The headline said it all: "Chili Industry Gains Foothold in the Hatch Community." The Las Vegas Daily Optic of January 17, 1929, reported that the "Farmers of [the] Hatch community, who have developed the chile industry as one which threatens the laurels of King Cotton, are moving out shipments to market." The article reported that just three years prior, only a mere 300 pounds of chile had been marketed in the entire Rincon Valley, of which the Hatch Valley was a part. As of 1929, farmers...

In 1884, Sierra County was formed in the Middle Rio Grande Corridor of the New Mexico Territory out of the existing counties of Grant, Doña Ana, and Socorro. Not everyone was pleased with the new county, and the courthouse was said to look like "a dance hall." From the fortunes and misfortunes of the miners in the historical towns of the Black Range to the comings and goings of the railroad towns, Sierra County is rich in history. The town of Hot Springs (later renamed Truth or Consequence...

�Hot Springs, New Mexico, Ain�t That Any More� was one of the headlines on April 4, 1950, in the Gallup Independent. As a publicity stunt, Ralph Edwards had invited a town to change its name to �Truth or Consequences,� the name of his popular radio quiz show, and Hot Springs agreed to do so. Since the late 1800s, the area has attracted health seekers to bathe in and drink from the area�s hot mineral springs. The region is home to Elephant Butte Dam and lake, completed in 1916, which remain...

Leading Millennial Faculty: Navigating the New Professoriate explores how to effectively lead millennial faculty as they navigate the new professoriate. Contributors address some stereotypical millennial characteristics—being achievement oriented, connected to the world at large, relatively sheltered, and unaware of hierarchy in higher education—and how these characteristics create advantages and challenges for all generations in the higher education workplace.

On November 18, 1904, engineer B.M. Hall submitted his final report to the 12th National Irrigation Congress in El Paso, Texas. He concluded that the ideal location for a dam and reservoir would be a site in western New Mexico. A congressional act of February 25, 1905, authorized the construction of Elephant Butte Dam, the first civil engineering structure concerned with international allocation of water. Part of the Rio Grande Project, the dam and its reservoir would provide irrigation wa...

Casa Grande, Arizona, is located on desert and farmland between Tucson and Phoenix and began as the end of an unfinished railroad line�thus its early name, Terminus. On May 19, 1879, when early summer heat halted construction of the railroad in what would soon become Casa Grande, only three buildings and five residents constituted the town. The names reflect the ethnic diversity of the sparse population: Buckalew, Ochoa, Smith, Watzlavocki, and Fryer. In September 1880, executives of the S...

Located halfway between Los Angeles and Yuma, Arizona, Indio came into being as a railroad town in 1876 when the Southern Pacific Railroad completed this last link in its southern transcontinental route. Settling this arid land took ingenuity and courage, and Indio�s early residents had both. In the 1930s, Indio became a mining town when 92 miles of tunnel were dug through its eastern mountains for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the largest construction project in the United States during the D...

A traveler's guide to ghost towns and historic villages of Arizona and New Mexico, featuring maps, historical background, and color photos.The Southwest is home to an enticing array of ghost towns and historic villages. Once-bustling mining camps, frontier towns, and railroad towns stand today as reminders of the glory days of mining and the Wild West. Historic buildings, abandoned schoolhouses, old mills, and overgrown cemeteries offer fascinating glimpses into the...

“Gracefully written . . . thoroughly researched . . . America is a banquet prepared by the Indians—who were forgotten when it was time to give thanks at the table.”—St. Paul Pioneer-Express“Well written, imagery-ridden . . . A tale of what was, what became, and what is today regarding the Indian relation to the European civilization that ‘grafted’ itself onto this ‘ancient stem’”—Minneapolis Star TribuneIn Indian Giver...

Much more than a ribbon of crumbling asphalt, Route 66 is a cultural icon revered the world over for its nostalgia value-an east-west artery pointing America toward all the promise that the great West represented. But as stretches of Steinbeck's Mother Road” were bypassed and fell into disuse, so too did most of the bustling establishments that had sprouted up from Illinois to California to cater to weary travelers and hopeful vacationers alike. Motor courts, cafes...

Explore the fascinating highlights, history, geology & nature of Grand Canyon National Park with this entertaining, educational, point-by-point Waypoint Tour complete with travel expert stories & detailed tour maps. Your personal tour guide for Grand Canyon travel adventure! www.waypointtours.com Waypoints Include: Grand Canyon Village Area Tour 1) Grand Canyon South Rim 2) Mather Point 3) Canyon View Information Plaza 4) Yavapai Point 5) Train Depot 6) Hopi House 7) El Tovar Hotel 8) Brig...

An ode to our national parks, timed for the centennial, by the beloved author of When Women Were Birds.Longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for ExcellenceA Washington Post Notable Book of the YearAmerica's national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why more than 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the e...