As I walked along the length of Carrizozo’s main street, I encountered this rusting whimsical cowboy upon a horse trotting through knee high weeds bordering a vacant lot next to a restaurant known as “Eat and Drink.” The restaurant, like so much of this town, was out of business. This two dimensional sculpture is a work of public art, no doubt originally created to encourage tourists to stop and enjoy the flavor of the “Old West.” Yet the weeds, restaurant, and empty lot symbolize an all too familiar scenario along the rural back roads of the Southwest. There must be a very good reason for tourists to come to a place, and that reason has yet to appear here.