Babe Ruth / We the People Park

GPS: 35.534524, -108.729879

Look for this guy standing next to Montoya Blvd. and then turn south into the parking lot for the "We the Babe Ruth / People Park. He is apparently guarding the public rest rooms on the north side of the road.

Another sculpture is called "Orchestra Sculpture" representing "Democracy". It shows 16 empty chairs and student figures each holding music-type stands with single-word inscriptions on the stands.

Behind the podium, representing "decision making" is a scale-like sculpture that has a one side a scale-like structure marked HUMAN/KNOWLEDGE and a image of fetus on the other marked HUMAN NATURE.

This is a tribute to the mining industry around Gallup.

There are also a couple of sculptures that show miners at work and a steam engine. The engine, #2, is from the Defiance Coal Co. R.R. and a tender. It was built in 1930 by Davenport Locomotive Works. The city of Gallup bought the little locomotive in 1967.

Another sculpture located here is of a cowboy and mermaid. I don't know anything about, but here it is.

There is a historical marker here that commemorates Emma Estrada and all the other midwifes that played a critical role in the lives of early New Mexican settlers. Emma Estrada delivered over 700 babies in her 30 years of service and along the way became the first licensed midwife in the state.

You need to cross this foot bridge to get to the east side of the park and the Croatian Hope Memorial honoring the Croatians who settled in Gallup in the late 1800s. It was dedicated in 1999.

The Hrvatska Nada, or Croatian Hope, statue has symbols on each of the four sides that represent important parts of the immigrant's story. They are dancers, tamburas, coal miners, and the Virgin Mary. There are dedicated bricks that are laid out in a walkway entrance about 6 feet wide. '

Photo(s): 2019