Description

Privately Published [Published Date: 1975]. Soft cover, 218 pp. First Edition. In very good condition. Blue pictorial paper covers have light bumping to edges and light overall scuffing and soiling. Binding tight. Light spotting to top edge of text block. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Black and white illustrations. [From Foreword] For more than forty years the author worked as a writer and news reporter along the New Mexico-Colorado border (the general locale of this book) - from Campo to Cortez, and from Farmington to Boise City. He has covered such news events as the construction of the John Martin and Vallecito Reservoirs, spectacular floods in the Arkansas Valley, bank robbery and slaying at Lamar, and a tragic disaster in which school children were literally frozen to death in their school bus during one of the relentless blizzards that swept the plains. There were plane crashes and reports of UFO's in the San Luis Valley, snow slides that took lives on Wolf Creek Pass, hundreds of news events at Durango and Farmington, where the news ran the gamut from oil exploration and development to the world's first subterranean atomic explosion to release great pockets of natural gas in the Barker Dome Many days and countless hours were spent in work and research - digging in museums, back rooms and attics of libraries, old file rooms of newspapers, and in interviews with the people themselves. During these two score years, the author has seen this strip of the West grow and develop until it would be hard, indeed, for those coming back after a prolonged absence to recognize it. In the great plains area of New Mexico and Colorado, where once there were rugged, pioneer-type dwellings and meager transportation, one today will see attractive ranch homes and many expensive cars. Trinidad had grown from a smoky mining village to a bright, thriving community, rightfully proud of its progress and accomodations. Alamosa and the San Luis Valley towns have kept apace with their great natural resource - the land. From an isolated mountain community, Durango has grown into a modern business center with splendid college facilities and a regular mecca for tourists. Farmington has grown from a population of some 3,500 souls to more than ten times that figure. And so it is with the other towns and communities along the border. Most who took part in the events of this book are now gone. There are some who have first-hand knowledge which has been passed along to them from an older generation; but these, too, are now few in number. Therefore, the new generations and the many thousands of newcomers to the area, may be, for the most part, unfamiliar with the happenings as related here. This book, then, is meant as a tribute to those pioneers who endured the hardships and struggles to conquer this land. It is hoped that through these pages new generations will be reminded of what has gone before and perhaps gain a deeper appreciation of their heritage. Each of the brief chapters of this work is a condensation from the author's magazine and newspaper feature articles that have appeared in various publications over the years. In designing this book for today's busy reader, each article is a complete segment of American history, with no attempt made toward continuity or placement in exact chronology.