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A LOOK INSIDE THE ARCHIVES AT ONE OF OUR CLASSIC ISSUES FROM NINE DECADES OF NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE.
November 1950
New Mexico Magazine reaches us on the first day of every month. And I am thoroughly homesick all day. My husband and two daughters read it from cover to cover and it is passed to friends. Often the cover page is framed until it has lost all its color. —Mrs. Clark G. Smith San Francisco, Calif.
The mail, passenger, and express truck that ran from Gallup to Farmington had originally been a high-wheeled Pierce Arrow sedan, but its own maker would never have recognized its second incarnation. First it had been stripped to its bare bones, engine, and wheels. Then a high spring-seat from a wagon had been erected behind the long-stemmed steering wheel. This seat could comfortably hold two people or three uncomfortably. A canopy or hood of brown canvas protected the driver and his passengers unless the wind blew. The gear shift and the brake were located on the running board outside the body of the car and were operated by the driver inserting a broom handle into the correct slot and then pushing this lever either forward or back and holding it in place by sheer willpower while the car resisted with perks and groans.
Smokey Bear. Photo by H.D. Walter
The road to Burro Springs takes you to country that changes every mile of the way. Over desert hills spotted with bear grass, cactus, and yucca, you see hopeabandoned prospectors’ holes and the pine thickets of the Gila National Forest. Five miles below Tyrone, turn left on the Red Rock road. About ten miles farther turn left again onto a ranch road up a wide, shallow valley. Three miles more and you reach a cluster of corrals. To the left is a small box canyon in whose mouth is Burro Springs.
Autumn Adjectives Low, the apple rides the weed, Hard, the sparrow finds its feed. Soft, the wings of gathered flights— Crowded trees down restless nights. High, the twirler of the stars, Sends the ducks to Southern bars, Still, the falling of the leaf; Cold, the frosted night, the thief. —Reeve Spencer Kelly
Bennett Peak, between Gallup and Farmington. VOLUME 93, ISSUE 11 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 © 2015 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 | NOVEMBER 2015