Civilian Conservation Corps established

CCC Camp BR-58 Carlsbad Project, New Mexico,
photo of enrollees with a dump truck spreading lining for a canal

(Wikipedia) The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was eventually expanded to young men ages 17–28. Robert Fechner was the head of the agency.
It was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments.
The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. At the same time, it implemented a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Continued

Karl May

Karl Friedrich May (25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German writer best known for his adventure novels set in the American Old West.
His main protagonists are Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. May set similar books in the Orient and Middle East (in which the main protagonists were Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar), Latin America and Germany.
May also wrote poetry, a play, and composed music; he was a proficient player of several musical instruments. Many of his works were adapted for film, stage, audio dramas and comics. Later in his career, May turned to philosophical and spiritual genres.
He is one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide. Continued

Commander of "Kirby Smith's Confederacy" dies

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1893, Edmund Kirby Smith, former commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy, died in Sewanee, Tennessee.
The Florida native attended West Point, served in the Mexican War, and was an officer in the Second United States Cavalry on the frontier.
He entered the Confederate service in 1861 and rose to the rank of lieutenant general in October 1862, when he was given command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, including Texas. Continued

Old House 150

Porter, New Mexico

Battle of Glorieta Pass

 

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War.
... it was intended as the killer blow by Confederate forces to break the Union possession of the West along the base of the Rocky Mountains.
It was fought at Glorieta Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in what is now New Mexico, and was an important event in the history of the New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War. Continued

Want to Adopt a Wild Horse? The Government Will Pay You $1,000

Wild horses (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress)

(NYTimes) It is like an online matchmaking service. Horse lovers who want to adopt a wild mustang from the western United States can browse dozens of headshots.

From drop-down menus, you can choose gender, color and age: a 4-year-old chestnut mare, for example, or a 9-year-old gray gelding. Some horses have no training, while others might be “gentled,” with experience being handled.

This is Wild Horses Online, part of the federal Bureau of Land Management’s online adoption service. Starting this month, the bureau is trying to make wild mustang adoptions more attractive by paying $1,000 to those who take in the animals, which are gathered up from public land in the western United States as part of efforts to manage the population. Continued

The Abernathy Kids

 

(405 Magazine) A century ago, in the years between statehood and the beginning of World War I, 9-year-old Louis “Bud” Abernathy and his 5-year-old brother, Temple, hankered for adventure.
Their dreams were not unusual. What was out of the ordinary was that their father said yes.
After the boys asked to ride their horses by themselves from Oklahoma to Santa Fe to see the new mansion of the governor, Jack Abernathy seriously considered their request. Their mother had died, and they were growing up fast.
With every confidence in their horsemanship, he laid down some guidelines, opened a checking account for each with $100 apiece and encouraged them to saddle up. Continued

Country Churches: Saint Anne's, Tucumcari

"Catch-'em-alive Jack" Abernathy

Jack Abernathy holding a wolf by the mouth, with Teddy Roosevelt in the background. (Library of Congress)

(White Mountain Independent) John Abernathy, or Jack as he was called, was born in Texas. At the age of 6 he and his older brother would sneak away from home to play piano and violin in the local saloon. Following a Christmas shootout in the saloon with several victims, his parents discovered what he was doing, thus ending his entertainment career.

But that didn’t inhibit the enterprising young man. By the age of 9 he was working as a cowboy, and at 11 he went on his first cattle drive. At 15 Jack was a full-fledged cowboy breaking horses for Charles Goodnight. Continued



Abernathy and sons, more on them tomorrow.

Abandoned Ford Model T Truck

For all I know, it could be a Model A

You can see the old truck bed in the background

Quay County, New Mexico

Mexican law invites Anglo colonists

 

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1825, the Mexican legislature, meeting in Saltillo, passed the State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.
The legislation was designed to bring about the peopling of Coahuila and Texas. It encouraged farming, ranching, and commerce. For a nominal fee, the law granted settlers as much as a square league (4,428.4 acres) of pastureland and a labor (177.1 acres) of farmland.
Immigrants were temporarily free of every kind of tax. Continued

Texas Jack

(Wikipedia) Nathaniel "Texas Jack" Reed (March 23, 1862 – January 7, 1950) was a 19th-century American outlaw responsible for many stagecoach, bank, and train robberies throughout the American Southwest during the 1880s and '90s.
He acted on his own and also led a bandit gang, operating particularly in the Rocky Mountains and Indian Territory.
Reed is claimed to have been the last survivor of the "47 most notorious outlaws" of Indian Territory.
He became an evangelist in his later years, and could often be seen on the streets of Tulsa preaching against the dangers of following a "life of crime." Continued

Last grants coming for endangered Route 66 program

Many Route 66 landmarks are rotting away, including the Richardson Store in Montoya, New Mexico.
Being on the National Register of Historic Places hasn't helped it very much.

(Albuquerque Journal) Final grant season for an endangered federal program that’s helped preserve the historic Route 66 Highway for two decades is ending next month.
The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program is accepting grant applications until April 12 and it’s not clear if Congress will continue the project. Continued

Castaneda Hotel’s south wing likely will open April 1

La Castaneda before restoration began.

(Route 66 News) The south wing of the historic Castaneda Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, likely will open to overnight travelers for the first time in decades on April 1. Continued

Old House 149

Southwest Quay County, or Curry, or Roosevelt, it's confusing down there.

Registration open for Second Annual Caprock Genealogy Conference

(KFDA) Registration is now open for the Second Annual Caprock Genealogy Conference, sponsored by the Amarillo, South Plains (Lubbock) and Hi-Plains (Plainview) Genealogical Societies.

The Caprock Genealogy Conference if for those new to genealogy as well as those who are long-time genealogists.
The conference aims to expand knowledge and methods of discovering one’s family roots and is for anyone interested in family history research. Continued

Preservationist and former Indian captive Rebecca Fisher dies

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1926, Rebecca Fisher died in Austin. She was born Rebecca Gilleland in Philadelphia in 1831.
Her family came to Texas around 1837 and settled in Refugio County.
In 1840 Comanches attacked their home, killing Rebecca's parents and taking Rebecca and her brother.
The children were rescued by Albert Sidney Johnston and a detachment of Texas soldiers. Continued

Dead Turbine

Hassell, New Mexico

Ned Buntline

(Wikipedia) Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr. (March 20, 1821 or 1823 – July 16, 1886), known as E. Z. C. Judson and by his pseudonym Ned Buntline, was an American publisher, journalist, writer, and publicist.
He reputedly commissioned the Colt firearms manufacturer to make a customized revolver, which came to be known as the Buntline Special, but no evidence of his involvement in its production has been found. Continued

Old House 148

Hassell, New Mexico

Charles Russell

(Wikipedia) Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West.
Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures.
Known as 'the cowboy artist', Russell was also a storyteller and author. Continued

Wind Turbines Going Up in Grady

Work Songs of the Cowboy Poets

Russell Lee
(Library of Congress)

(NYTimes) Ranchers and seekers of the “mythic West” travel each year to a small Nevada city to practice a tradition born of labor and regional identity. Continued

Dangerous Dan Tucker

"Gunfight" by N. C. Wyeth

(Wikipedia) Dan Tucker, better known as "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, (1849 – unknown), is a little-known lawman and gunfighter of the Old West.

Author Bob Alexander, who wrote the biography "Dangerous Dan Tucker, New Mexico's Deadly Lawman," proclaimed Tucker was more dangerous and more effective than better known lawmen, including Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Earp. He was supported in this claim by historian Leon C. Metz.
He was also a subject in the book Deadly Dozen, by author Robert K. DeArment, who included Tucker as one of the twelve most underrated gunmen of the Old West.

Tucker first ventured into New Mexico Territory in the early 1870s. Continued

Grumpy Old Men on the Trail of Glamorous Killers

(NYTimes) … To call “The Highwaymen” revisionist — or even reactionary — would be an understatement. This retelling of the Bonnie and Clyde story is not content to posit that those two Depression-era outlaws got what they deserved when they died in a hail of bullets on a Louisiana back road. It has a sackful of bones to pick with the modern world as a whole.
Violent criminals are a problem, yes, but so are movies, airplanes, car radios, women in politics, newspapers — you name it. If Grandpa Simpson could figure out how to get himself a Netflix subscription, this movie would be the whole algorithm. I’m here to say I didn’t entirely hate it. Continued

Dead Chevy

McAlister, New Mexico

Measuring Ourselves Against an Idealized Home-Cooking Past Is a Recipe for Frustration

 

(Slate) … It’s easier to dream fondly of an idyllic self-sustaining farm diet without thinking about the fact that, as Elliott says, “toward the end of winter, it’s really looking bad. Everything is wrinkled and soggy, and it’s not very much fun to eat.” Continued

Was there a real Josie Wales and did he really go to Texas?

 

Bill Wilson, maybe

(North Texas E-News) The story of Bill Wilson has been told throughout the Ozark Mountains since he began his bloody career in 1861 to the present day. He is a true folk hero. The Ozarks were full of men who took to the bush and waged a single man to a small gang warfare on the union soldiers, red legs, jayhawkers and spies for the Union.
Although there were a lot of these men, if someone said, “The Bushwhacker,” “The Great Bushwhacker,” or the “Famous Bushwhacker,” everyone knew that they were talking about Bill Wilson. His daring deeds are still considered miracles due to his never being wounded once. He is remembered for his superior skill with revolvers and clever tactics in surprising his enemies. The writings and movie about Josie Wales are based on the real bushwhacker, Bill Wilson. Continued

The Punitive Expedition

 

(Wikipedia) ... Trouble between the United States and Pancho Villa had been growing since October 1915, when the United States government officially recognized Villa's rival and former ally Venustiano Carranza as head of the government of Mexico. The U.S. also provided rail transportation through the United States, from Eagle Pass, Texas to Douglas, Arizona, for the movement of more than 5,000 Carrancista forces to fight Villa at the Battle of Agua Prieta; Villa's seasoned División del Norte was smashed.
Feeling betrayed, Villa began attacking U.S. nationals and their property in northern Mexico. On November 26, 1915, Villa sent a force to attack the city of Nogales and in the course of the ensuing battle, engaged with American forces before withdrawing. Continued

Wildcatter born in Lithuania

http://www.utlands.utsystem.edu/

(TDbD) On this day in 1874, Haymon Krupp, merchant and oil wildcatter, was born in Kozno, Lithuania. In 1890 he immigrated to El Paso, Texas, where he worked in a dry-goods store and soon opened his own men's clothing store.
...  Krupp entered the oil business when he joined Frank Pickrell, also of El Paso, to buy a lease option to drill for oil on University of Texas lands in the Permian Basin. Continued

Texas Ranger who killed Bonnie and Clyde gets film redemption at last in 'The Highwaymen'

The posse. Top: Hinton, Oakley, Gault; seated: Alcorn, Jordan, and Frank Hamer.

(USA Today) Frank Hamer, the former Texas Ranger who was brought out of retirement to stop gangsters Bonnie and Clyde, has found film redemption through Kevin Costner's laconic portrayal in "The Highwaymen."
Costner's role in the drama, which premiered Sunday at the South By Southwest film festival in Austin ahead of its March 15 theatrical release (streaming March 29 on Netflix), gives Hamer's point of view in leading the effort to stop criminal couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, dramatically killing the duo in a hail of bullets in 1934. Continued

Wine, Women, and Saloons

 

(Wild West Magazine) … Western wine rooms sought a more gender-inclusive mix of clientele. The name itself was a way of circumventing Victorian strictures against women in saloons without driving off male customers or incurring the wrath of moral “uplifters.”
Few men of the era expected or particularly wanted to turn around at a public bar to find a woman hoisting one beside him. With that in mind, some entrepreneurial proprietors fixed up wine rooms out back for female drinkers. Continued

New carbon black plant opens in Panhandle

Carbon black worker, Sunray, TX
(Library of Congress)

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1926, the Texas Railroad Commission allowed the Phillips Petroleum Company to construct a carbon black plant in the Panhandle. ...
Carbon black, produced from natural gas that has more than 1 ½ grains of hydrogen sulfide, became in demand in the early twentieth century, especially in the production of automobile tires. Continued

Wanted: More pastures for West’s overpopulated wild horses

(Library of Congress)

(SFNM) If you ever wished to gaze at a stomping, snorting, neighing panorama of Western heritage from your living room window, now could be your chance.

A classic image of the American West — wild horses stampeding across the landscape — not only has endured through the years but has multiplied past the point of range damage.

Through May 3, the U.S. government is seeking more private pastures for an overpopulation of wild horses. Continued

Three Flags Day

(Wikipedia) Three Flags Day commemorates March 9 and 10, 1804, when Spain officially completed turning over the Louisiana (New Spain) colonial territory to France, who then officially turned over the same lands to the United States, in order to finalize the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
The ceremony in St. Louis cleared the way for Lewis and Clark to begin their exploration. Continued

REA begins bringing electricity to rural Texas

 

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1936, a fifty-eight-mile power line near Bartlett, Texas, was energized, according to some sources the first in the nation under the Rural Electrification Administration.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt began the REA in May 1935, only about 2 percent of the farms in Texas (and only about 10 percent nationally) had electricity. … By 1965, instead of only 2 percent of Texas farms with electricity, there were only 2 percent without electricity. Continued

Santa Fe woman remembered for bringing famed Frito pie to the area

The humble, tasty Frito pie. (Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci)

(Santa Fe New Mexican) … Over the years, the Frito pie became a thing in Santa Fe — a topic of controversy, heated arguments and pure joy for locals and tourists alike. It’s been featured on the Food Network , in numerous national publications and popular television shows, including, somewhat disparagingly, on the late Anthony Bourdain’s CNN series, Parts Unknown. Continued

The Dawson Branch

A tribute to "The Polly," in Mosquero, New Mexico. The Polly was a passenger car hitched to the end of coal drags on the Dawson Line. It was a slow way to get to Tucumcari, but people had an odd affection for the old car.

The Dawson Line (or Dawson Branch or Roy Branch or Dawson Railway), was a Southern Pacific Railroad line that went from Tucumcari, New Mexico to the coal mining town of Dawson, New Mexico.
The line was built by the El Paso & Northeastern Railroad System which later became The El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, before being absorbed by the Southern Pacific.
Traffic, being mostly coal trains, was slow-going, and train crews were known to pack their rifles and fishing rods with them for diversion at sidings. As slow as it was, it gave Dawsonites the opportunity to connect anywhere a train went in the United States.
The town of Dawson, its mines, and railroad were abandoned in the early 1950's.

Guy Kibbee

 

(Immortal Ephemera) One of the most popular and lovable character actors of the 1930s and ‘40s, Guy Kibbee specialized in playing goofballs and patriarchs in just over one hundred Hollywood movies. Well past forty, and usually looking over fifty, Kibbee first excelled as pre-Code sugar daddy and come-on king in titles like City Streets, Laughing Sinners, Blonde Crazy (all 1931), Girl Missing, and 42nd Street (both 1933). Sometimes he was lecherous, other times not intended to be taken too seriously: it was the latter personality that caught on and led to Kibbee spending a career playing Pa’s and Pop’s, judges and cops.

... The Kibbees had six, possibly seven sons, and one daughter—Guy Kibbee was third or fourth born of this group, the last of the clan born in Texas, or so the 1900 census convinces me. The youngest four boys, including youngest brother Milne—Milton Kibbee of the screen—were all born in New Mexico. Father James was a publisher of small papers such as the Concho Times and Burnet Bulletin around El Paso, Texas, and Roswell, New Mexico. Continued

Jesse Evans

(Wikipedia) Jesse Evans (1853 – ????) was an outlaw and gunman of the Old West, and leader of the Jesse Evans Gang. He has received some attention due to his disappearance in 1882, after which he was never seen or heard from again.
... Evans began working as a cowboy, employed by several ranches, to include that of John Chisum. After he ended his employment with Chisum, Evans ventured to both Las Cruces and La Mesilla, New Mexico, where he became associated with John Kinney. At the time, Kinney was leading one of the more well known gangs of the New Mexico Territory, called the John Kinney Gang. Evans joined the gang, and over time he and Kinney became close. Continued

Black gold gushes in East Texas

 

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1904, the Batson-Old oilfield, located on Pine Bayou in southwestern Hardin County, reached its peak daily production.
That day the field yielded more than 150,000 barrels of crude. Continued

Butterfield Overland Mail Discontinues Southwestern Route

 

(Wikipedia) ... In March 1861, before the American Civil War had actually begun at Fort Sumter, the US Government formally revoked the contract of the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Company in anticipation of the coming conflict.
An Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, discontinued this route and service ceased June 30, 1861. On the same date the central route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Placerville, California, went into effect. This new route was called the Central Overland California Route.
Under the Confederate States of America, the Butterfield route between Texas and Southern California was operated as part of the Overland Mail Corporation route with limited success from 1861 until early 1862 by George Henry Giddings. Continued

Edward Condon

 

(Wikipedia) Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project.
The Franck–Condon principle and the Slater–Condon rules are co-named after him. He was the director of the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) from 1945 to 1951. In 1946, Condon was president of the American Physical Society, and in 1953 was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Edward Condon was born on March 2, 1902, in Alamogordo, New Mexico to William Edward Condon and Carolyn Uhler Condon. Continued