Study: Tree deaths outpace new growth across New Mexico

 

 

(Santa Fe New Mexican) New Mexico trees are dying faster than they are being replaced with new growth across much of the state, according to a study on forest health released Tuesday. Brown trees dotting landscapes around the state are a highly visible sign of what’s happening.
The study by the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station is a kind of encyclopedia of New Mexico forests, one that researchers hope can be consistently updated every few years. It uses data gathered at 3,000 forested sites on private and federal lands between 2008 and 2012. Continued

House Grocery

House, NM

KENW celebrates 40 years

 

(CNJ) Duane Ryan came to Portales six  decades ago with a vision to start a radio and television program from the ground up.
KENW was born as a public broadcasting station 40 years ago, but Ryan, the station’s director of broadcasting, said there were challenges along the way.
KENW broadcasts to the eastern side of New Mexico and parts of west Texas. Continued

Ozark Trail Marker: Dimmitt

More on the Ozark Trail here.

Clay Allison: ‘Good-Natured Holy Terror’

(Historynet.com) Old West historian Paul Cool says that the phrase "good-natured holy terror" fits several Wild West characters. William "Curly Bill" Brocius and John Henry "Doc" Holliday come to mind. One character who definitely fills the bill is Robert Clay Allison, who reportedly considered himself a "shootist" rather than a gunman.
From 1956, when Franciscan friar Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola wrote the first biography of Allison, until the early 2000s, when onsite and electronic research was easier, Clay Allison was portrayed as an unglued Southerner who poured his bitterness and vile onto former Union soldiers and anyone else who crossed him. Unfortunately this is how most people still view Allison. Early research on the man was iffy at best, and subsequent writers—and readers—have paid the price. In fact, disregarding the myths laid at his feet by modern writers, Clay in his early Texas years was a young man matured by four years of war and evidently trustworthy enough that two prominent Texas cattleman made him foreman of a 700-mile trail drive. Continued

Old House 18

House, NM. This scene got a little added drama when my dogs (leashed),
startled the cat that spooked the birds.

Tam Anne Cotton Gin

 

Old House 17

 

Grain Elevator: Dimmitt, TX (vicinity)

Grasshoppers

A grasshopper landed on my windshield, providing a chance for a close-up.

The grasshoppers were pretty thick, between Broadview and Wheatland, on Friday.

Signage: Howdy

House, NM

Lost in Translation: Germany’s Fascination With the American Old West

(NYTimes) ... Generations of children here have grown up on the adventure stories of Karl May, whose books feature the fictional characters Old Shatterhand, a gallant European, and his Apache chief blood brother, Winnetou. May, who died in 1912, wrote dozens of books about the American West, portraying the Indians as noble savages fighting the injustice of European settlers. More than 100 million of his books have been sold in Germany, and they have been translated into 33 languages, according to the Karl May Foundation. Continued

New Mexico's Northern Landscape Gets A New Burst Of Color

The eastern central plains of New Mexico are doing o.k. too.

(NPR) Much of the American West is suffering from extreme drought this year. California is running out of water and wildfires have raged through Washington, Oregon and Idaho. But there is a bright spot out West — or, rather, a green spot. In New Mexico, unusually heavy late-summer rains have transformed the landscape.
It's a remarkable sight. The high desert is normally the color of baked pie crust; now, it's emerald.
Kirt Kempter, a geologist who lives in Santa Fe, says this transformation is far from ordinary. Continued

The Western Motel

The Western Motel, along Route 66, in San Jon, New Mexico, is no longer in business, but stands as a forlorn monument to more lucrative times.

Old House 16

Couldn't ask for a better cross-section.

 

McAlister, NM.

How Green Was My Mesa

 

 

What a difference a little rain makes. After 3 years of drought, the rain has returned to the Llano Estacado and greened things up nicely. The above pictures give a nice before and after view. Both taken at Wheatland Cemetery, the first on May 5th, before the rains came, the second was taken yesterday. The rest of the pictures were taken yesterday in the McAlister/House area, which seems to have turned out even greener. The photographs are mostly of the roadside as it represents a part of the landscape that is rarely irrigated. We made a big loop covering Tucumcari, Wheatland, Clovis, Melrose, House, McAlister, etc., and it all looked relatively verdant. The drought isn't over, that would take a lot more rain, but, as you can see in the pictures, there's more rain coming. Let's hope it continues for a good long time.

 

 

 

 

Garrison Keillor: By the Book

(NYTBR) The host of “A Prairie Home Companion” and the author, most recently, of “The Keillor Reader” collects hymnals, phrase books and tales of heroic collies. And “I’m a connoisseur of bad poetry of the elegiac variety.”

 

What are the best books about Minnesota? 

 

Ecclesiastes tells you all you need to know about Minnesota. “Whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.” You can say that again. “The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance happeneth to them all.” That’s got Minnesota down to a T. You run fast and you trip on a gopher hole, you are heavily armed and well trained and you shoot yourself in the foot, you’re so smart you go broke. Continued

Clovis Grain Elevators

Abondoned Gas Pump on Route 66

Roadrunner

Ran across this little guy between San Jon and Endee. Neither the bird nor the lens (since discarded), were very cooperative, but that's the fun of it.

Pleasant Valley

Just south of San Jon.

Quay Valley

Just south of Tucumcari.

Interview with Historiographer Don Bullis

Perfecto Armijo

(historynet) As a former newspaperman and criminal investigator, Don Bullis knows all about research. As a historiographer or historian—take your pick—he has become one of the go-to guys when it comes to New Mexico history. His recent books include New Mexico Historical Biographies and Unsolved: New Mexico's American Valley Ranch Murders & Other Mysteries (both from Rio Grande Books). A 1970 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University (named an outstanding alumni last year), Bullis worked for newspapers and then entered law enforcement in 1982, retiring in 2002. He has nine nonfiction books and two novels to his credit—and plenty of awards, including the 2013 Eric Hoffer Award for Best Reference Book. The New Mexico State Library named Bullis the state's Centennial Author in 2010, and last fall Bullis was presented the Rounders Award from the state Department of Agriculture for living, articulating and promoting the Western way of life. He lives with wife Gloria in Rio Rancho, N.M., where he took time from researching his latest project, New Mexico Historical Encyclopedia (Rio Grande Books, due out in 2015), to discuss his career. Continued

The View from Ragland

There is nothing new under the sun

Why live anywhere else?

Farwell, Texas 1943

"Farwell, Texas. Going through the town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad between Amarillo, Texas and Clovis, New Mexico on the Texas and New Mexico state line" - Jack Delano FSA/OWI/LoC

Tucumcari Cemetery

The Tucumcari Motel

 

Signage: Everything Auto

Country Churches: Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish

Is it a "country church" if it's in a city? If it's a city like Clovis, New Mexico, I say yes.

Taos Mutiny of 1855

Aaron D. Stevens
(kansasmemory.org)

(Wild West Magazine) ... An Army bugler who wrote breathless letters home about riding out West with horse soldiers is perhaps the last man you would expect to disrupt the military caste system, much less face a Virginia noose six years later for committing armed terror at the side of a half-mad bearded prophet. Indeed, Aaron D. Stevens boasted in a November 1854 letter to sister Lydia that his daring adventures with the 1st U.S. Regiment of Dragoons in New Mexico Territory had prevented him from writing since the patrols began in April. His unit, Company F, had already experienced "two fights with the Patches [Apaches], this year and had 9 men killed & 10 wounded…and as luck would have it, I have got off safe so far, but they may get me yet." Continued

Fort Bascom Mural

Tucumcari has an impressive number of murals decorating the town. This one does double duty, advertising the Fort Bascom Trading Post, a secondhand store, and informing people about Fort Bascom (1863 - 1870), which was located just a few miles out of town.

Store: Nara Visa

 

Signage: Beef Capital of the World

Bovina, Texas