My best guess is a third of the homes in Van Horn are adobe, including my favorites which you see here.
Adobe is a great building material. It provides insulation from heat and cold and living in adobe is quiet because it insulates the sound, too. Because it is made of sun-baked mud, it has the feeling of the earth in it. There's a solidity to it that is comforting.
Adobe is extremely durable. Some of the oldest buildings in the region, dating back to the 1680s, are made of adobe. If you look closely, you can see one of these houses has seen some repair. A large crack made decades ago by an earthquake has been filled in, as has an unwanted window. Adobe has its weakness--it doesn't hold up against unprotected, sustained exposure to water. Since we don't see much rain, adobe is perfectly suited for our climate.
And no, I didn't transpose the numbers. I meant 1680 not 1860!
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