Hermosa Project Fundraiser

The rolling and tumultuous landscape along the eastern flanks of the Gila, situated between the villages of Winston and Hillsboro, is some of the most beautiful and mesmerizing topography in the world. It is a hiker’s paradise, a photographer’s dream and a painter’s palette. Just a short drive northeast of Silver City, this largely unspoiled natural setting is home to abundant wildlife and is rich with biodiversity.

It is in this pristine setting that Dr. Travis Perry, President and Founder of Natural Curiosity, a conservation education non-profit, is working to take his passion for conservation education to a critically important next step.

Hermosa was originally a mining town. Major floods in the 1890s and 1930s resulted in the closure of local mines and Hermosa ultimately became a ghost town. The area was later used for cattle management by rancher A.O. Anderson, who also restored a few of the remaining structures in the old town.

In 2005, Dr. Perry, in coordination with Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, began using Hermosa as a “living classroom” for semester-long conservation education programs called the “Wild Semester,” as well as 3-week field “Wilderness” programs. Scores of students and teaching assistants have benefited from the experiential programs held at Hermosa. The knowledge gained from the Hermosa “living-lab” programs has helped students follow successful career paths in conservation, including top level jobs in the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, state game and fish agencies, conservation nonprofits, and outdoor schools.

Today, Dr Perry and Natural Curiosity are at a crossroads. Dr. Perry was notified in 2021 that the owners of Hermosa, who Dr. Perry and Natural Curiosity have been leasing the property from, would be putting the property up for sale. Dr. Perry was able to negotiate a “last right of refusal” that would allow him time to raise funds to purchase the property so that the important education and conservation works there could continue. Natural Curiosity has until November 30 to make good on the purchase of Hermosa.

Please consider a donation to Natural Curiosity's Hermosa Project to make it possible for them to expand their programs and, critically, to make Hermosa available to other organizations, institutions, and ecotourists for all manner of outdoor learning and research. And great news for donors: first $65,000 in donations will be matched, so your money will go so much further!

For more information on the project, check out their webpage: www.natural-curiosity.org/hermosa, or donate using the form below.

To participate in the Hermosa Art Auction, click here.