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

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

Museum group proposes takeover of Quay School

 

Link

Filmmaker may use Princess Theatre

(Quay County Sun) A filmmaker told the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board on Wednesday he is investigating the possibility of using the long-closed Princess Theatre in a movie that centers around the history of the Fender Telecaster electric guitar. Continued

Bob Wills in New Mexico

Mural honoring Bob Wills in Roy, New Mexico (Sixgun Siding)

(ilovenewmexicoblog.com) My daddy grew up in Porter, New Mexico, the youngest of ten children. He delights in telling what I think of as "baby of the family" stories (I have a number of my own. . .), about how the older brothers used to torture him by hiding behind the tank and jumping out to frighten him when he had to walk to the windmill after dark to turn the pump off, or how he sometimes had to stay in and help Granny Terry in the house because he was the baby.
Or how he had to be the designated driver of my Grandpa Terry's 1936 Ford sedan when his older brothers and the local boys wanted to go to Tucumcari to tomcat around during World War II. When he was eleven years old. Continued

La Tiendita

Tucumcari

Tucumcari Storefronts

Abandoned Movie Theater, Tucumcari, New Mexico

Tucumcari VFW

You can read about Delfido Gonzales here.

Revuelto Schoolhouse

Says Carol Nash, who provided the photo, "I believe this was the old school building and post office where my grandmother Arba F. White taught for a few years in the early 1920’s. She also rode a horse for about 8 miles from San Jon to bring the mail from Revuelto to San Jon in 1906."  

Mural: Tucumcari

El Pueblito Cafe

It's now the El Herradero but the signage hasn't changed.

Hawkins Hawks Hideout

(UNM) Photograph shows a group of men and women posing in front of an underground hideout. Text on reverse reads "This is the famous rendevous of Hawkins and Spikes, notorious New Mexican desperados, killed in 1903. There were port holes every few feet. The cave was 12 feet by 14 feet and contained a chimney. I'll not name the persons. Located near Caprock in the vicinity of Tucumcari."

Country Churches: First Spanish Baptist

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Lone Turkey

Quay County, New Mexico

Outlaws Abandon Fort: Cattle Stealing "Mesa Hawks" Pursued by Officers

An early, and quite sensational, account of cattle rustlers in the Quay Valley.

The Spikes - Gholson Feud

The Spikes brothers, playing with guns.
(Find-A-Grave)

Sam Gholson, alleged bad
guy in all this, though
I have my doubts.

(Digging History) This family feud simmered quite awhile before it ended in the early 1900’s in eastern New Mexico, in an area now known as Quay County. 
The feud began in east Texas during the Civil War when the two patriarchs of the Spikes and Gholson families crossed paths, or should I say just “crossed.”
John Wesley Spikes (see this week’s Tombstone Tuesday article here in case you missed it) was a member of the Texas 12th Cavalry, whose job was rounding up draft evaders.  During the Civil War men were often recruited with the “point-of-a-gun” rather than willingly join the cause. Continued

Stately Spikes Manor. Reminds me of that line in the movie Dillinger, "Decent people don't live that good!" Anywho, the historian J. Evetts Haley wrote a history of the XIT Ranch naming the Spikes' guilty as charged. The Spikes family sued for libel, lining up every Spikes from here to the Atlantic to file a separate case. First up was old Fred Spikes himself, who lost, meaning that the jury wasn't convinced that he wasn't a cattle rustler. Nevertheless, with a half dozen more cases left to go, the XIT settled out of court for a pittance. Today's lazy historians see "out of court settlement" and assume that the Spikes brothers were as pure as the driven snow. But that jury didn't think so; no sir, they did not. See XIT Libel Suit Won by Defendants

Ghost Town Roundup: Nara Visa, New Mexico

Nara Visa is still partially inhabited, so mind your manners.

Corrugated Outhouse

The perfect Quonset hut accessory (Ima, New Mexico). 

Old House 168

I think the Ozymandias family lived there - real uppity.