March 2021 Alamodoso Connections

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Discover Alamogordo

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APRIL BIRTHSTONE

DIAMOND Sparkling with an internal fire all its own, diamond is one of the world’s most sought-after and adored gemstones.

Those born in April are lucky enough to call this scintillating gem their birthstone, a symbol of clarity and strength. Diamond is so strong, in fact, that its name comes from the Greek word "adamas," which means “invincible” or “unbreakable.”

The timeless charm of diamond was cherished long before it became the April birthstone, and the places where diamond comes from are as fascinating as the lore that surrounds it.

Our love for the April birthstone started in India, where diamonds were gathered from the country’s rivers and streams. Traded as early as the fourth century BCE, diamonds were coveted by royalty and the wealthy.

Later, caravans brought Indian diamonds, along with other exotic merchandise, to medieval markets in Venice. By the 1400s, diamonds were becoming fashionable accessories for Europe’s elite.

The first diamond engagement ring on record was given by Archduke Maximillian of Austria to his betrothed, Mary of Burgundy, in 1477. Recent evidence supports the origin of the legendary 45.52 carat (ct) blue Hope diamond in India’s Golconda mining area and its sale to King Louis XIV of France

9 (then known as the French Blue diamond) in 1668.

In the early 1700s, as India’s diamond supplies began to decline, Brazil emerged as an important source.

Diamonds were discovered when gold miners sifted through gravels on the banks of the Jequitinhonha River in Minas Gerais. Brazil dominated the diamond market for more than 150 years.

The discovery of diamonds near Kimberley, South Africa, in the late 1860s marked the beginning of the modern diamond market. Entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes established De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited in 1888, and by 1900 De Beers controlled an estimated 90 percent of the world’s production of rough diamonds.

The largest diamond ever found – at 3,106 ct (21 ounces) – was recovered from South Africa’s Premier mine in 1905. From it was cut the pear shaped 530 ct Cullinan I diamond, also known as the Great Star of Africa, which is now set in the Royal Sceptre with Cross and housed with the other Crown Jewels in the Tower of London An anonymous second-century poet maintained that this birthstone for April warded off the evil eye – a malevolent look believed to cause sickness, poverty and even death.

The April birthstone was even believed to have healing powers. Over the centuries, the diamond birthstone was thought to be an antidote to poison and provide protection against the plague.

Some claim that it is a boon for longevity, strength, beauty and happiness.

In addition to being the April birthstone, diamond is the gift of choice for the 60th and 75th wedding anniversaries. And, of course, today the diamond engagement ring has become a near-universal symbol of love and marriage

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Aries's

Horoscope April 2021 Beautiful assets in your game! In your sign, the Sun up until the 19th, Mercury from the 5th to the 19th, and Venus to the 14th, gives you a warm and enthusiastic appreciation of your personality. Your ideas fuse, your charisma is certain, no matter what you undertake your chances of succeeding are strong. Mars, your planet, is in beautiful aspect to your sign until the 23rd and favors your contacts and your movements, plus your morale is excellent! You'll be more focused and calm after the 24th, Mars rolls into your area related to your home. Friendships are constructive and evolving especially for the last two decans. Your socioprofessional sector is still undergoing some changes, adapt, last decan. From the 20th, the Sun, Mercury and Venus in Taurus takes care of your financial business, it moves in the right direction!

For half of the month you feel in good shape and this has a positive impact on

11 your inner circle. You attract compliments, easy-going situations or people who suit you. You seduce as much by your well placed words as by your pleasant and seductive behaviors.

After the 20th, your charm seems to be elsewhere!

Harmony is at the rendezvous, your emotional life flows happily when you're close to your other half and this makes you well. A healthy libido animates you, enough to make you return to your home as soon as your work is done!

Demonstrative and warm until the 20th, you are more relaxed then quieter but still in love.

Your social melting pot and your neighborhood could well facilitate a quality meeting throughout the month, open your eyes! Energetic and enterprising your powerful words, until the 19th, could touch the heart of the person you covet. Go out, organize a trip, your chances are real!

This article is for entertainment purposes only. By reading this article, you understand that you are solely responsible for your actions, regardless of any information received from it. Information here or advice may or may not influence your beliefs and actions but in all cases and at all times you are the only responsible. Any reliance placed on the content is to be made at your own risk. We do not take liability for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising out of, or in connection with the use of the article.

12 A long read but of interest to anyone who loves history of old quilts and popular quilt patterns from 150+ years ago. Thinking about these heirlooms once quilted in log cabins, or on wagon trains headed west.

Many wild west topics discussed in the content below.

Courtesy of From Frontier Notes & A Quilting Stitchuation

Frontier Quilts From Home to Revolution In frontier America, quilts were a way for women to gain immortality. Quilters often called their quilts “diaries” or “albums” because they told stories and were tangible evidence of how a woman had lived her life, cared for her family, built a home, and took pride in her work.

Since women were often left out of written history, a quilt was a tangible legacy of her life that would remain on earth for generations after she was dead.

A quilt was her book, her needle was her pen.

Quilts not only played a role in personal histories, but in national history, as well. They documented the Civil War on both sides, struggles on the trail west, settling frontier homesteads, as well as the abolition movement, the suffragette movement, and the prohibition movement.

13 In 1800s America, women and girls of every age, class, racial and ethnic background sewed. Sewing and quilting were synonymous with womanhood and central to the role as woman of the house.

And, because time was so precious and work never ended, even socializing among women often took place around quilting bees, so women could sew and socialize at the same time.

Between 1840 and the Civil War, an era of great foment, loss, and movement of Americans to the West, friendship quilts were created in great numbers as commemorations of loved ones lost, of those who left to go West, never to be seen again. Sometimes many women would work on a friendship quilt together for one women and they would all sign their names on the quilt as a lasting remembrance of their friendship.

Westering pioneer women on wagon trains who made friends with fellow

Willa Cather travelers often made quilts for each other.

The first 1,000 miles of the main trail West were traveled by both Californiabound and Oregon-bound pioneers until they reached a point called “The Parting of the Ways,”just past the Continental Divide at South Pass. Then wagon trains split off going south to California or north to Oregon. Women had a thousand miles to create friendship quilts for dear friends on the trail, since they most likely Story continues page 14

14 would never see them again once they’d gone their separate ways. Such quilts often had visual motifs of the journey, such as Winding Way, Wagon Wheel, Wandering Foot, Snail’s Trail, Wild Rose, Indian Trail, Evening Star, Road to California, and Friendship. The Pin Wheel design reflected the power of the constant prairie wind that blew against the cloth-covered wagons. Some were more freeform and chronicled events they experienced on the trail: births, deaths, passing milestones along the way.

Signatures were inked in with dates, place and heartfelt words and sometimes embroidered over the ink.

Willa Cather, the famous Pulitzer

Quilting Bee Prize winning writer who captured so poignantly life on the frontier in “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia,” wrote of women quilters on the trail. She called quilts “good bye hugs in cloth” and “broken Hallelujahs” when they swaddled dead children and loved ones for burial on the trail. She added: “People live through such pain only once. Pain comes again—but finds a tougher surface.” Quilts meander through her writing like stitchery: “The oxen leaned into the yoke, pushing against the wood with their sinewy strength. Under the weight of the covered wagon, the iron rimmed wheels grated against the gravel cutting ruts of legacy.

At the beginning of the Oregon Trail, the wooden wagon could take a load of a ton and a half ...A toolbox on one end, water bucket on the other, and a grease bucket in between. Lying on the bottom... heavier supplies like a plow, spinning wheel, stove, bags of seed and a chest of

15 drawers... The top layer displayed the daily necessities: flour and salt, water keg, cooking pot, the Family Bible, a rifle, an ax, and a stack of handstitched, neatly tied, scrappy patchwork quilts.”

One pioneer woman who settled in Texas in the 1830s recalled “quiltin’ bees” where women might try “to out-rival each other in the daintiness of their stitches, but they also helped each other in every way. They helped each other!

Perhaps this justifies the whole of a pioneer woman’s suffering.”

Once native Americans were relegated to the reservations and Native children were forced into institutional boarding schools, Native American women began learning white sewing arts and quilting. But they integrated their own cultures into quiltmaking and introduced such motifs as Morning Star, Indian Hatchet, Indian Trail, Flying Geese, and other designs inspired by nature and animals. Hopi women began making baby-naming quilts, whereas before white

infringement, Hopi men wove the baby blankets.

Since Colonial times, women had created quilts for benevolent societies, the poor, church raffles, and social reform movements. As early as the 1830s abolitionist quilters were making antislavery quilts and holding handcraft fairs to raise money for the cause. The first Anti-Slavery Fair was held in Boston in 1834 and was so successful the idea spread throughout New England, then to the Midwest.

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17 The abolition movement brought quilting to a heightened art form not only in the anti-slavery narratives white quilt-makers told in their stitches, but some historians believe that black slaves sewed secret codes into their coverlets to navigate the Underground Railroad. Certain patterns like the Wagon Wheel, Tumbling Blocks, and Bear Paws, it is believed, contained secret messages that conveyed to slaves means of escape, routes, places of safety.

Likewise, white quiltmakers hung certain quilt designs to indicate messages to runaway slaves. A Log Cabin quilt hanging in a window with a black center for the chimney hole was said to indicate a safe house. A variation of Jacob's Ladder gave cues as to the safe path to freedom.

The Civil War activated women to rally for their respective causes, making quilts for wounded soldiers and hospitals. In the North, the U.S. Sanitary Commission called for quilts for hospitals. Their efforts were so prodigious, more than 300,000 quilts were created; one out of six Union soldiers was kept warm by a hand-sewn quilt!

After the Civil War, alcoholism and drug addiction to morphine and cocaine were at epidemic levels among men, especially those who had been wounded in the war.

Alcoholism was raging and ravaged families. Women, especially felt the brunt of alcoholism, as often their only livelihood dissipated in drink and women were left to make ends meet. It became such a serious social problem that women in both the North and the South joined in the temperance movement. And quilts were often a form of expression against “the scourge” and a way to raise money to fight it.

The women’s suffrage movement, also, found its voice in quilts. An irony, too, since quilts had long symbolized domestic femininity but now had taken on more rebellious symbols. The temperance movements and the suffrage movements were closely related in that so many women had found themselves being the sole breadwinners of their families because of male alcoholism and addiction, yet females did not even have the right to vote, own property, or defend themselves against domestic abuse. Thus, the suffrage movement was fueled by the temperance movement. Many a woman

Abigail Duniway

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19 Story courtesy National Park Service

George Washington & the Cherry Tree Few figures in American history are surrounded by myth as George Washington: he had wooden teeth, he was so strong he could throw a silver dollar across the Potomac, or that he wore a wig. What is perhaps the most enduring tale is he chopped down a cherry tree when he was a boy and told his dad the truth about it, in turn gaining the moral high ground that we should all aim for. This story is not so easily disproved.

The story goes that when Washington was six years old, he received a hatchet as a gift, after which he promptly went and cut down his father’s favorite cherry tree. When his father found out about it, he was understandably angry and confronted his son, asking if he had done it, to which little George replied that yes, indeed, he had done it. And with those brave words, father’s anger melted away and he embraced his son, exclaiming that his honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.

That sounds like a nice, uplifting story, but did it happen? Nobody knows for sure.

When Washington died in 1799, there Story continues next page

20 was a great demand around the country to learn more about our first national hero. Minister and itinerant bookseller Mason Locke Weems, more popularly known as Parson Weems, was more than willing to fulfill that need and in 1800 quickly wrote and published The Life of Washington, an immediate bestseller that cemented Washington’s legendary status.

It wasn’t until the book’s fifth edition in 1806 that the cherry tree story first made an appearance.

Though profit may have been high on Weems’ priority list in writing this biography, as a minister he wanted to teach morality, and the best way to do that was to show by example using the one individual everyone looked up to.

Washington’s admission of guilt was proof that his public greatness was due to his private virtues, to which anyone could aspire. Bringing in the father also served to add more depth to who George Washington was as a person. Though much was known and written about Washington’s military feats, very little was known about his relationship with his father, who had died when George was 11. The cherry tree example of a warm and generous relationship between father and son added strong emphasis to the character of the quickly-beingmythologized George Washington.

So is it true? Weems said he got the story from an elderly woman who had been friends with the family. Since she chose to remain anonymous it is an unreliable source. The official answer from both Ferry Farm, Washington’s childhood home where it would have occurred, and Mount Vernon, is no, it’s only a story. But, really, does it matter?

In 1861, on his way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C., newly-elected president Abraham Lincoln stopped to speak at the New Jersey Senate. He told them he had read a number of books growing up that taught him basic life lessons, Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, and Lessons in Elocution, to name just a few. But it was The Life of George Washington, he continued, that really sparked his imagination and showed “there must have been something more than common” in Washington and what he had stood for.

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Sugar Free Sweet Chilli Sauce Recipe 2 tbsp red chilli chopped 2 tsp ginger chopped 2 tsp garlic chopped (2 cloves) 1/2 cup / 120 ml apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup / 120g powdered sweetener 1/2 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce / tamari 1/2 cup / 120 ml hot water 1/4 tsp xanthan gum INSTRUCTIONS ● Chop the red chilli, ginger and garlic. Add them to a pan together with the apple cider vinegar, coconut aminos and powdered sweetener. ● Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and let the mix bubble away on a low heat for 5 minutes. ● Mix the hot water with the xanthan gum. Blend well so there are no lumps. Add to the pan and cook for another 5 minutes or until the desired consistency is reached. ● Be aware that the sauce will thicken further while it cools. ● Fill into a clean glass jar and let cool.

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Slow Cooker Keto

Taco Soup INGREDIENTS ● 2 lbs. ground beef (I used 85% lean) ● 3 cloves garlic, minced ● 1/2 cup onion, diced ● 2 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning ● 1 /2 teaspoon ancho chile powder ● 2 - 10 oz. cans Rotel with green chiles ● 8oz. block cream cheese ● 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped ● 4 cups beef broth

23 ● optional toppings (shredded cheese, jalapeno, and avocado) DIRECTIONS In a skillet on the stove, crumble and cook ground beef, diced onion, and garlic.

Transfer ground beef to Crockpot slow cooker. Add seasonings and remaining ingredients. ● Close lid and cook on low for 4 hours, or 2 hours on high. ● Serve with your choice of toppings.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Yield: 8 servings Serving Size: 1 serving Amount Per Serving: ● 326.2 Calories ● 17.8g Fat ● 7g Total Carbs ● 1.4g Fiber ● 0.1g Sugar Alcohol ● 32.3g Protein ● 5.6g Net Carbs

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RED CHILE PUMPKIN CHIFFON PIE CRUST INGREDIENTS ● 1 cup all-purpose flour ● 3 tablespoons unsalted butter ● 3 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening ● ½ teaspoon kosher salt ● 1 teaspoon sugar ● 3 to 6 tablespoons ice water FILLING INGREDIENTS ● 1 envelope (2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin ● ¼ cup very hot water ● 3 large eggs ● ⅔ cup sugar ● ½ teaspoon kosher salt ● ½ teaspoon cinnamon ● ½ teaspoon nutmeg

25 ● ½ teaspoon ground ginger ● 3 tablespoons (more or less) mild red chile powder ● 1 ¼ cups canned pumpkin ● ½ cup heavy cream CRUST DIRECTIONS ● In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. ● Using a pastry blender, your hands or two butter knives, quickly work the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal with some big, pea-sized chunks. ● Sprinkle the water 1 tablespoon at a time over the flour and mix with a fork or your hands. Add just enough water so that the mixture comes together and can be gathered into a ball. ● Press the ball into a thick disc, wrap the disc with plastic and refrigerate 20 minutes. ● Remove the chilled dough, and allow to rest at room temperature about 5 minutes. ● Roll it out into a round ⅛-inch thick, and transfer it to a pie pan, fluting the edges. ● Preheat the oven to 425°F. ● Refrigerate crust for another 20 minutes. ● Prick the crust all over with a fork, line the pie plate with a sheet of aluminum foil and weigh it down with dry beans. ● Bake for 10 minutes. ● Remove the foil and beans, lower the temperature to 350°F and bake until the crust is golden, 10 to 15 more minutes. ● Cool on a wire rack.

FILLING DIRECTIONS ● Pour the hot water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it, Continue page 28

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New Mexico Green Chili Stew "Our Experience, Your Advantage" INGREDIENTS ● 12 -15 hatch green chilies (if not available anaheim will work too) ● 2 lbs pork shoulder ● 2 tablespoons vegetable oil ● 1⁄2 cup onion, finely chopped ● 2 minced garlic cloves ● 1 -2 jalapeno, diced (only necessary if using anaheim chiles) ● 6 cups chicken broth

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● Broil green chiles in the oven turning often to evenly darken skin making sure they don't burn.

Personal Injury

● 3 large potatoes, diced ● 2 tablespoons butter ● 2 tablespoons flour ● DIRECTIONS

● Remove from oven and cover with a dish cloth for 10 minutes to steam the skins off. ● While the chiles are resting, cube the meat, sprinkle with salt & pepper and brown with onions & garlic in oil in a large pot for 5 minutes. ● add jalepeno, broth, half a can of beer, spices.bring to a simmer. ● let simmer for 1 hour. ● Peel skin from chiles, chop and add to the pot (including the seeds). ● Let simmer for 30 minutes then add the tomatoes & potatoes (add a cup of hot water if needed). ● Simmer until potatoes are done. ● melt butter in a small skillet & add flour, cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly -- add to the pot.

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● stirring vigorously until the gelatin is completely dissolved. ● Separate eggs, putting the yolks into the top of a double boiler (or if you don’t have one, a large stainless steel bowl that you place over a pot of boiling water).

28 ● Put the whites into the bowl of a standing electric mixer. Before heating the yolks over the boiling water, add ⅓ cup sugar to the yolks and whisk until the mixture is thick, creamy and pale yellow. ● Add the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, red chile and dissolved gelatin. (Don’t worry about clumps in the gelatin—they’ll dissolve when the mixture is heated.) ● Start heating the water in the double boiler, or if you’re using a large bowl instead, set the bowl over a pan of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water. ● Stir constantly until the mixture thickens considerably and thickly coats the back of a spoon. ● Remove the yolk mixture from the heat and whisk in the pumpkin until combined. ● Set the bowl over another larger bowl of ice water. Whisk the mixture about 5 minutes or longer, if you can. ● Remove the bowl from the ice water and chill in the refrigerator. ● In the standing mixer (or using a hand mixer) beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. ● Add the sugar slowly, and continue beating until the soft peaks become satiny and stiff. ● Scrape the egg whites out into a small bowl. Using a chilled mixing bowl and beaters, whip the cream until medium peaks form. Gently fold the pumpkin mixture into the whipped cream, then into the egg whites. Scoop the mixture into the prepared crust and chill, covered, for 4 hours or overnight. Serve garnished with additional whipped cream.

Serves 8 people

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personal tidbits about Billy the Kid

Name: William Henry McCarty.

Teenage name: Kid Antrim (his stepfather was named Antrim).

Outlaw name: William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid Nickname: Kid Birthdate: Unknown (1859-61) Date of death: July 14, 1881 (shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett) Place of birth: Unknown (possibly New York or Indiana) Story continues page 32

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Family: Father, unknown. Mother, Catherine McCarty/Antrim. HalfBrother, Joseph McCarty /Antrim.

Step-father, William Henry Harison Antrim.

Height: 5’8’’ Weight: 140 lbs Eyes: Clear Blue Hair: Sandy Blonde to Light Brown Marital Status: Single. The Kid never married, but he had plenty of girlfriends. It's possible he may have fathered a child or two out of wedlock (with which girlfriend is anyone's guess), but this possibility is only built on rumor and gossip. So far no evidence supports any claim that Billy the Kid fathered a child.

Childhood background: Billy the Kid's father died or left his mother when he was very young. The Kid may not have even known his father. Throughout his childhood he lived in Indiana, Kansas, and Colorado before his family settled in Silver City, New Mexico. When the Kid was 13-14 years old, his mother died in 1874. He and his younger Joseph brother were placed by their step-father into separate foster homes and abandoned. A year after his mother's death, the Kid got involved in petty theft and was arrested. He escaped and began his outlaw journey.

Personality traits: Great sense of humor, intelligent, good-natured and generous. Optimistic, determined, cunning and reckless.

He was dependable and would risk his life for those he cared about.

His faults were stubborness and a

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“they’ll-never-catch-me” attitude, which resulted Billy pushing his luck to its limits. He had a tendency to trust the wrong people and rarely heeded the advice of his friends. His greatest mistake was not leaving the territory after his jailbreak; he had more than enough time before Sheriff Garrett caught up with him. Due to his notable good qualities, most friends and acquaintances believed that if Billy the Kid had gotten a decent start in life, he never would've became an outlaw.

Favorite Songs: “Silver Threads Among the Gold” and “Turkey in the Straw.”

Favorite type of dancing: Polkas and Square dancing.

Hobbies and interests: Singing and dancing, the Kid loved to party.

He enjoyed gambling and his favorite card games were Monte and Poker. He also loved to bet on and participate in horse racing.

Target-shooting was another favorite past-time and he enjoyed showing off to his friends his guntwirling abilities. He could take two revolvers, one in each hand, twirl one gun in one direction and the other in the opposite direction at the same time. In his more quiet moments, he used leisure time to meticulously clean his firearms, and he was an avid reader.

Firearms he used: Billy the Kid was known to use the Colt single action .44 and Colt double-action .41 caliber called the “Thunderer.”

He may have also used the .38 caliber version called the “Lightning.” His weapon of choice, and the most prized, was his Winchester 73 rifle.

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PAT & MIKE A short story by Julie Lloyd

Pat and Mike lived for a few months on what is now called South Bookout Lane in the rental house on the north side of my Grandma Preston. Pat was six or seven years old and Mike was her younger brother who was five.

They lived with Ruth Dean, their mother, and Joe, their step-father.

Their half-sister, a baby named Carol, who was just over a year old, was also part of the family.

My grandmother, a short, plump, quiet person, seldom spoke a bad word about anyone.

However, on occasion, she mentioned that the young girl and boy were treated quite harshly at times, but she gave no specifics.

When the family suddenly moved, Grandma was visibly relieved to see them gone. She did not know where they had moved.

A few evenings later, my Dad who was the Waterboss, was

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driving home along the narrow, isolated dirt road from the Upper Diversion Dam above Tularosa Village. The sun hung low in the western sky. Dusk had fallen, making visibility difficult.

Halfway down the road he saw a young boy trudging along carrying a quart jar of water, a paper sack, and crying. Recognizing that it was Mike, Dad stopped alongside the child.

“Hi there, young fellow. Why the tears? Are you lost? Do you need a ride?”

Mike looked up. He wiped his tear-streaked face.

“My Dad was mad because I didn’t get all the weeds cut out of the ditch back of the house today.

He brought me up here and dumped me.” The boy choked on his sobs, then went on. “He said I wasn’t worth having around the house anymore. He gave me a jar of water and a sandwich. When he left me here he said to go find another place to live. Then he drove away down the road.” Tears streamed down his small face.

Dad took the jar of water and sack from Mike, helped him into the pickup, assuring the frightened child they would figure out what to do.

He put the pickup into gear, slowly driving on down the isolated dirt road. As he rounded the corner of the road, he saw another vehicle parked. He recognized the man sitting inside and softly urged Mike to duck down in the seat so that he could not be seen. Mike lay down on the seat beside him. Dad smiled and Story continues page 39

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gave a short acknowledging wave to the man in the other pickup as he drove past, speeding up on his way down the road.

Mike couldn’t explain where he lived so Dad brought him home with him. He explained to Eileen, his wife, what had happened.

“Oh, my God!” Eileen exclaimed. “What kind of monster would do that to a little kid?” She blurted angrily. “That man is demented!” Her voice softened as she turned to Mike. “You must be tired and hungry. Would you like to have something to eat with us?

We are about to have supper. Then I will call your mother if you have a phone.”

Mike sniffled, nodding in agreement.

Eileen called Mike’s mother.

The decision was made to leave Mike at our house overnight. He stayed there a few days until developing a fever and Eileen insisted he be returned to his mother. He recovered. I often wondered what happened with Mike. Not long after this incident, the family left town. I never heard anything more about them.

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Tongue Twisters ● An undertaker undertook to undertake an undertaking. The undertaking that the undertaker undertook was the hardest undertaking the undertaker ever undertook to undertake. ● Wilson whittles well-whittled wood whittle by whittle. ● Please prepare the paired pared pears near the unprepared pears near the pool. ● Ninety-nine knitted knick-nacks were nicked by ninety-nine knitted knick-nack nickers. ● Mummies munch much mush; Monsters munch much mush; Many mummies and monsters Must munch much mush. ● he fickle finger of fate flips fat frogs flat. ● A cheeky chimp chucked cheap chocolate chips in the cheap chocolate chip shop. ● Betty Botter had some butter, "But," she said, "this butter's bitter.

If I bake this bitter butter, It would make my batter bitter.

But a bit of better butter, That would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter – Better than her bitter butter – And she baked it in her batter; And the batter was not bitter.

So 'twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

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The first recorded postal delivery in the Tularosa Basin started in 1868 and delivered mail once a month via horseback from Mesilla, just south of modern day Las Cruces. The route lasted 18 months.

Five years later a stage route from Las Vegas to Mesilla passed through Tularosa three times a week, and when it did it brought the mail. Within the decade there were postal routes and offices established in modern day Mayhill and Weed.

By the time the Tularosa Basin became part of the newly established Otero County in January 1899, the railroad carried the mail throughout the basin and Sacramento Mountain communities.

Shortly after the first plots of former ranchland were assessed and staked into the town of Alamogordo, in the spring of 1898, the town received its first postmaster, Frank M. Rhomberg, a jeweler and merchant, formerly of

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La Luz. A corner of Rhomberg’s new store served as the town’s first post office, located on the corner of Pennsylvania and 10th Street.

Over the next few years there would be a series of postmasters that served the town, and with each change of leadership the

1868 POSTAGE STAMP location of the Alamogordo post office changed locations to follow suit. In the early years, Alamogordo’s post office would have two acting female postmasters (postmistress was the title at the time), Catherine O’Reilly from 1918 to 1920, and Frances Burch from 1933 to 1935, at which time Washington, D.C. formally appointed Burch as postmaster of Alamogordo.

1938 proved to be a boom year for the town’s postal service. In mid-May, the U.S. Postal Service held National Air Mail week to highlight this new method of mail delivery, and Alamogordo was on one of the scheduled routes.

On May 19, at 9:30 a.m., a plane landed at the Alamogordo airport Story continues page 46

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carrying mail from El Paso, and was greeted by a sizeable crowd, as well as the town’s high school band.

The plane promptly crashed on landing, though the pilot emerged uninjured and gave a brief speech to the awaiting crowd. All outbound mail for El Paso that day was sent by truck.

That same year Washington, D.C. approved both the funding and location for a new federal building in Alamogordo, at the corner of New York Avenue and 11th Street, that would house the town’s new post office, along with several other federal agencies. The region, still racked by the Great Depression, was given a bit of a windfall by the sourcing of labor and materials to build this new structure.

Additionally, as part of the New Deal work program, the WPA, artist Peter Hurd from San Patricio, New Mexico painted a stunning pair of frescos in the lobby of the building, titled Sun and Rain; Sorgum; Yucca, which remains to this day as a testament to the talent and spirit of the times.

While both ubiquitous and somewhat antiquated by modern standards of communications, the postal service in the Tularosa Basin has developed in lock step with the people that chose to eke out a life in and amongst the enchanting and unforgiving desert plains of southern New Mexico.

Story courtesy of Jeffrey A. Weiler is a volunteer docent at the Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum of History

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HOW MESILLA DETERMINED THE DESTINY OF BILLY THE KID

By Karla Draksler

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Billy The Kid, one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West, was tried and sentenced in Mesilla, New Mexico, in 1881 and the events that followed were a turning point in his destiny.

David G. Thomas, a local historian and an author, has been following Billy’s story for years, having found many interesting details about his trial and sentence.

He said Billy was brought to Mesilla from Santa Fe to be tried for crimes that he was charged with in Lincoln County, about 250 miles northeast of Mesilla.

The courthouse in the town of Mesilla is a brick-and-mortar reminder of the Wild West history and now it stands as a gift shop dedicated to Billy The Kid. Charles Rogers, owner of Billy The Kid Gift Shop, took over the store from his parents, who have been in business for 50 years.

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“The reaction of people coming in, they love the history — they love Billy the Kid,” said Rogers, explaining how intrigued people are with his story. He said he sometimes shares stories about Billy that he had learned as a child growing up in the area.

“My family had a ranch at White Sands. I always heard of the stories of Billy the Kid riding the horses around, jumping off, jumping over to another ranch, riding along,” remembered Rogers.

He said that he plans on keeping the store to preserve the history that lives with it. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said. “The minute it demolishes, falls down, goes away, goes into disrepair, the history of that building — the courthouse, the capitol building, Billy the Kid, old bars, Pancho Villa — all the history disappears.”

Billy, known by his pseudonym of William H. Bonney, was said to have killed 21 people, one for each year of his life. But, in truth, he killed five people, including Sheriff Brady from Lincoln County.

Thomas said Brady had a warrant out for his arrest for killing a man. Billy caught him and killed him, thinking he was doing authorities a favor. But what he didn’t know is that the governor had arbitrarily annulled the warrant for Brady’s arrest with no one knowing, so Billy got charged for murder.

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56 The Lincoln County judge then sent Billy to Mesilla for trial, even though he is supposed to be tried in the county where the crime was committed.

According to Thomas, the judge knew no one there would know the circumstances of Brady’s murder, which would ensure Billy’s death sentence.

“The trial was really a farce, he was completely railroaded,” explained Thomas.

Billy was not able to appeal his sentence because the Supreme Court in the area wouldn’t meet for another three months, long after he was set for hanging.

After being sentenced to death, Billy was transported to Lincoln County to await his hanging. But not long after he got there, he had managed to escape, killing two guards on the way. “[His story] resonates today partly because of this existential question: how far are you willing to go to save your life if you have been unjustly pursued by the government?” asked Thomas.

Billy was murdered 15 days after escaping jail by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garret, who had been chasing him around for years.

Mesilla was a turning point in Billy’s destiny, telling two different stories: the one of an outlaw and the one of a man unjustly treated by the government, Thomas said.

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It’s our Privilege to serve our community’s young families and teens with the challenges of unplanned pregnancies.

BILLY THE KID’S FAVORITE SONG

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Proceeds benefit the

1500 N White Sands Blvd | Alamogordo 575-437-1944 | Mon - Sat 9-5 202 Burro Ave | Cloudcroft 575-682-5524 | Mon - Sat 10-5

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"Silver Threads Among the Gold", first copyrighted in 1873, was a popular song in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it is a standard of barbershop quartet singing.

The lyrics are by Eben E. Rexford, and the music by Hart Pease Danks.

When Rexford spoke about the song, he explained that he worked his way through college by writing, and it was when he was in college that Danks sent him a request for lyrics, offering to pay three dollars for each song. Rexford submitted nine songs and received $18.00, but no accounting of which six had been accepted or which three had been rejected. In telling the story of the song, Rexford said that he didn't know whether he had been paid $3.00 for it or nothing, since he didn't know if it had been among the six accepted or the three rejected. Rexford first heard the song when a company of Oneida Indians gave a concert in Shiocton, Wisconsin, and sang it there.

The sheer popularity of the song can be illustrated, among other ways, by news stories which continued to reference it for many years. For example, in 1932, it won a poll of WABC (AM) (New York) listeners asked to name their favorite songs, despite its being 60 years old.

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62 Green is the color of spring and has long symbolized love and rebirth. As the gem of Venus, it is also considered to aid in fertility.

Cleopatra, Egypt’s tempestuous female monarch, was as famous for wearing Emeralds as Liz Taylor is for wearing diamonds. Ancient Egyptian mummies were often buried wearing an Emerald carved with the symbol of verdure – flourishing greenness – on their necks to symbolize eternal youth.

A deeper and more vivid color of green signifies a more valuable gemstone. The most valuable and beautiful Emeralds exhibit an intense bluish hue in addition to their bold green color. Emeralds, among the rarest of gems, are almost always found with birthmarks, also known as inclusions. Some inclusions are expected and do not detract from the value of the stone as much as with other gemstones.

June Birthstone - Pearl Throughout human history, mankind has admired and worshipped pearls.

Persian mythology referred to pearls as the “tears of the gods,” while ancient Chinese legend claimed the moon held the power to create pearls, instilling them with its celestial glow and mystery.

Pearls are unique because they are the only gemstone formed within a living creature. Since natural pearls are rare and difficult to recover from the ocean’s depths, man invented the technique of culturing salt and freshwater pearls from mollusks carefully seeded with irritants similar to those produced by nature.

Cultured pearls come in many beautiful colors, ranging from pale cream and white to rose, lilac, green, gold, gray and black. There are four main types of cultured pearls — Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian and Freshwater — each with unique qualities that separates it from the others.

63 Today, pearls are both classic and contemporary; a strand of white pearls can be timeless but a bracelet of chocolate pearls is more modern. No matter the color or size, pearls can be worn every day or can complement the most formal attire.

July Birthstone - Ruby The Ruby represents love, passion, courage and emotion. For centuries, this gem has been considered the king of all gems. It was believed that wearing a fine red Ruby bestowed good fortune upon its owner. Rubies have been the prized possession of emperors and kings throughout the ages, and to this day remain the most valued gemstone.

A Ruby’s color is its most important feature. Rubies are available in a range of hues from purplish and bluish red to orange-red. The brightest and most valuable color of Ruby is often “a Burmese Ruby” — a rich, passionate, hot, full red color with a slight blue hue.

This color is often referred to as “pigeon blood” red, a Ruby color only associated with the Mogok Valley mines in Myanmar. The color Pigeon Blood Ruby red is not associated with the color of a pigeon’s blood but rather the color of a white pigeon’s eye.

A Spring Poem A warming of the Earth has given wind her breath To breathe new life to grass and trees to waken them from death.

Now they come alive again and bees come out to fly Rejoicing with the flowers that pollinate the sky.

It always happens in the spring when life begins to breed.

Respond to warmth as Nature does and fulfill an urgent need.

Glori Marie.

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Kachina dolls, also knowns as katsina dolls, are symbolic and ceremonial Native American gifts.

Traditionally given to Hopi girls during infancy and as they grow up, the dolls are a significant aspect of Native American culture.

Understanding the history, meaning, and value of these dolls is an important part of really appreciating their beauty.

Kachina dolls are not toys.

Instead, they signify an important connection between Southwestern Native American tribes and the powers of nature. The oldest known figure is from the 1700s. They were sold to tourists beginning in the 1800s and continue to be a very collectible type of Native American art.

The word "kachina" comes from the Hopi word "kachi," which means "spirit." Kachina dolls symbolize Ketsinam, or spirits of nature. Tribes of the Southwest believed that aspects of nature could be personified by Ketsinam. These include rain, crops, animals, ancestors, and more. Men of the tribe would dress up as these Ketsinam during ceremonies and perform dances, and the carved dolls symbolize the various Ketsinam.

The main tribe using Kachina dolls is the Hopi; however, other tribes also use them. The Aguna, Zuni, and Laguna Pueblos include Kachina dolls in their cultural heritage. Today, the Navajo also carve these dolls.

Kachina dolls are made of cottonwood root, since cottonwood trees are known for their ability to find water even in dry climates. This symbolizes the conduit the Kachina doll become between the people and the spirits. The cottonwood root is also easy to carve, and most of the oldest dolls were carved from a single cottonwood root. Today, the dolls are often made from multiple pieces of cottonwood. After they are carved,

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the dolls get the following decorations: ● Overall whitewash ● Detailed painting of decorations and facial features ● Clothing that is painted on or created from fabric ● A ruff around the neck ● Jewelry that is painted or made of metal and other materials ● Handheld objects or props, such as rattles, knives, and tools ● Decorations of fur or feathers Many dolls are carved in the position of dancing or action, according to the Katsinam they represent. They often hold the tools or props associated with their Katsinam. According to Pueblo Direct, there are more than 250 different types of Kastsinam with associated Kachina dolls. These are some of them: ● Hoop dancer - This entertainer holds hoops & amuses audiences. ● Eagle - This doll represents the ruler of the sky and features feathered wings. ● Black ogre - This Kachina threatens naughty children, and his doll features a black head with large eyes and spikes or feathers. ● Deer - Symbolizing abundant food, the deer Kachina doll has a headdress with antlers. ● Crow mother - Watching over children in their play, the crow mother has a headdress with crow wings. ● Buffalo - This powerful Kachina can kill bad thoughts and wears a buffalo headdress.

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Lozen was a Chiricahua Apache warrior born in the late 1840s. The younger sister of the famous leader Victorio and a leader in her own right, she began riding horses at age seven.

Lozen learned the Apache art of war as taught to her by her brother, and fought with other Apache warriors in skirmishes in the states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Chihuahua. Throughout her life, she was never interested in the traditional roles of Apache women, never married a man, and was described as being more masculine than other men in her tribe.

When she was not accompanying the men in raiding parties, she would engage in the rough games of the men and earned their respect as an athlete. Victorio described her as “my right hand” and “a shield to her people.”

Lozen was a renowned medicine woman, possessing extensive knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and minerals. She was also famous for her ability to detect her enemies by means of a ritual in which she sang, extended her arms, and turned in a circle until the palms of her hands tingled, a sign that let her know from which direction they were approaching.

She eluded her capture many times until she was finally surrounded alongside Geronimo in 1886. She died as a prisoner of war at Mount Vernon in Mobile, Alabama of tuberculosis at age 50, never to see her homeland in the Southwestern USA ever again.

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Discover Tularosa

Story courtesy National Park Service

Jornada Mogollon The Jornada Mogollon is the name archaeologists use to identify the people who lived in the Tularosa Basin after the Archaic period, which ended almost 2,000 years ago. The Jornada Mogollon was a group of farmers living in houses in small villages throughout the southwest. At first, they lived in pithouses. Pithouses are circular houses dug out of the ground and framed with wood beams.

Later, Jornada Mogollon peoples began to build square houses using adobe mud to construct walls. Being a farmer in the Tularosa Basin desert must have been hard. There was little rainfall to rely on and the desert sun was harsh. The Jornada Mogollon in the Tularosa Basin farmed, but they still had to hunt and gather local resources to make sure they Story continues page 70

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Range of the Jornado Mogollon could survive. The most significant technological difference in the archaeological record between the Archaic to the Jornada Mogollon is the switch from woven fiber baskets to clay pottery. Identifying broken pieces of pottery is one of the ways archaeologists are able to identify Jornada Mogollon sites. The second technological advancement was the introduction of the bow and arrow.

Jornado Mogollon Pottery Shard

Arrows were even lighter and thinner than spears from the Paleoindian and Archaic periods. Bows could propel these arrows with greater accuracy and speed over long distances. Speed, distance, and accuracy are especially important in relationship to the primary game animals

71 the Jornada Mogollon hunted: deer, rabbits, and birds.

We currently know of several Jornada Mogollon villages that existed throughout the Tularosa Basin, including two on White Sands National Monument: Lake Lucero and Huntington Site.

Jornado Mogollon Pottery The sheer number of artifacts surrounding these sites suggests that these were incredibly important villages.

They are strategically situated along Lake Lucero’s shoreline and the Alkali Flat. This would position them to be near fresh water, as water flows down from the San Andres Mountains especially during heavy rainfall.

This area is also near the salt and gypsum deposits left behind from Lake Otero. Salt is an incredibly important mineral for a healthy diet. It can also be used as a preservative to keep foods from spoiling. There is some evidence that the rich gypsum dunefield was used as a source of plaster for the walls of adobe houses, much like gypsum sheet rock is used to construct houses across the United States today. In addition, the large, gypsum crystals like those found at Lake Lucero were used as window panes in some Pueblo villages in the Tularosa Basin and northern New Mexico.

Can you imagine a life before modern conveniences, like refrigerators and air conditioning? The Jornada Mogollon people faced the same types of issues as we do today causing them to be creative and use all of the resources around them.

They built homes to protect themselves from the elements.

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72 The thick, adobe walls were particularly helpful as insulation against the heat and cold. The salt around them helped to keep meat fresh and their bodies healthy. Their creativeness is seen even in their painted pottery, which they sometimes traded for beautiful shell and turquoise beads to wear as jewelry.

While the landscape of White Sands National Monument has not changed significantly since the large dunefields formed, the ways humans interact with that landscape has changed quite dramatically. Today, visitors to the monument enjoy the sands as a recreation area, perfect for sledding, hiking, and building sand castles. However, 2,000 years ago people traveled this expansive landscape to harvest plants and hunt animals, collect salt and water, and possibly to process gypsum plaster.

Approximately 600 to 700 years ago, the Jornada Mogollon moved out of their villages in the Tularosa Basin, perhaps in response to poor crop yields or insufficient rain, and they did not return.

Pottery Examples

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Discover Carrizozo

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THE EGG VENDING MACHINE!!!

Mike Lagg is working on a Rube Goldberg type device that will deliver a fresh egg for the price of a dollar. The nine chickens and one rooster that support the machine live in a room at the old Cibola Hotel on 12th Street in downtown Carrizozo.

Continue next page

82 The machine is still in the incubation phase, so in the meantime Mike is decimating his surplus eggs via curbside pickup.

Mike Lagg is a woodworking artisan who is noted for his beautiful wood doors which grace homes all over Carrizozo.

Mike along with his partner, Paula Wilson, purchased the Lyric Complex'u several years ago. The property consists of a Theater, a 5000 sq foot studio space, and the Cibolo Hotel. MoMAZoZo, along with Mike and Paula's respective studios, exist there. The complex'u is a work in progress with many art projects in motion.

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NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE PHOTOS OF THE YEAR

From the day we took stock of this year’s photo contest entries—1,387 images submitted by 136 photographers—the judging promised to be tough.

It got even tougher at the end, when days and hours of contemplation had yielded a dozen or so shots in each category, and the judges argued out differences in style, technique, emotional heft, and—wait, was that a dust mote on the camera lens?

In a very few cases, “no” came down to such smack-your-head oversights. And that’s only because the overall quality sailed so high. “Even eighth place is so well composed. Every one of these images is nice,” judge Gabriella Marks said toward the end of the final round.

In an era when pretty much everyone has at least a phone camera in their pocket and credible digital kits fall below $1,000, photography has never been more accessible. But the photos in this 19th edition of the contest reach far beyond snapshots. Consider our Grand Prize winner, Ron Cooper.

The Colorado Springs resident works as a management consultant but has a Continue next page

84 side hustle running a portrait studio,

through which he’s conducted formal sessions with Native dancers, cowboys, ranchers, and reenactors. Lauren “Greyhawk” Maestas-Chavez is an Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo member, dressed for the Comanche dance he has performed for years at the pueblo’s feast days. Cooper waited for that moment when, eyes closed, Maestas-Chavez’s face was conveying a silent tumult of emotion, culture, and history.

LANDSCAPES CATEGORY 1st Place: The Moon over Cabezón Peak, Jim Stein “Each year I look forward to my brother visiting New Mexico. His visits are an opportunity for us to travel around and photograph the unique places that the state has to offer.

On this day we decided to head to Cabezón to explore the various volcanic features of the area. We were hoping for one of those epic sunsets to materialize, but there was not a cloud in the sky. We were about to head home just as the sun was going down.

Suddenly we saw this scene with the moon rising above the sunlit peak. This is the magic that is New Mexico.” —Jim Stein

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ANIMALS CATEGORY 1st Place: Mates, Robert Bellospirito “The sun was rising as fog blanketed the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. I was experimenting with different shutter speeds to try to capture the look I wanted—that combination of stillness and movement.

I settled on 1/20th of a second so everything ‘still’ would be clear, and everything ‘moving’ would have just the right amount of detail. I was very pleased to see that the image contained these two still cranes, because sandhill cranes mate for life.” —Robert Bellospirito

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Discover the Sacramentos High Rolls * Cloudcroft * Mayhill * Weed * Timberon * Pinon

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Mexicans who settled in the Tularosa Basin in the mid-1880s obtained water rights to graze cattle in the fertile canyons of the Sacramento Mountains.

By the 1880s, homesteaders discovered the area, bought the water rights and began establishing farms.

David M. Sutherland located in the High Rolls area in 1883 and was soon followed

by Francisco Maes and Cipriano Tefoya, who came up from La Luz in 1884 and settled in the Mountain Park area. P.M. “Uncle Button” Nelson, Jack Tucker and William Karr married sisters and moved into the region in 1885.

Other early settlers included I.Q. Snow, Hamilton Kimberlin, Michael Mulchay, George Van Sickle, Eugene Sullivan, Fletcher and James Thompson, J.M. Bennett, Venturo Giron, George Wofford, Charlie McClure, Antonio Vargas and Ben Wooten.

They built and maintained ditches to divert the Fresnal Canyon water to their crops and built the first dirt road from Fresnal to La Luz. Fresnal, later known as Wooten, had the first post office in the area, established in 1894.

The coming of the railroad in 1898 opened up the area for the shipment of goods to market and development of the tourist trade. By 1899, trains went as far as Toboggan Canyon, where pas-sengers were transferred to stagecoaches for the final miles to Cloudcroft. Freight depots Continue next page

88 and Wells Fargo offices were built in both High Rolls and Mountain Park. The railroad operated on a regular basis until World War II. It finally ceased operation in 1948.

The first official use of the High Rolls name was in 1901, when the post office was moved from Fresnal (Wooten) to High Rolls. The name, which was sometimes spelled as one word, Highrolls, supposedly came from the shape and elevation of the area as compared to the sharper peaks higher up.

Mountain Park received its name from Edgar Cadwallader, who came there in 1903 with the intent to grow fruit and vegetables. Others settled in the area and the resulting orchards produced apples, cherries, peaches, pears, cauliflower, and cabbage. It became so successful that the post office was moved there from High Rolls in 1904.

Other activities in the High Rolls/Mountain Park area included a poultry farm, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop and a shingle mill run by water from the Fresnal stream. The Courtney Mine shipped copper ore from its location 4 miles south of High Rolls.

The first store was the High Rolls Mercantile Store, built in 1905, and it is still standing on Railroad Drive in High Rolls to this day. The original area school was a log cabin built in 1889. A school in Haynes Canyon was built in 1908 and the rock school in Karr Canyon was built in 1922 using some of the lumber from the old Haynes Canyon school. Although designed for indoor plumbing none was installed until 1944, because some school board members believed it was unnecessary.

The first church building was constructed of logs in 1888. In 1906, the Fresnal Baptist Church was built in Haynes Canyon. It is the present High Rolls/Mountain Park United Methodist Church, now a state historical site.

The High Rolls Development Company was formed in 1909 and built a threestory hotel with 25 rooms, which opened in 1912. The company also constructed about 50 guest cottages for summer visitors. Over the years, the hotel served as a tuberculosis sanitarium and later as a

89 retreat for Jesuit priests. Finally, the hotel was dismantled, with part staying and becoming a private residence while other parts became homes in Alamogordo.

Of the 50 cottages, only about six remain, all remodeled and added to, on what was known as Cottage Row. The 160 acre Skyline Ranch of the YMCA was a well-known feature of the region from its start in 1908 as Camp Mescalero until it was sold and became private property in the 1980s.

Probably the best known native of the area is Bill Mauldin, nationally syndicated cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize winner known for his wartime cartoons often featuring Willie and Joe. Mauldin was born and raised in Mountain Park and his first cartoon appeared in the Alamogordo High School newspaper.

Bill Mauldin became a celebrated cartoonist during World War II when he created the dogface soldiers Willie and Joe, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1959, and wrote a best selling book, Up Front.

In the late 1950s, he began working as an editorial cartoonist, first for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and then the Chicago Sun-Times newspapers, finding a new audience among people in favor of civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1962.

A hand injury led to his retirement from cartoon drawing in 1991.

A few months before the March on Washington, Mauldin commented on the long and painful struggle for civil rights by portraying a young black man climbing his way through a thorny rose bush to reach for the rose at the top, labeled “Equality.”

Published just four days before the march, another of Mauldin’s cartoon shows thousands of demonstrators marching toward a powder keg labeled “Washington, D.C.,” representing both the inevitability of the March on Washington and the fear in the minds of many that such a large crowd could only lead to violent outcome. In reality, when the huge march took place on the mall, it was the largest peaceful demonstrations in U.S. history.

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pache women often accompanied parties of warriors on raids, responded to the call to arms, counseled with the men in battle strategy, met with enemies in peace negotiations and served as shamans in spiritual quests. They acted with stunning courage and ferocity.

Gouyen was born in 1857, into the Chihenne band of Chiricahua Apache.

Her Indian name was Góyą́ń meaning the one who is wise, or Wise Woman.

There is a story of Gouyen bravery, passed down in Apache history. Her husband was killed in a Comanche, raid while he was visiting the Mescalero Apaches. Gouyen tracked down the Comanche chief who had murdered and scalped her husband.

She found her prey celebrating his conquest in a victory dance around a nighttime campfire with his band.

Somehow Gouyen stole right into the heart of the camp, into the middle of the celebration. She lured the chief, staggeringly drunk, into the night.

93 She pounced on him like a mountain lion, ripping out his throat with her teeth.

She then stabbed him and scalped him with his own knife. She stole his headband, breechclout and moccasins.

She escaped on the chief’s black stallion, returning to her people, numb with exhaustion, but triumphant.

Gouyen, said her chief, "is a brave and good woman. She has done a braver thing than has any man among the Mescaleros. She has killed the Comanche chief; and she has brought his weapons and garments to her people. She has ridden his mount. Let her always be honored by my people."

Gouyen’s coup held extraordinary importance because it gave a measure of revenge against the Comanches, who had driven the Mescaleros and other Apache groups from the Great Plains during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Later, Gouyen fought in a skirmish against a party of miners who had encamped near Cooke’s Peak, in southwestern New Mexico. "There was a shot and Suldeen [an Apache warrior] fell from his horse," James Kaywaykla, Gouyen’s son, told Eve Ball in an interview for her book In the Days of Victorio: Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache. "Kaytennae [Gouyen’s second husband and Kaywaykla’s step-father] leaped to the ground and dropped into an arroyo.

Mother followed, with me behind her.

Before we could overtake Kaytennae, she had her rifle in readiness. We heard two shots and knew that [Kaytennae] had accounted for two (miners). As we passed the mouth of a side arroyo I saw the shadow of a rifle move. ‘Indah!’ (‘White Man!’) I shouted. Kaytennae was racing toward us, but it was Mother who got the first shot. There was no need for another."

Kaywaykla said, "…my mother’s place was at [Kaytennae’s] side. She prepared food, dressed wounds, and when necessary fought beside him as bravely as any man."

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Discover Lincoln County

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Roswell UFO Courtesy WEIRD NEWS 08/06/2012

The 1947 UFO controversy of Roswell, N.M. is like a bad penny: It keeps turning up. The legend, rehashed by conspiracy theorists in countless documentaries, revolves around allegations that an unusual object fell from the sky — an object so bizarre that the U.S. Air Force issued a press release that a flying saucer had crashed.

That story was quickly recanted, creating what would become one of the greatest urban legends in American history.

Until now, most debunkers doubted that there was even one crash. Now, in an exclusive interview, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard French told The Huffington Post that there were actually two crashes.

This revelation is especially remark-

99 able considering that French was known in the past to debunk UFO stories.

“There were actually two crashes at Roswell, which most people don’t know,” French told HuffPost. “The first one was shot down by an experimental U.S. airplane that was flying out of White Sands, N.M., and it shot what was effectively an electronic pulse-type weapon that disabled and took away all the controls of the UFO, and that’s why it crashed.”

French,an Air Force pilot who was in Alamagordo, N.M., in 1947, being tested in an altitude chamber, an annual requirement for rated officers — was very specific in how the military allegedly brought down what he believes was a spacecraft from another world.

“When they hit it with that electromagnetic pulse — bingo! — there goes all their electronics and, consequently, the UFO was uncontrollable,” said French, who flew hundreds of combat missions in Korea and Southeast Asia, and who held several positions working for Military Intelligence.

Another retired officer doubts French’s story.

“No chance! Zero chance!” said Army Col. John Alexander, whose own topsecret clearance gave him access in the 1980s to official documents and UFO accounts. He created a top-level group of government officials and scientists who Story continues next page

100 determined that, while UFOs are real, they couldn’t find evidence of an official cover-up.

“In the 1980s, I was the guy developing all of the pulse-power weapons systems. We couldn’t have done it then. In the 60s, they had a laser system, but your range was extremely limited, and we didn’t have operational laser weapons in that time frame,” said Alexander, who is working to get amnesty for military personnel who wish to talk about their UFO experiences.

Except for the initial newspaper headline declaring the military had captured a flying saucer outside of Roswell, the Air Force closed the books on Roswell, claiming that the true identity of the object was a high-altitude surveillance balloon, code-named “Mogul.”

But after eyewitnesses — including numerous military personnel — began to tell stories of their participation in an alleged cover-up of the Roswell incident, some researchers insisted that it was, in fact, an alien ship that crashed at Roswell.

French says he was told about the UFO “shootdown” by another military officer — a confidential source — from White Sands Proving Grounds, an area of the New Mexico desert where the U.S. military tested many weapons systems.

His source told French there was a second UFO crash near Roswell a few days after the first one.

“It was within a few miles of where the original crash was,” French said. “We think that the reason they were in there at that time was to try and recover parts and any survivors of the first crash. I’m [referring to] the people from outer space — the guys whose UFO it was.”

While French offered no further details on what he says was a second UFO crash, he teased something else.

“I had seen photographs of parts of the UFO that had inscriptions on it that looked like it was in an Arabic language — it was like a part number on each one of them. They were photographs in a folder that I just thumbed through.”

101 That’s an interesting parallel to the recent story of ex-CIA agent Chase Brandon, who claimed he found a box at CIA headquarters in the 1990s — a box labeled “Roswell.”

Brandon told HuffPost he looked in the box and went through written materials and photographs confirming his suspicions that the object which crashed at Roswell, “was a craft that clearly did not come from this planet.”

That story set off a fury of controversy between those who believed and didn’t believe Brandon’s story.

And now we have French, who served more than 27 years in the military, including as an investigator and debunker for the Air Force’s famous study of UFOs, known as Project Blue Book, which began in 1947.

“I’m one of the authors of Project Blue Book, and started with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, stationed in Spokane, Wash. One of the duties I had in 1952 was to debunk UFO stories,” French said.

“In other words, if someone had a UFO sighting, I and another agent would try to come up with some logical explanation for this strange aerial appearance. Most of the reports were from civilians than military. We gave our analysis and tried to debunk it by saying it was swamp fog or that the thing they saw was actually hanging on wires. It went up through channels all the way to the presidential level.”

But why was French ordered to debunk UFO reports in the first place?

“They never give you an explanation, but I’ll tell you what my analysis of it is: If they accepted the fact that there are creatures coming to Earth from other universes or from wherever, it basically would destroy religions, and the fact that our military’s helpless against them would destroy the reputation of the military,” French said. “You’re talking about military, national defense and religious reasons.”

As it often turns out with eye-opening UFO stories, it comes down to who you believe.

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102 Antonio Huneeus is a 30-year veteran UFO investigative reporter who recently spent time with French and is trying to uncover more facts about the information the former Military Intelligence officer would have us believe.

“We did a search and found his name on an official Air Force page that confirmed he was a combat pilot, but that page had nothing to do with UFOs,” Huneeus, editor of Open Minds Magazine, told HuffPost.

“My reservations are about some of the claims that he makes, and because of his age, his memory isn’t as good as it used to be,” Huneeus said. “It’s clear to me that he’s fairly well read on the subject of UFOs, or he might have heard stories or talked to people. So, I’m trying to separate exactly what he lived and saw directly from what he heard and read.”

Sixty years after French began investigating UFOs for Project Blue Book, he still thinks there’s a cover-up.

“It’s going on today. There’s no question about it. I’ve listened to their denials many times and, at that time, I was in direct opposition to their position.

In my mind, there wasn’t any question that UFOs were real.”

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Monjeau Lookout is a famous landmark on the Smokey Bear Ranger District built originally in 1936 and then reconstructed in 1940 as part of a Civilian Conservation Corps project. This site is a wonderful and adventurous place to visit. Roads leading up to the site are dirt and can be steep in places. Visit during the summer months as the road leading to it closes during the winter with the advent of snow. Monjeau Lookout is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

104 Many years ago, back in 1962 to be exact, I had an urge to begin a book. Like so many projects, I worked feverishly at it. Then something else came along and my work was shelved and eventually forgotten. Recently, I pulled out a box of “old things” to discard. Here I found this old, forgotten manuscript. After reading that old conglomeration of words, I retyped them to keep on the computer.

Here they are for you to read and enjoy or to ignore and delete. I have no idea what was in my mind in 1962 when I was 32 as I started (but never finished) this story. For sure, my thoughts were running wild and free over 50 years ago.

Hope you enjoy this forgotten piece of work from long ago in yesteryear.

ONE RODE AWAY Original short by Julie Lloyd Heavy handcuffs scraped against the metal platform railings of the train’s caboose. Cres Frost leaned his long hard body slightly forward to ease the hot, throbbing pain in his raw wrists. His arm muscles bunched and knotted while he sat uncomfortably on the warm floor. A trickle of perspiration streaked down the middle of his back, absorbing into his faded cotton shirt.

“She’s gonna be a gully washer,” drawled a man standing beside him. He pointed at the great black clouds boiling into the sky behind them.

Cres concentrated on the clouds following the train westward across the wide expanse of Texas prairie. Jagged lightning spears tore viciously from the sky. Even above the singing of wheels on rails, Cres heard the thunder roll and grumble, seeming to voice the anger he felt boiling inside his breast. Two separate lightning merged, plunged earthward. He wished its destructive power would find him, snatch his soul away in a puff of smoke. It would be better than dying at the end of a rope.

“Yep, she’s gonna be a gully washer,” the man with a badge repeated when Cress did not speak. “Mebbe it’ll dump a few tears on you while you do your dance in air,” he added. “Shore a cinch nobody else will waste any water on a killer of your kind.”

105 Cres’s piercing brown eyes narrowed to slits as an answer flamed hot in his mind. He checked his retort, knowing it was useless wasting words on a man like Sherrif Bartlett.

“I will not give that man the satisfaction of rising to the bait of that treacherous man,” Cres thought to himself. “He knows the murder of that Texas Ranger was a frame. Of that, I am sure. Panton can be thanked for that!”

Fury coursed through Cres at the thought of Panton, leader of a band of ruthless outlaws. That man stopped at nothing to save his own greasy hide.

Cres turned to face Sherrif Bartlett.

His face, browned by wind and sun during years of drifting, appeared calm, masked. When he spoke, he ignored the sheriff’s remark. His cool voice belied the anger boiling within him.

“How’d you ever get to be a sheriff?” he queried, giving the impression that he did not care for an answer. “Shore now, you don’t look like one.”

“Yeah! Just what do I look like?”

Bartlett asked. A wry smile twisted his lips back until his teeth, yellowed and dull, showed beneath a red tobaccostained mustache. Leathery wrinkles around his eyes seemed to almost crack.

“Reckon you wouldn’t like it if I told you,” Cres replied. He watched the mirth disappear from Bartlett’s face while a red flush crept over it. His neck corded and bulged.

“Yu oughta been strung up from the nearest tree,” Bartlett growled. “Woulda been better. Saved time and money. A rope fits just as tight danglin’ from a tree limb as from the gallows at Blue Ash.” Without a word, Cres moved his aching wrists along the railing as far as the manacles permitted. His weight shifted to ease the strain. He let his gaze go back to the menacing clouds in the we When he glanced at Bartlett again, the sheriff had leaned back, propping his black boots against the caboose railing.

Unlike the rest of the unkempt man, his boots were clean. They were polished to a shiny black. It seemed like hours passed before the train began to slow for Three Continue next page

106 Forks, a tiny watering station. Blue Ash was the next stop after that. Cress wondered if that would be his eternal destination. Everything within him rebelled at the thought. His mind screamed, “I will not swing! No man, especially a man charged for a crime he did not commit, wanted the last breath choked from him. Somehow, I will attempt an escape at Blue Ash. I might stop a bullet, but that’s better than hanging,” Bartlett pulled his feet from the railing when the train stopped.“Reckon yu can stand whiles the train’s stopped,” he said looking down at Cres. He turned and left the caboose. Cress struggled to his feet when he was certain Bartlett was gone. His shoulders ached. His arms were numb. Blood surged through his arms again and he felt pure relief. He stood until he heard Bartlett returning, then sat back down again. Bartlett barged back into the caboose and glared down at Cres.

“Yu are one stubborn cuss,” he snorted when he saw Cres still sitting. “Now I see why Yu won’t admit to killin’ thet Ranger.”

“I ain’t admittin’ to somethin’ I didn’t do,” Cres fired back.

Bartlett leaned against the railing and looked at Cres.”Yu know, I been thinkin’...” He took a long pause. “Mebbe you’re tellin’ the truth. I got an idea.

Suppose I let yu loose when the train starts slowin’ for Blue Ash. Yu could jump and make a run for it.”

“Then what will you do?”Cres asked, eyeing him with distrust. “Shoot me in the back?”

"Well, what if I missed? I’d have to round up a posse an come lookin’ fer yu.”

“Forget it,” Cress said, “I ain’t falling for none of your underhanded tricks.”

“It’s your neck,” Bartlett said with a shrug. “Give yu sumpin’ to think about.”The train jerked and began to move. Nothing more was said. As the train picked up speed, flat land slipped by with miles of clay dirt dotted by scrub brush. Gradually dark clouds filled the sky, swirling overhead, blotting out the sun. Cool, almost chill air, replaced hot summer heat. Rain was imminent. Cres

107 squinted at the sky hoping the rain would fall before they reached Blue Ash. Bartlett would take him inside then, and with his hands freed from the railing, he would have a better chance for escape. As if in answer to his thoughts, a bolt of lightning ripped through the dark clouds, followed by roaring thunder, and the first few drops of rain.

“Reckon we best get inside afore thet rain hits,” Bartlett drawled. He leaned forward to unlock the handcuffs, gun in one hand, key in the other. Cress moved to a sitting position on his haunches.

A handcuff fell free from one hand.

As Cres pulled his arms free from the railing, he came up fast. In one swift move, his left hand shot out to fasten around Bartlett’s wrist while his knee crashed savagely into the groin. Bartlett contorted. Cres snatched the gun, tossing it onto the tracks. He swung his legs over the railing, hesitated long enough to glance at Bartlett, then leaped.

Cres went limp as he hurtled through the air, hitting the ground rolling, a lesson he had learned from years of bronc busting. He came to rest beside a clump of mesquite just as a bullet spattered the ground nearby.

Lunging behind the mesquite, Cres put its thorny branches between himself and the gunfire coming from the train. He lay motionless until the train was washed from sight by distance and the rain now pouring down in sheets.

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Discover Mayhill

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The History of Mayhill Courtesy Cloudcroft Museum In the early 1850’s the U.S. government was having problems trying to maintain peace between the Mescalero Apaches and the white settlers who had recently begun homesteading in the area.

The Indians would leave their reservation to steal horses, cattle, and sheep in order to survive. The settlers, fearing the Indians, asked the military for protection.

Capt. Henry W. Stanton, for whom Fort Stanton was named, and a party of soldiers were dispatched from San Patricio to search for Apaches. On January 18th, 1855, the Indians suprised the party as they traveled up the Penasco River. Stanton and several others were killed in the vicinity of present-day Mayhill. This historical incident is recorded on a marker in the village.

The village of Mayhill is situated on the eastern slopes of the Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 6,500feet. It is located at the forks of the Rio Penasco and James Canyon, about 17 miles east of Cloudcroft on US Highway 82, at its junction with US Highway 130 to Weed.

Albert Coe Albert Coe, who had come to new Mexico in 1867 and whose brother Frank and cousin George were involved with Billy the Kid in the Lincoln County

111 Wars, arrived in the Rio Penasco area in 1873 and settled on what is now the Jim Mahill ranch, about 1/2 mile east of the present village. One of the log cabins he built still stands on the homestead.=

Frank Coe Soon, other settlers began coming into the area, including Charles Arthur (1884), Teen Clayton (1883), Joe Curtis (1880), John Gardessler (1880), Ben Henry (1882), Aled & Kim Hunter (1884), John James (1879), Henry Kepler (1884), Robert McGee (1878), W.C. Warren (1878), and John G. White (1878).

George Coe In 1881, Albert Coe returned to his former home in Missouri and married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Molly) Mahill. They returned to the Penasco for their honeymoon. One year later, Molly’s parents, John and Sara Mahill and their family joined them.

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112 John Mahill bought the land covering the present village site from John James, for whom James Canyon was named, for $300 in December of 1882 and built an adobe house, which is still standing and occupied by family members.

The first post office, called Upper Penasco, was established in 1885. It was located in the Coe residence and Molly Coe was the first postmaster. In 1904 after several moves, the post office was permanently located and the village was officially named Mayhill, rather than Mahill, apparently through an error by the Postal Department. Attempts to correct the misspelling have been in vain.

Over the years, more people have settled in the fertile valley and Mayhill today continues to thrive with its farming and ranching industries. The lumber business is another activity in the area.

Tourists are attracted to Mayhill in the summertime to enjoy the cool clear atmosphere, and each fall hundreds of deer hunters invade the region to enjoy the sport in the wide-open spaces ofthe Sacramento Mountains.

THEBATTLEof MAYHILL It was a chilly morning in southern New Mexico, as most mornings were in January. It was the morning of January 5, 1855 and a band Mescalero Apaches had disappeared into the Sacramento Mountains in the vicinity of Sierra Blanca, White Mountain, after stealing about 2,500 head of sheep. A large force of soldiers, with Captain Henry W. Stanton in command, had left Fort Fillmore, near Mesilla, to track them.

Fort Fillmore was established less than four years before near Mesilla to protect settlers and traders traveling to California. Travelers heading west were plagued by Apache attacks, and a network of forts was created by the US Government to protect and encourage westward expansion.

Indians had been raiding, killing and stealing in southern New Mexico Territory since settlement began and in 1851 and 1852 treaties were signed with various bands by the United States government. These were to no avail and by 1854 Indian raids had become a real problem.

113 Captain Stanton, with a force of eighty men and three officers, as well as forty mules and eight packers, a guide and an interpreter, was to join up with Captain Richard S. Ewell and a force of soldiers from Fort Thorn by the middle of January. Fort Thorn was a settlement and outpost establish in 1853 near present day Hatch, New Mexico. Captain Stanton was instructed to ”…attack any party of Indians he may fall in with having sheep or cattle…” Stanton and Ewell, making good time, met up near the Rio Penasco on January 7 and set up camp. They began a regular patrol of the area because Ewell’s Dragoons had reported seeing an Indian running in the underbrush on the day they set up camp. The troop’s horses were spooked by something or someone on the night of January ninth. Mescaleros were assumed but, although the soldiers found some evidence, they found no Indians.

The Mescaleros attacked the Dragoons’ camp on the night of the eighteenth, according to the New Mexico State Archives, stealing horses and setting the grass surrounding the camp ablaze. The soldiers woke up to the mocking of a band of Indians dancing around a fire on the hillside. Skipping breakfast, the troopers saddled up and went in pursuit of the warriors. Stanton and Ewell’s main force attacked along the banks of the Rio Penasco, while small parties of Dragoons maneuvered after various clusters of braves. ] This running battle lasted until about four o’clock that afternoon. Captain Stanton led a small detail of twelve men in pursuit of the Apaches while the main body of soldiers set up camp for the evening. They rode into a deep ravine, near the modern day town of Mayhill, where the Mescaleros waited in ambush.

Upon hearing the gunfire, the soldiers in camp rushed to support Captain Stanton’s small force. A tough battle resulted but it lasted only twenty minutes. The warriors fled.

Having been shot in the forehead while attempting to cover the retreat of his soldiers from that hard fight, Captain Henry W. Stanton departed this life straight away.

Courtesy jackshuster.blogspot

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In its heyday, all 465 miles of New Mexico's Route 66 bustled with life and played home to some of the most iconic experiences of American West: herds of antelope on the high prairie, dramatic mountain vistas, and the tribal cultures of New Mexico's native Puebloan people.

Today, travelers can still take in the nostalgia of the Mother Road, neon signs and all.

It was 1926, and the post-World War I economy began to rely on motor vehicles to transport crops, goods, and people from the furthest corners of every state into the cities for travel and trade. The project to use roads to link these areas was ambitious — the government endeavored to use as much existing road as possible. Thus, Route 66 was born of a connected system of dirt and gravel roads made passable for car traffic: An adventurous traveler could now start in Chicago and drive all the way to Santa Monica.

The topography of the state of New Mexico challenged the road-building efforts: Unlike the prairie land that brings the road from its inception in Chicago through the Texas panhandle, New Mexico’s variable elevations and preponderance of hard-rock landforms made creating a road work-intensive, as most pre-Great Depression road construction was completed by human and animal muscle. The first version of Route 66 in New Mexico crossed the eastern border at Texas, cut through

115 Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, and then swooped northward to specifically connect Santa Fe to the national highway.

The road then dropped the 2,000 feet of elevation from Santa Fe to Albuquerque through a series of ominous switchbacks the route was born in 1926, but the U.S. government implemented an intensive national-infrastructure-spending plan in the early 1930s to put Americans to work during the Great Depression. This included ambitious road-paving projects, of which New Mexico was a recipient: By the time New Mexico was made a state in 1912, there were only 28 miles of paved road. To increase efficiencies, the Santa Fe-to-Las Lunas loop was straightened to the linear east-west corridor, cutting off 107 extra miles from New Mexico’s stretch. The original road lasted until 1937 — by 1938, the U.S. government boasted that the Route 66 was universally paved.

By World War II, New Mexico officially played home for a 465-mile stretch of what — in his seminal 1939 book, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ — John Steinbeck named “The Mother Road.” The name stuck, and Americans had for the first time a well-maintained, reliable road by which the populace could travel and relocate.

Portions of the north-south cutoff up to Santa Fe and back are still drivable, though some of the sections through La Bajada north of Albuquerque are no longer passable. As for the original straight-line thoroughfare? Federal highway-building efforts in the 1950s eventually led to U.S. Interstate 40, which makes use of much of Route 66’s original path. Currently, there are 265 miles of the old route still travelable, which gives the motorist a look at some of the original boomtowns made by the traffic from Route 66: Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Albuquerque, Grants, and Gallup, among others. The traveler can count on the essential hallmarks of Route 66: motels, diners, souvenir stands, and an abundance of neon.

Story courtesy of New Mexico Tourism Department

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