"and cultivate their hair like lettuce"

 

La Boeuf, is that you?

"I also notice that the men of Texas gouge their mounts with great brutal spurs and cultivate their hair like lettuce." - True Grit, Charles Portis (Photo: Library of Congress)

Library’s Southwest Room showcase of regional works

(CNJ) In the Clovis-Carver Public Library, tucked down a long hallway just past the fireplace, is the Southwest Room.
In this quiet room one will find a desk, historic maps hanging on the walls and many shelves of books devoted to preserving the stories and voices of the region. Continued

Country Churches: First Baptist, Elida NM

If you're familiar with Elida, it's probably because you stopped for gas there, travelling between Clovis/Portales and Roswell. It's the only town between them. Fortunately, the only convenience store in town, Allsup's, is first rate.
The town itself features some interesting sites, including this church. At first, I thought it was a Catholic parish, with its missionesque front. But it's a Baptist nod to the locale, offset with glass block windows and cross, not to mention the brown brick detailing. It works for me, I like the look of the thing. It is both of its time, circa 1913, and its region.

History of area peanuts spans century

Sacking graded peanuts. Peanut-shelling plant. Comanche, Texas, 1939 (Library of Congress)

(Clovis New Journal) Peanuts have been a part of the Roosevelt County culture for years, and as the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce learned, they have been in the area for 100 years this year.
Chamber Executive Director Karl Terry said he was surprised to learn that this year marked 100 years since the first recorded peanut crop was grown in Roosevelt.
Terry said that after extensive searches through Eastern New Mexico University’s special collections and the help of a few locals, he discovered that John M. Bradley was the first person to grow peanuts in the area. Continued

Event to highlight Tucumcari’s railroad history

Leaving Tucumcari

(Quay County Sun) The history of the railroad will come alive with working model train displays as well as visual and static displays Saturday and Sunday during the Tucumcari Railroad Days at the Historic Train Depot in Tucumcari.
Railroad Days is a collaborative effort among the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, Tucumcari Main Street and the Tucumcari Railroad Museum, said Connie Loveland, railroad museum board member.
Loveland said the entities wanted to hold an event for locals and tourists that would bring the history of the historic Rock Island/Southern Pacific Railroad Depot to life. She said this event is free for all to attend and will feature well over 100 items that tell of the past and of the present railroad in Tucumcari. Continued

Massey Building, next to Tucumcari train station

The Massey Building, Tucumcari

 

 

Mount Olivet Cemetery, Farwell, Texas

 

Says the marker: "The Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company, which incorporated in England in 1884 to finance the XIT Ranch, deeded land for the Olivet Cemetery to James M. Hamlin in Nov. 1908. One of the earliest burials is that of John Armstrong, XIT manager and shipping agent who was shot by cattle thieves while loading cattle onto rail cars in Bovina. A local tragedy is recalled at the plot of the Hassell family, a mother and eight children who were murdered in 1926. About one hundred interments have been identified in the ten-acre cemetery, including veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. The site was Farwell's first cemetery, and many prominent names in Parmer Co., Texas and Curry Co., New Mexico are represented here."