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A LOOK INSIDE THE ARCHIVES AT ONE OF OUR CLASSIC ISSUES FROM 91 YEARS OF NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE.
July 1946
Background for a Book by Thomas Ewing Dabney
Beneath these quiet fields of maíz and maguey, volcanos lie sleeping. In the heart of the maguey flows the liquid pulque and the makings of aguardiente. It is la tierra de promesa, land of the prophets and promise, land of the eagle, and the serpiente. In lands like these, the roots run deep, both of the plants and the peoples.
Cover image: Corn Dance by John Candelario
A Quarter Century of Ceremonials
When you go autograph-hunting for Agnes Morley Cleaveland, whose prize-winning book on New Mexico, No Life for a Lady, is running through another edition, do not be astonished if the trail leads to the cow pen of her home at the head of a canyon near Datil. Some visitors caught her at the fragrant milk pail soon after she became a national figure. She looked up, a gray lock of hair streaking her face, and saw a battery of cameras trained upon her through the pole corral.
Taos … the Trappers’ Paris
by J. Wesley Huff
by Frederic E. Voelker
Governor John J. Dempsey expressed the spirit of the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial when he said last year: “If the Ceremonial were to be presented without a single white visitor, I believe it still should go on. For primarily it is for, as well as of, the Indians. It is their show, and it is a recognition of their contribution to our American way of life.”
From the upper waters of the Columbia, Missouri, Colorado, Arkansas, Río Grande, Gila, and Brazos, the trails of the free trappers all led to Taos. The pleasure-hungry mountain men converged upon Taos, several hundred strong, with pockets and “possible sacks” full of money, “half froze fer licker, women, an’ town doin’s.” Weather-blackened men they were, of all races and nationalities, Americans, French, English, Germans, Scots, Irish, Hawaiians, Africans, and Scandinavians, who mingled with Spanish, Indian, and mixedblood natives to give the little town its strikingly cosmopolitan character.
When Ballooning Made History by Roy A. Stamm
About two years after the arrival of the railroad, a tall, blond saloon man—Van Tassel by name—on July 4, 1882, made the first balloon ascension in Albuquerque. So far as I know, no further gas bag ascensions were made until 1907 when I served as secretary of the “27th Annual New Mexico Territorial Fair.”
VOLUME 92, ISSUE 7 New Mexico Magazine (ISSN 0028-6249) is published monthly by the New Mexico Tourism Department at 495 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501-2750. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: $25.95 per year, $45.95 outside the United States. Periodicals postage paid at Santa Fe, NM, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New Mexico Magazine, PO Box 433148, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9881. Copyright © 2014 by New Mexico Magazine. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork.
72 NEW MEXICO | JULY 2014