Three thousand people, many of them known as “Chicago Suckers,” were lured here in 1905 with promises of finding gold in the surrounding Jarilla Mountains. Plots of land were sold five and six times. The gold was virtually non-existent, and the prospectors vanished. Today, only 52 people live in Orogrande, a semi-ghost town literally in the middle of nowhere. The town’s most prominent surviving structure is an antique and rock shop, standing alongside of US 54, a lightly used highway connecting Alamogordo, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. It was closed, and seemed likely to be up for sale. Rusted “antiques” such as pieces of ancient machinery and old advertising signs lay on the ground at its base. I found the Southwest’s most iconic plant, a Prickly Pear Cactus, thriving amidst the clutter, and made this emblematic still-life, symbolizing early 20th century New Mexico.