Starship New Mexico!

 

Oh, Uncle Arthur!

So, y’all came out here on vacation. How do I know that? You’re the only ones outside. Summer life in New Mexico is like some orbital community. There is the mothership, the work ship, the supply ship, and you spend the days running back and forth, to and fro in your climate-controlled shuttle. Unlike space, going outside won’t kill you right away, it’ll take a little longer, enough time to write your will. Usually, we have a break now and again in the summer, but lately it’s just hell, hell, hellhellhell. But optimism springs eternal, harken the warble of the native species, “It could be worse, we could be in Phoenix.” Phoenix is on the way. But please, visit New Mexico, it’s beautiful and parts of it don’t look like the rest of the country, a harder and harder thing to find these days, but don’t do it in the summer. Just don’t.

It Might Be the 1800s in Western Costumer Cathy Smith’s Great Room

Graham Greene in "Dances With Wolves."

(Santa Fe New Mexican) ... She was restoring Plains Indian artifacts for Santa Fe galleries in 1989 when kismet struck in the form of filmmakers prepping Kevin Costner’s 1850s Lakota-centric Western Dances with Wolves. They hired her to construct authentic costumes, specifically, dozens of war shirts, leggings, dresses and props for the movie, in just 10 weeks. It required sourcing 600 deer hides, 200 buffalo robes and doing the beadwork and quillwork. Continued

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

(Wikipedia) The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 — also known as Popé's Rebellion — was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico. The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province.
... For more than 100 years beginning in 1540, the Pueblo Indians of present-day New Mexico were subjected to successive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. These encounters, referred to as the Entradas, were characterized by violent confrontations between Spanish colonists and Pueblo peoples. The Tiguex War, fought in the winter of 1540-41 by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado against the twelve or thirteen pueblos of Tiwa Indians, was particularly destructive to Pueblo and Spanish relations. Continued

Q: What do you think of stormwater management in Clovis, NM? A: I think it would be a good idea.

 

Flooded Grand.

Waiting for the water to recede so that I can drive to work - an all too often occurrence. Just off to the right is U.S. Route 60/84, also impassible.

2 Wheels, 14 Days, 2,448 Miles: A Motorcycle Tour of Route 66

One of my favorite old Life Magazine covers, it 
seems to have influenced my young mind quite a lot.

(NYTimes) It’s a common refrain that Route 66 no longer exists. And it’s true, in a way. The 100-year-old road that stretches from Chicago to Santa Monica was decommissioned in 1985. You won’t find it listed on modern maps as a contiguous highway. And yet the 2,448-mile road — at first largely unpaved, then over time populated with so many motels and diners and outlandish attractions that it became central to the American experience, only later to be bypassed, forgotten, left to crumble — somehow endures. Continued

Cars removed from free car museum at former Russell’s Travel Center

I will miss Russell's and their Big Rig Burger.
If there was ever a safe haven on the road, it was Russell's.

(Route 66 News) ... The apparent and imminent closure of the museum follows the 2023 sale of Russell’s Travel Center to TravelCenters of America. Russell’s founders Emory and Barbara Russell decided to sell because both were in their 80s. They also sold another Russell’s truck stop in Springer, New Mexico, that year. At the time of the sale, TA agreed with Russell’s to keep the family name on the business for three years. Continued

Wild West History Association Roundup set for July 15–19

 

Billy the Kid shot by Pat Garrett. I love the dogs in this.

(ABQJ) ...At this year’s Wild West History Association Roundup, from Wednesday, July 15, through Sunday, July 19, in Albuquerque, attendees will be able to listen to historians like Gardner discuss topics ranging from Wyatt Earp to how the West has shaped the United States’ identity. Continued

Event marks Tucumcari depot's 100th year

 

Former Southern Pacific Railroad brakeman Bo Golson wouldn't have missed the 100th birthday celebration Friday of the former Tucumcari Union Station for anything. In fact, he dressed up for the occasion. Golson donned a newsboy cap and vintage OshKosh overalls that included a quartz pocket watch he bought from the railroad's credit union while stationed in Tucumcari during the early 1980s. In full railroad uniform, he became a walking throwback during Tucumcari MainStreet's first Down at the Depot event of the summer. Continued

1985: Route 66 officially removed from U.S. Highway System

A grassy stretch of old 66 near Bard, New Mexico. (Six Gun Siding)

(Wikipedia) ... The beginning of the decline for US 66 came in 1956 with the signing of the Interstate Highway Act by President Dwight Eisenhower who was influenced by his experiences in 1919 as a young Army officer crossing the country in a truck convoy (following the route of the Lincoln Highway), and his appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system.
During its nearly 60-year existence, US 66 was under constant change. Continued

Pioneer rancher and traildriver born in Mississippi

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1836, Robert Kelsey Wylie was born in Tishomingo County, Mississippi.
… In 1865 he began driving cattle to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, a business he continued for ten years. He established cattle ranches near Ballinger and at Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. He also started a sheep ranch near Van Horn.
At various times he supplied cattle to John S. Chisum and to the foundation herd of the Matador Ranch. Continued

Border photographer documents Mexican Revolution

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1913, Brownsville photographer Robert Runyon arrived in Matamoros and began compiling a unique record of the Mexican Revolution along the Texas-Mexico border. The Kentucky native arrived in Texas in 1909 and opened a photography studio the following year.
He is best known for his coverage of the revolutionary conflict in northeastern Mexico between 1913 and 1916. He traveled to Matamoros the day after its Federal garrison had been captured by Gen. Lucio Blanco's Constitutionalist revolutionary forces. Continued

Hometown Hero: Jeremy Reeves

I’ll give you three guesses: 

No, not the football player, though that’s a good guess, they share the same name. 

No, not the guy from Brideshead Revisited. 

And not the 80’s Sherlock Holmes. 

    Jeremy Reeves is a tobacco blender. He’s like a chef, serving up classic old recipes and creating tasty new ones. He is the head blender at Cornell and Diehl (C&D), the last big pipe tobacco manufacturer in the United States.     

    But even when they had serious competition, not long ago, C&D was a cut above the rest. When I say big, I mean relatively big, they won’t be knocking on “Big Tobacco’s” doors anytime soon. Yet they did produce 120,000 pounds of pipe tobacco in 2023, in 150 varieties. I wonder, how many pipe bowls that would fill? Millions, I guess. 

    Anyway, back to Jeremy, he was born in Portales, yes, Portales New Mexico. I had no idea and I don’t know any more about his life in Roosevelt County. Did he grow up here? Did he come here to attend ENMU? Was he whisked away at birth, destined to tobacco greatness, like some smoky Dalai Lama? I just don’t know. 

    I do know that Reeves is in a small school of blenders like Per Jenson, Russ Ouellette, and Rudiger Will, all legends in the field. Reeves and C&D not only produce fine old school tobaccos, they are often thinking of new variations on the theme. They have put out a yearly vintage variety of Virginia tobacco, when they can find a great candidate. A few years back, Reeves made a blend that included honey from his own hives, which was so popular, he had to resort to a larger apiary for the next year’s batch. He is also working on a fitting replacement for Syrian tobacco (a big deal if you smoke a pipe), a variety that has gone commercially extinct. 

    C&D is committed to keeping the old pastime alive and has partnered with a perique farm in Louisiana, a grower in Turkey, and Ireland’s most prominent pipe manufacturer. Despite their international adventures, the lion’s share of C&D’s product is grown, processed, and packaged in the U.S.A. The company does its work in South Carolina. 

    I think Reeves would be the first one to admit he has a dream job. And that’s my point: there is a world of great, attainable occupations out there. If you browse through this blog, you will see New Mexicans who have won the Nobel Prize (from Raton), been Treasurer of the United States (Mountainair), that bult a Hotel Empire (San Antonio), and many more. 

    It seems like all the great achievers live in New York City or Los Angeles, but they didn’t come from there, they came from here, wherever here happens to be, even New Mexico. 

    This is all done to make money of course, but for Reeves and his fellow blenders, it is also a labor of love. How often does that happen? 

    {Thanks to the good people at The Humidor, in Portales, who first told me Reeves was from here. And yeah, that Factory Smokes Maduro cigar was pretty darn good.}

Museum group proposes takeover of Quay School

 

Link

Jal House Rock or Get Your Potash in Gear!

Fire destroys old Kenna store and post office

(Eastern New Mexico News) Fire claimed the iconic Kenna store and service station along U.S. 70 late Saturday afternoon. Continued