Flyer




EMHS Tour of the
Wheels Museum

Saturday, July 23rd, 2022
at 10 a.m.
Location is 1100 2nd St. SW
in Downtown Albuquerque

Directions:
The Wheels Museum is located on the site of the historic Santa Fe Railroad Shops in downtown Albuquerque. Please park in front of the building on Second St. SW and Pacific Avenue SW.
Enter at the north door (turquoise railing and a few steps).


Past Events by The East Mountain Historical Society

The West's First Gold Rush

Sunday, November 10 at the Historic Church in Tijeras
2 PM
FREE and open to the Public

The fact that the first significant gold rush in the West was not in California, but rather near the Ortiz Mountains of New Mexico, will be the topic of a free public talk Sunday, Nov. 10, hosted and sponsored by the East Mountain Historical Society.
“The West’s First Gold Rush – the Old and New Placers – Along with Gold, Silver and Copper Lode Mining in the Ortiz and San Pedro Mountains” is the title of the talk by author Paul R. Secord. Secord’s presentation will feature photographs from family collections – some of which have rarely, if ever, been seen before, and will start at 2 p.m. in the little historic church next to the East Mountain Library in Tijeras. Refreshments will be served.
The talk will immediately follow the historical society’s annual membership meeting, which will start at 1:30 and include election of officers and directors for 2020. The very brief annual meeting also is open to the public.
In addition to focusing on the first significant gold rush west of the Mississippi – the “Old Placer” gold deposits found about 1821 at Dolores – Secord will cover the range of gold, silver and copper mining in the Ortiz and San Pedro Mountains and also include the towns of Golden and San Pedro. Secord will draw on extensive research from the files of the late Homer E. Milford of the New Mexico Abandoned Mines Land Bureau. Much of this information has been compiled into two recent books: Dolores: The West’s First Gold Rush (July 2019) and Golden and San Pedro – Gold and Copper (November 2019.)
Secord is a retired environmental planning consultant who specialized in cultural resource management and historic evaluations. He is also the author of several books for Arcadia Press, including titles on Albuquerque and Santa Fe Architecture, Pecos, Bandelier and the Galisteo Basin and the Cerrillos Hills (with Homer E. Milford). Recent books also include The Maisel's Murals, 1939: Native American Art of the American Southwest (2018) and volumes on the Piro-Tompiro Pueblo cultures of Abo Pass and the Salinas Region of Central New Mexico. He has recently edited, compiled and supplemented a number of books on New Mexico mining history, including The Cerrillos Hills and Mining (May 2019) and Silver-Plated Deceit, the Story of Mining in Lake Valley, New Mexico (September 2019), some of which will be available for purchase at the lecture.
At this free public event, the East Mountain Historical Society will be selling its 2020 calendar of historic area photos, Timelines of the East Mountains, and will be taking pre-orders for its book of the same name, to be published in the spring of 2020. The book will cover all of the places featured on EMHS’ popular map of disappeared and vanishing landmarks, covering a 400-square-mile area and about 400 years of history.
For more information about the all-volunteer East Mountain Historical Society and its projects, visit eastmountainhistory.org or pick up a copy of the latest newsletter at the East Mountain Library.


Open House Sept. 22, 2019 
 12-4 pm inside the historic
little church in Tijeras


This is across the street from and the same time as the East Mountain Celebration (which will be held at Los Vecinos Community Center and fields). Please join us as we celebrate the unveiling of our 2020 Calendar of historic East Mountain photos, Timelines of the East Mountains. The calendars will be available for purchase, along with our maps, postcards and publications.
Our map and photo exhibit panels about the history of the East Mountains will be on display. Refreshments will be served. And we will begin taking pre-orders for our monumental history book of the East Mountains, inspired by our map of vanishing places.
Come to the open house to learn more.
Denise Tessier
EMHS Past President and Publicity.
 

"The Ballad of Placida Romero"
Sat. June 1, 2019
at the Tijeras Senior Center

We at EMHS will have a free public program June 1, so mark your calendars and stayed tuned for more information as we will be holding it at a new time and very possibly a new place.
Our speaker will be Bob Roland of the Cibola County Historical Society, whose presentation is “The Ballad of Placida Romero”, which will be held at the Tijeras Senior Center at 2 pm.
The true story of Placida is that her husband and his ranching partner were killed by Nana during the Apache’s last raid into New Mexico, in the summer of 1881. This occurred at their sheep ranch, approximately 30 miles southeast of Grants. Placida was taken captive and subsequently taken all the way to an Apache Rancheria in Mexico after many battles with pursuing Buffalo Soldiers. After almost two months, Placida escaped and eventually was repatriated with her family in Cubero, NM.
Please note that this talk will be on a Saturday.

EMHS Presentation at the HMHS Annual Conference 
March 29, 2019

By Denise Tessier

If you haven’t been to a state history conference yet, make this your year to attend.

For several years now, Janet Saiers, immediate past president of the Historical Society of New Mexico, has encouraged the East Mountain Historical Society to share with other societies the mechanics behind our key projects since 2011, accomplishments that have made other groups sit up and notice.

In response, and because this year’s conference is in Albuquerque, Kris Thacher and I submitted a proposal and are approved to be among the session presenters; our 90-minute slot is from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Friday, March 29, entitled “Mapping Our Vanishing Past – How One Small Historical Society’s Community Oral History Project Morphed into a 400-Square-Mile Adventure and Enterprise.”
 
EMHS members may come to that session at no cost. But we encourage you to avail yourself of this conveniently located conference and register for all or part of it.

Attending the Conference: Your Options
 
If you’ve been to a State History Conference before, you know what a treat it is. Please refer to the Conference Program online at hsnm.org for full descriptions of all the informational sessions and Saturday tours. There are more than 60 talks planned over the three days, and multiple sessions are held at the same time, too many to summarize here. Please also refer to the Registration Form at hsnm.org for details of all pricing options. You MUST pre-register by March 15 if you want meals. Here are your opportunities this year as an East Mountain Historical Society member.
 
 Help us by working the East Mountain Historical Society table: Any of our members may come in and work the table without registering for any part of the conference. Conference planners are expecting about 200 people. Before and after sessions, attendees often peruse the history-related merchandise, so we’ll need volunteers to work the table all three days. Please contact EMHS Secretary Dick Brown (secretary@eastmountainhistory.org) if you’re available to work a shift. This is a good way to get a feel for the conference and meet people, even if you don’t plan to register or attend sessions.
 
 Registering for conference sessions is cheaper if you are a member of the Historical Society of New Mexico (HSNM). One of the benefits of EMHS membership is that our members get a $10 discount on HSNM membership because EMHS is an organizational member of the state group. So, it’s $30 to join HSNM as an individual (instead of $40) and $20 if you’re over 65 (instead of $30). The rate for a couple/family is $40 instead of $50.
 
 If you are a member of HSNM, you may attend all sessions over the three days (including coffee breaks, but no meals) for $95; for non-HSNM members, it’s $120 for three days. (If you want the full package, which includes all sessions and meals, including Thursday reception, Friday lunch and Saturday evening awards banquet, it’s $175; $200 if you’re not a HSNM member.)
 
 If you’d like to attend only the Friday sessions, no meals, it’s $65, regardless of membership status.
 
 If you’re a member of the East Mountain Historical Society, you may bypass the registration table just to attend our presentation, which is from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Friday. In other words, you may attend our presentation for free. We would love to see a good turnout of members.
 
 School teachers (K-12) and full-time students (K-12 through college) may attend any and all sessions for free. This does not include any meals, but teachers and students may sign up at the registration table and move about freely as their attendance is encouraged. ID verification is asked at check-in. 

Dive Into Local Navy History This Veterans Day 

USS New Mexico


Presentation by Dick Brown,
EMHS Secretary
Nov. 11, 2018

Vintage postcard shows the battleship USS New Mexico

Courtesy of the New Mexico Office of the State Historian 

In an East Mountain salute to the nation’s 100th Veteran’s Day (Nov. 11), EMHS board member and secretary Dick Brown will deliver what he promises will be a colorful and fast-moving 80-slide PowerPoint presentation, “East Mountain Navy Connections.”
 
The talk, free and open to the public, will start at 2 p.m., after our annual membership meeting.
  The membership meeting starts at 1:30 p.m., and both events will be held in the historic church in Tijeras, just west of the East Mountain Library on old Route 66. Refreshments will be served.  
 
In addition to the talk and slide show, Dick promises to share a poster showing a cutaway view of the interior of the Submarine New Mexico, plus a two-foot scale model. Brown is an engineer, balloonist, author, Grand Canyon historian, and 33-year East Mountain resident. He also is a Cold War submarine veteran who since his service in the 1960s has maintained close contact with the U.S. Navy and its Submarine Force.

It was Dick’s idea to convince the Navy to name its newest nuclear submarine USS New Mexico, and he did so by spearheading a successful statewide grassroots campaign and chairing the Navy League’s commissioning committee.
 
As a civilian Dick has been to sea on the USS New Mexico three times, USS Albuquerque six times and USS Santa Fe once. He also has just returned from Washington, where he briefed Submarine Force leaders on city and state support for our “undersea warriors.” Dick promises to bring to the talk items attendees can take home related to the USS New Mexico. He also will sell (while supplies last) signed copies of his book, Battleship New Mexico, a finalist in the 2018 New MexicoArizona Book Awards competition.
USS New Mexico


New Mexico’s flag is unfurled as its namesake submarine surfaces 200 miles north of Prudhoe, Alaska.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy 


EMHS Open House Sept. 23rd - East Mountain Celebration

The East Mountain Historical Society will display its photographic exhibit depicting East Mountain villages and how they have looked over the last century during an Open House, to be held from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, at the historic church in Tijeras. The event is free and open to the public.

The Open House is scheduled to coincide with the East Mountain Celebration being hosted by the county during those same hours across the street at Los Vecinos Community Center. 
 

The public is invited to come by the church, which is next to the East Mountain Library, to view panels of historic photographs and also to see the group’s popular six-by-six-foot map of disappearing and past East Mountain villages and landmarks, which until this month has been on display at the Main Library in Downtown Albuquerque. 

Refreshments will be served as the society also celebrates publication of its new 2019 East Mountains: Then and Now calendar, featuring 12 months of historic photos paired with photos of those landmarks as they appear today. The calendars will be on sale at the Open House, along with personal-size versions of the group’s display map, Mapping Our Vanishing Past, available both as flat poster or folded, with actual vintage advertisements for East Mountain businesses printed on the back. 


Members of the historical society will be on hand to talk to visitors about East Mountain history and describe the all-volunteer group’s preservation efforts. Visitors also will be able to buy the group’s Route 66 vintage reproduction postcards, booklets on East Mountain history and turquoise T-shirts featuring the EMHS logo. 

Church parking is available at the library and senior center. Across the street, the East Mountain Celebration will offer live music, a car show, local vendors and food trucks. Parking for that event is located at A. Montoya Elementary and Roosevelt Middle schools. 
  
All proceeds from Historical Society sales benefit the society in its mission to collect and preserve East Mountain history, and to share that information via its website, calendars, oral histories and by way of public programs, such as this open house and quarterly public talks featuring knowledgeable speakers, usually hosted in the historic Tijeras church.

guiterrez-hubbell house


Members Field Trip to tour the historic Gutierrez-Hubbell House

on Thursday, June 14 at 10:30 am

Our program director, Roland Curtis, has set up for us a field trip to tour the historic Gutierrez-Hubbell House in the South Valley, to start at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 14. Afterward, we can get together for lunch at Abuelita’s restaurant, which is next door. Tour is free (donations accepted) and lunch is on your own.
Docent(s) will give us a tour of the 5,700-square foot adobe that dates to the 1860s, and we’ll be able to walk the grounds, located on what is now 10 acres of county open space.
This is a members-only event, but it is OK to bring a non-member guest. Just let Roland know you plan to come, so we’ll know how many docents to have, depending on the size of our group. (Our tour will be divided into groups if we have the numbers to warrant it.) It will also be good to have a head count in terms of restaurant seating.

__________________________________________
DIRECTIONS:
  
Take Isleta south for the more scenic route, but Roland advises there’s some work going on at the Rio Bravo exit if you’re getting to Isleta via I-25. Allow more time to get there, obviously. Heading south on I-25, take the Rio Bravo exit (220) and go west (turn right at end of ramp). Travel 2.5 miles to the Isleta Blvd traffic light and go south (turn left). Travel 3 miles and The House is on the right, just past Don Felipe Road. If you get to Abuelita’s, you’ve gone too far. 

Isleta Boulevard is part of the original Camino Real, which is part of the significance of the G-H property. Here’s more on the Gutierrez-Hubbell house, from the House website:
The Gutiérrez-Hubbell House . . . symbolizes the mixing of Spanish, Anglo and Native American traditions & cultures during the Territorial Period, 1848-1912. . . .
The Gutiérrez-Hubbell House is a symbol of the joining of colonial Spanish grace, Native culture, and Mexican traditions with Anglo-American entrepreneurship: it was the home of Juliana Gutiérrez, descendant of some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Pajarito and New Mexico. With her marriage to James Lawrence “Santiago” Hubbell, a Connecticut Yankee who came west to seek his fortune, the two produced at least 12 children, all of whom were born in the Hubbell House. Juan “Lorenzo” Hubbell was the second son and third born of James and Juliana. Like his father, Lorenzo became a merchant and trader with the “Indians” and established the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Arizona, which today is a historic site managed by the National Park Service. The final inhabitant of the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House was Louisa Hubbell, who died in 1996.
Situated along El Camino Real, the oldest continuously used European roadway in North America, the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House was once a private residence, mercantile, trading post, stagecoach stop and post office. Today, the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House History and Cultural Center is a center developed to document, research and preserve history, maintain open spaces, protect wildlife habitat and teach agricultural heritage.
Hope to see you June 14!
Denise Tessier, EMHS publicity
torreon, nm

Historical Talk To Focus
On Stories About Torreón

with Judy Alderete Garcia
on Sunday, April 29 at 2 pm | Open to the Public 
Located inside the Historic Church in Tijeras

Judy Alderete Garcia will talk about the stories she collected for her book, Memories of Torreón, New Mexico, at a free public presentation sponsored by the East Mountain Historical Society. The talk will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29, at the historic church in the little park next to the library in Tijeras.
Garcia describes her book as a collection of stories about the people of Torreón, written “to preserve the unique culture, history and traditions of the people of the Manzano Mountains.” She says it is also “a way to educate others about the ever-changing culture of New Mexicans.”
Garcia was born and raised in Albuquerque, but spent many weekends in the South Highway 14 (NM 10) village of Torreón as a child visiting her grandparents. Garcia holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico, with a double major in Spanish and Women’s Studies and a minor in Chicano Studies. She plays New Mexico music on Thursday nights on 89.1 KANW.
Her book will be available for sale and autographing at the talk.
Refreshments will be served and the East Mountain Historical Society will be selling its 2018 calendar, East Mountains: Then and Now. Also available will be the group’s maps of vanishing East Mountain historic sites, in poster or folded form, Route 66 vintage reproduction postcards and turquoise-colored East Mountain Historical Society T-shirts, featuring its “Cultura de las Montañas” (culture of the mountains) logo. The group’s sales benefit the all-volunteer historical society. 
Mobirise

Rise and Fall of Little Beaver Town

Sunday, Feb. 11th at 2 pm | Open to the Public

Visit the parcel of land at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon that now belongs to Albuquerque's Open Space Division and one may find pieces of plaster, foundations of adobe walls and concrete slabs where buildings once stood. Known as "Little Beaver Town," the now-vacant parcel was a favorite spot for teen off-roading and parties in the 1990s.
But for a brief period in the 1960s, it was an actual western-themed park called Little Beaver Town. On its opening day in July 1961, more than 5,000 showed up to see what looked like a Wild West movie set, complete with a mercantile shop called The Rattlesnake, daily gunfights and a local saloon featuring can-can dancers.
Amateur historian Roland Penttila will describe Little Beaver Town's rise and fall during a free public talk at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11 at the little historic church in Tijeras, hosted by the East Mountain Historical Society. Weather permitting, he will lead a car caravan to the site immediately after the talk.
Penttila will describe how in early 1960, a group of retired Standard Oil executives sold stock at $3/share, obtained a lease on the land along Route 66 and partnered with Colorado artist Fred Harman to create Little Beaver Town. Harman was creator of the newspaper comic strip "Red Ryder and Little Beaver," whose popular crime-fighting characters were featured in comic books, a radio show, TV series and more than 30 movies. Penttila will also relate how the venture fell apart.
Penttila is a retired civil engineer and amateur photographer who moved from California to New Mexico in 1998 to work on the NM 44 highway project. After retirement in 2012, he became interested in Albuquerque's history. He is currently on the board of the Albuquerque Historical Society, is a volunteer who gives free walking tours of downtown and he is a docent at the Albuquerque Museum.
Penttila's talk kicks off the East Mountain Historical Society's free public talks for the new year. Refreshments will be served and the society will be selling its East Mountain history-themed products, including: 2018 "Then and Now" calendars that feature historic East Mountain photos, maps of vanishing East Mountain landmarks, Route 66 reproduction post cards, history booklets and more, proceeds from which further the non-profit society in its mission of preservation and sharing of East Mountain history. For information about the all-volunteer East Mountain Historical Society, its preservation projects and how to join, visit eastmountainhistory.org. 
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Tijeras, NM 87059

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Text by Denise Tessier, EMHS Historian

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