The
sketch of a borderland rider and dog as might be found in southern New
Mexico between 1880-1890 was not the Doņa Ana County Historical
Society's first logo. The rider pen-and-ink drawing was done by El Paso
artist Jose Cisneros and made its debut as the Society’s logo when it
appeared on the cover of the annual banquet bulletin in 1990. Cisneros
formally presented the pen and ink drawing
to the Society at the 1990 banquet as a token of appreciation for
receiving the Society’s Pasajero del Camino Real Award for his book
entitled Riders Across the Centuries: Horsemen of the Spanish
Borderlands. The illustration, titled Pasajero del Camino Real
(Passenger on the Royal Road), was a perfect alloy of his book's subject and the award he received.
The original logo or seal was designed by Society member Art Liang. It was in the shape of a Zia sun symbol, embellished with representations of cotton, a roadrunner, and an hourglass, and it was encircled by the motto: “Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.” The sun symbol represented New Mexico. Cotton symbolized Mesilla Valley agriculture. The roadrunner stood for the Chihuahuan Desert. And the hourglass denoted time. The motto, which was selected from the Bible by longtime member Opal Lee Priestley, is Proverbs 22:28.
See the two logos below. This information is from Madeleine Vessel's article entitled "Inquiry - Borderland Rider and Dog: An Identifying Symbol?" which appeared in the 1999 Southern New Mexico Historical Review.
The original logo or seal was designed by Society member Art Liang. It was in the shape of a Zia sun symbol, embellished with representations of cotton, a roadrunner, and an hourglass, and it was encircled by the motto: “Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.” The sun symbol represented New Mexico. Cotton symbolized Mesilla Valley agriculture. The roadrunner stood for the Chihuahuan Desert. And the hourglass denoted time. The motto, which was selected from the Bible by longtime member Opal Lee Priestley, is Proverbs 22:28.
See the two logos below. This information is from Madeleine Vessel's article entitled "Inquiry - Borderland Rider and Dog: An Identifying Symbol?" which appeared in the 1999 Southern New Mexico Historical Review.
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