack" Pershing, who would later command the Allied forces of World War I, the Punitive Expedition forged south from Columbus on March 16, 1916. The search for Villa would ultimately lead American troops some 400 miles into Mexico, as far south as the city of Parral where, after a skirmish, they turned back to bases in northern Mexico. For 11 months, the 10,000 soldiers of Pershing's Punitive Expedition endured parching heat and bone-chilling cold as they ranged the wild deserts and mountains of the vast state of Chihuahua, tracking the Villista raiders.

  The Punitive Expedition was the last true cavalry action mounted by the U.S. Army, and, ironically, was also the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles. In what would prove to be a preparation for World War I, Pershing experimented in Mexico with the use of automobiles, trucks, and airplanes, though fuel for those new-fangled machines often had to be transported on pack mules.

  Pershing succeeded in dispersing the Mexican forces that had attacked Columbus, but the revolutionary chieftain, Pancho Villa, vanished into the Mexican backcountry and was never captured. In February, 1917, the Punitive Expedition returned to Columbus and Camp Furlong, where troops, toughened by the rigorous march through Chihuahua, boarded trains that would carry them to other conflicts. Many would see action in World War I.

  Columbus and Camp Furlong Today
The military post at Camp Furlong was closed in 1926, and the extensive cactus gardens of Pancho Villa State Park now cover its site. Several buildings dating from the time of Villa's raid still stand in Columbus, including the adobe Hoover Hotel, the restored Columbus railroad depot, and the old U.S. Customs Service building. The customs house, build in 1902, is now the Pancho Villa State Park visitor center, with exhibits describing the histories of Pancho Villa, the Columbus raid of 1916, and Pershing's Punitive Expedition.