John R. Brinkley

Courtesy of The Radio Historian

(Wikipedia) John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was an American quack who fraudulently claimed to be a medical doctor. He had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a "diploma mill". Brinkley became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans. 

Although initially Brinkley promoted this procedure as a means of curing male impotence, eventually he claimed that the technique was a virtual panacea for a wide range of male ailments. He operated clinics and hospitals in several states, and despite the fact that almost from the beginning, detractors and critics in the medical community thoroughly discredited his methods, he was able to continue his activities for almost two decades. 

He was also, almost by accident, an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio. Continued

INSIDE THE WILD HUNT FOR FORREST FENN'S HIDDEN TREASURE

"Absconding with the Treasure" by N. C. Wyeth

(CrimeReads) ... “How did we not think to check the weather?” I asked, mostly rhetorically. “It’s the desert. I thought the weather was always the same here,” Beep said, looking perplexed. A pasty Canadian, he was shivering in the passenger seat in a gray fantasy sports T-shirt and black gym shorts, fully unprepared for the deluge. At least he was wearing a boonie hat he’d purchased because it seemed like good hunting gear, its floppy brim partially hiding his people-pleaser eyes. Just as well. I figured he’d be looking at me with disappointment for my embarrassing lack of preparation. Quite the auspicious start to our careers as treasure hunters. Continued

Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?

Frank De Kova and Edward Everett Horton - not Cherokee

(Slate) ... Today, more Americans claim descent from at least one Cherokee ancestor than any other Native American group. Across the United States, Americans tell and retell stories of long-lost Cherokee ancestors. These tales of family genealogies become murkier with each passing generation, but like Phelps, contemporary Americans profess their belief despite not being able to point directly to a Cherokee in their family tree.
... More often than not, that ancestor was an “Indian princess,” despite the fact that the tribe never had a social system with anything resembling an inherited title like princess. Continued

Camels arrive for trial service in Texas

 

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1856, a shipload of camels arrived at the Texas port of Indianola. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had urged Congress to bring the animals from North Africa to help the army in its Indian operations.
Major H. C. Wayne sailed to North Africa in the naval storeship Supply in May 1855 and returned with the first thirty-three camels in April 1856. Continued

Panhandle-Plains Museum trades Yikkiyay for Rococo

CANYON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) - The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum celebrates the Lucille Nance Jones collection at its first formal gala, UnVeiled: Rococo - An Evening of French Opulence on April 13 starting at 6 p.m. Guests will be visually transported to Versailles, the birthplace of the Rococo Movement. They will also get to see treasures from the 1,000-item collection of Lucille Nance Jones which were donated to the PPHM in 1972. Continued

Invasive Species Returns to New Mexico

(Albuquerque Journal) A Pennsylvania man who was arrested Friday evening for burglarizing Forrest Fenn’s house told police he believed the famed art and antiquities collector’s treasure would be there.
Robert Miller, of Pine Grove, Pa., is charged with residential burglary, breaking and entering and criminal damage to property after he used an ax to break into Fenn’s Old Santa Fe Trail home. Continued

Pennsylvania man cited for actions in pursuit of Fenn loot

Who's not civilized?!

 (Albuquerque Journal) A Pennsylvania man was cited in late May for digging on Heron Lake State Park land in search of a treasure that Santa Fe author and antiquities dealer Forrest Fenn says he’s hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains region.

Scott Conway, 47, of Howard, Pa., pleaded guilty to three petty misdemeanors; one for “unlawfully mutilating or destroying sign, guidepost or work in State Park,” one for metal detecting in a state park, and the other for littering. Continued

Bat bomb!

(Wikipedia) Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40 mile radius. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target. Continued

Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?

Frank De Kova and Edward Everett Horton - not Cherokee

(Slate) ... Today, more Americans claim descent from at least one Cherokee ancestor than any other Native American group. Across the United States, Americans tell and retell stories of long-lost Cherokee ancestors. These tales of family genealogies become murkier with each passing generation, but like Phelps, contemporary Americans profess their belief despite not being able to point directly to a Cherokee in their family tree.
... More often than not, that ancestor was an “Indian princess,” despite the fact that the tribe never had a social system with anything resembling an inherited title like princess. Continued

Camels arrive for trial service in Texas

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1856, a shipload of camels arrived at the Texas port of Indianola. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had urged Congress to bring the animals from North Africa to help the army in its Indian operations. Major H. C. Wayne sailed to North Africa in the naval storeship Supply in May 1855 and returned with the first thirty-three camels in April 1856. Continued

The Crash at Crush

 

(Wikipedia) Crush, Texas, was a temporary "city" established as a one-day publicity stunt in 1896. William George Crush, general passenger agent of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (popularly known as the Katy, from its "Em-Kay-Tee" initials), conceived the idea to demonstrate a train wreck as a spectacle.
No admission was charged, and train fares to the crash site were at the reduced rate of US$2 from any location in Texas. As a result, about 40,000 people showed up on September 15, 1896, making the new town of Crush, Texas, temporarily the second-largest city in the state.
Unexpectedly, the impact caused both engine boilers to explode, resulting in several fatalities and numerous injuries among the spectators. Continued

Obar, New Mexico: Land of "Tropical Luxuriance"

Obar, New Mexico once sat along the Rock Island Railroad tracks, between Logan and Nara Visa, but nothing remains today. And I mean nothing, it's the most absent town I've found in these parts. Kenna, after being burned over a few years back, still has a few dwellings, along with a few inhabitants. Even Norton has a foundation or two to show for itself, but nothing remains of Obar proper.
This is all the more remarkable because Obar was heavily promoted by the New Mexico Land and Immigration Company, a fly-by-night developer based in Topeka, Kansas.
The NML&IC promised a land of milk and honey, and also to pave the roads and build a hotel. The land, of course, was as hardscrabble as the rest of the region, and the roads and hotel never materialized.
Obar made a go of it for a few years, attracting a couple of hundred settlers, all of whom moved on to better things, a little poorer and, one hopes, wiser for their trouble.
Sometime later, a little monument was erected by some thoughtful people to commemorate Obar, which you can see today, at the intersection of U.S. 54 and Quay Road K.


Obar

For the definitive history of Obar go to The Link Family Chronicles.

Preacher returns with a bang, a splat, and one mean cowboy

Preacher is set in West Texas, but filmed in New Mexico. It may be the oddest philosophical
rumination to ever be broadcast on TV - not for the faint of heart, or Pharisees.

(A.V. Club) The first season of Preacher was a strange one, full of wild variations in tone, plot hiccups, and an often frustrating lack of focus. When it worked, it was thrilling, hilarious, and shocking in all the best ways. When it didn’t work, it was a sneering, overloaded mess. The second season wastes no time in showing things have changed. The first thing we see, in the series’ now familiar blaring white font, is “THE SEARCH FOR GOD.” Brief pause. “DAY ONE.” It’s silly, melodramatic, and entirely sincere, and it sets the tone for the episode that follows. Continued

The Most Ridiculous Outfit Ever Worn to A Gunfight In The History of The American West

(Bob Boze Bell) ... imagine you are the costume designer on a Western movie set. The producers have tasked you with the job of making sure all the costumes are authentic and accurate to the times portrayed in the film.
The story in the film takes place in Nebraska and involves elements of the U.S. Army's Fifth Cavalry and Cheyenne warriors who crossed paths at Warbonnet Creek on July 17, 1876. Continued

Old House 71

If this house reminds you of a railroad car, that's because it is a railroad car. It's a "camp car," which were used as living quarters by railroad maintenance of way (MOW) employees when they were out building or repairing tracks.
Railroad cars used to be built of wood, but were phased out of service by 1950, in favor of safer steel cars. The surplus cars were often repurposed for storage or, in this case, housing.
Camp cars (AKA cabin cars, crew cars, or bunk cars), are no longer used in the U.S., except by the Norfolk Southern Railway. Judging by its location, Cuervo, NM, I imagine this car was used on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad or maybe the Southern Pacific. Judging by the lack of a steel frame, I'm guessing it's quite old.
This is only the second wood MOW car I've encountered outside of a museum, the other is 2,000 miles away, an X23 class car (PRR 499327), in Enola, Pennsylvania.

State says keep Woody Guthrie image off Oklahoma Capitol

(KFDA) An image of Woody Guthrie lit up the Oklahoma Capitol, but the state doesn't want the unauthorized artwork coming back.
Oklahoma City artist Jack Fowler says he projected an image of the folk singer Monday night onto tarps covering construction work in an effort to get people to "shake up the powers that be." Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, and influenced singers including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Continued

Murder steer: Fine Gilliland kills Fort Davis cattleman

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1891, Fine Gilliland shot and killed Fort Davis cattleman Henry Harrison Powe during a roundup near Leoncita Springs in Brewster County.
Gilliland had been sent by the firm of Dubois and Wentworth to make sure none of the local ranchers appropriated any of the company's cattle; he became embroiled in a dispute with Powe over an unbranded brindle yearling steer found without its mother. Continued

Is this an early picture of Elida, New Mexico?

According to rubylane.com, this is a picture of Elida, New Mexico from the 1880's. The problem being that Elida wasn't founded until 1902. There is an Elida, Ohio that dates back to 1852. Maybe it's Ohio or maybe it's New Mexico and the date is off. What do you think?

Soap Suds Row: The Bold Lives of Army Laundresses, 1802–1876 by Jennifer J. Lawrence

Fort Bascom ruins circa 1907 (Florence Surguy)

(Historynet.com) ... In 1866 one luckless soldier made a disparaging remark to the wrong laundress at Fort Bascom, New Mexico Territory. The woman warned the soldier she’d cut out his tongue if he mouthed off again. He did—and she did, slicing off the tip of his tongue as he slept off a drunken binge—one way to curb his language. Continued

On the Hunt, ‘Where Warm Waters Halt,’ for a $2 Million Treasure

(NYTimes) CUNDIYO, N.M. — Cynthia Meachum began her search for the hidden treasure at the confluence of two shallow streams in this tiny village north of Santa Fe, the spot “where warm waters halt,” or at least that’s where she thinks they do.

The only one who knows for sure is Forrest Fenn, who buried the clues to the whereabouts of a bronze chest loaded with riches in a poem printed on Page 132 of his self-published memoir, “The Thrill of the Chase.” Continued