Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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On this date ... 1881: Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett killed outlaw William “Billy the Kid” Bonney at Fort Sumner. Fort Sumner resident Jesus Silva was among those witnessing the Kid’s death. “There on the floor, we saw Billy stretched out, face down,” he said. “We turned him over, and when Deluvina (Maxwell, a friend) realized fully it was the Kid, she began to cry bitterly, interspersing with her tears the vilest curses she could bestow on the head of Pat Garrett.” 1...
On this date ... 1951: Portales was days away from the grand opening of the new Cal Boykin Hotel. A luncheon was set for the upcoming Saturday, with tickets $1.50. A banquet that night would cost $15 per ticket. Eastern New Mexico University coeds were acting as hotel tour guides. 1956: Floyd Golden, president of Eastern New Mexico University, was preparing to leave for an education workshop in Ann Arbor, Mich. The five-day seminar was to be held on the campus of the...
On this date ... 1930: The Judevine Creamery of Portales shipped its first major order of butter to Los Angeles. A carload containing 25,000 pounds of butter featured a banner on the side proclaiming the contents were manufactured in Roosevelt County. 1941: A. B. Cares of Pep had lost about 25 acres of broom corn to heavy rainfall. Overnight rainfall had measured 3 inches. Cares, described by the Portales Daily News as “one of the best dry land farmers in the country,” sai...
On this date ... 1930: Willie Chambers of Portales was brought to the Baptist hospital in Clovis by ambulance after he was injured in a gravel pit accident north of Portales. Caliche caved in on top of Chambers, burying him under several tons of dirt, the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. Chambers was able to keep his head above the slide and called to men working nearby for help. He suffered a double fracture of the hip and other bruises and cuts. 1941: Two cowboys were...
On this date ... 1937: Two-hour parking limits on Clovis' Main Street were a day away from being implemented. "Enforcement of the law was expected to be light until proper warning signs have been created," the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. Signs were being prepared to warn motorists about the time limits, which would be enforced on Main Street between First and Fifth streets and a block east and west of Main. 1937: Jimmy Gamewell, the pro at Clovis' municipal golf cour...
On this date ... 1930: Four Roosevelt County prisoners sawed and dug their way to freedom about 2 a.m. The men — three being held for violating liquor laws and one on a robbery charge — used a hacksaw that had been smuggled into the jail to help with their escape. Two of the men were seen going south down the Santa Fe Railway tracks, according to a witness. At least one of the escapees remained free for more than a year. Henry Jones was captured in December 1931 near Dal...
On this date ... 1937: Two prisoners in the Clovis jail bet on the heavyweight fight between Joe Louis and Jim Braddock. “... (H)aving no worldly possessions, (they) decided to bet their hair,” the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. The loser had second thoughts after Louis won the fight, and somehow talked the winner into “buying back” his hair before it could be cut. The price agreed upon was $3.50, apparently an IOU. 1937: Temperatures soared to 100 degrees in Clovis....
The village of Ruidoso and "a good portion of Lincoln County" were evacuated Monday and Tuesday as wind-whipped wildfires damaged hundreds of homes and businesses throughout the resort region. "... Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs, and Lincoln County (are in) full evacuation mode. Please stay out of the area, and do not attempt to get back into the Village. There are no open roads into Ruidoso, and the New Mexico State Police will have roadblocks at all entry points and they will not...
On this date ... 1945: Opal Jackson of the Fitzhugh Addition in Clovis received a telegram reporting the death of her husband, Pvt. James D. Jackson, on May 11 on the Okinawa Island in Japan. Jackson had previously been reported missing in action. The private had lived in Clovis and the Grier community all of his life, the Clovis News-Journal reported. He was 26 and survived by his wife, his mother, and two children. 1951: Clovis police, led by Chief John Droke, staged a...
On this date ... 1946: Clovis’ city jail was faced with “overflow” after a busy weekend resulted in 17 arrests. Charges included fighting, public drunkenness, carrying a concealed weapon, operating a gambling house, vagrancy and indecent exposure. All 17 were expected to have their cases heard over the next two days. 1951: Clovis police were called back into action after two consecutive days with zero calls for service. Weekend activity included a domestic disturbance and a...
On this date ... 1950: About 1,100 fans came out to Bell Park and were treated to a 6-3 victory by the hometown Clovis Pioneers over Pampa, Texas, in a West Texas-New Mexico League baseball game. Left-hander Tom Gallagher improved to 2-2 on the season, holding the Oilers hitless into the sixth inning and allowing just three hits overall. Gallagher finished with an 11-13 record and a 6.02 earned run average in his final season of professional baseball, according to...
One of Clovis' more iconic buildings caught fire – again – on Wednesday and it's been reduced to rubble. The "castle house" at 1220 Mitchell was reported on fire about 1:30 p.m. and was quickly destroyed by the blaze. Police on the scene said arson was the likely cause. "Someone" started the fire, Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen said, since the building has been empty for years and it had no working utilities. "We've had three or four previous fires in it," Nolen said. "Transient...
On this date ... 1937: A man accused of shooting a federal agent near Gallup was arrested "because his stirrups were shorter than cowboys use," the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. Guy Osborne was attempting to "disguise himself as a cowboy and ride past members of a posse searching for him," the paper reported. The Evening News-Journal reported Osborne was known to Clovis police because of a recent investigation related to a car theft. 1937: Officials with Hotel Clovis...
Tuesday’s primary election had few contested races across Curry and Roosevelt counties, and voters mostly stayed home. A few numbers of interest: • Statewide voter turnout was at 23%, according to numbers released by the Secretary of State’s Office. In the 2020 primary (COVID year), that number was 42%. About 34% of the state’s registered voters came out for the 2016 New Mexico primary. • In Curry County, fewer than 15% of the 18,731 registered voters cast primary ballots o...
On this date ... 1935: Clovis celebrated its first Pioneer Days with a parade that stretched two miles. About 15,000 people came out to watch. A parade highlight included a lion from Clovis’ zoo, which was “securely caged,” the Clovis Evening-News Journal reported. 1949: The Clovis News-Journal reported the annual Pioneer Days parade was attended by “the largest crowd ever.” The parade “marched south from 7th street on Mitchell, east on 1st to Main, and then north to 12th str...
On this date ... 1941: Eastern New Mexico College President Donald W. MacKay had resigned, officials announced. No reason for the resignation was reported. MacKay was not available for comment since he was out of town on vacation. MacKay had been the college's only president since its opening in 1934. College officials said they were attempting to interest former New Mexico State College President H.L. Kent in the ENMC job. Instead, Floyd Golden became the college's second...
On this date ... 1941: Two vehicles had been washed away and railroad tracks at Friona were impassable due to flood waters. “Following on the heels of a cloudburst early Wednesday night, water covered many major highways ... and finished the job of earlier rains in completely washing away the Clovis-Grady highway bridge approach over Frio, 20 miles north (of Clovis),” the Clovis News-Journal reported. No injuries had been reported. Record rainfall totals across the region wer...
On this date ... 1937: A "brief but brisk downpour" increased Clovis' rainfall total to 2.43 inches for the year, the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. Rainfall to date was "near average" for the previous 25 years of record keeping, the newspaper reported. While Clovis measured .15 inches of rain this evening, other communities fared better. Grady recorded an inch of rain, while the Melrose area saw a half inch. 1946: A nationwide railroad strike had ended after about 48...
On this date ... 1941: Law officers across eastern New Mexico and west Texas were patrolling highways in search of a lone bandit who robbed the First National Bank in Levelland, Texas. The man got away with $20,533, officials said, locking employees in the bank’s vault. Witnesses said the robber had two pistols and escaped in a Ford pickup. A nearby farmer’s son confessed to the robbery a few days later and all but $78 was found, most of it buried under a seed bin on his fam...
Heroes. Not victims. That’s how Laura Robinson hopes the community will remember her daughter Harley Cisneros and lifelong friend Taryn Allen. Cisneros and Allen, both 23 of Texico, were killed May 3 at Ned Houk Park by a man police say they did not know. Alek Collins, 26, of Houston is charged with two counts of murder, abuse of a child and kidnapping in connection with the violence, which left Sofia Mae Cisneros, 5, critically injured and Eleia Maria Torres, 10 months, missi...
On this date ... 1903: Famed buffalo hunter George Causey, suffering from chronic pain after being thrown by a mustang a year earlier, shot himself in the head with a pistol at his home near Kenna. The Handbook of Texas reports Causey was responsible for killing 40,000 buffalo from 1874 to 1882, including the last herd on the Llano Estacado, near Seminole, Texas. The village of Causey in Roosevelt County is named for brothers George and John Causey because their lives...
On this date ... 1946: The Christian Science Reading Room, at 105 W. Fourth in Clovis, was open daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. except Sundays and holidays. The First Church of Christ Scientist was inviting the public, and especially service men, to use the reading room “where the Bible, and all authorized Christian Science literature may be read, borrowed or purchased.” 1950: Portales police had arrested a man who claimed he molested a 7-year-old girl in a city park. But off...
The 5-year-old girl shot and critically injured May 3 at Ned Houk Park has made “significant progress” over the past few days, an attorney representing her family said. “The family is asking for continued prayers for her recovery,” said Matt Chandler, speaking on behalf of the family of Harley Cisneros. Cisneros and her friend, Taryn Allen, both 23 of Texico, were found dead in the park from gunshot wounds. Cisneros’ oldest daughter, unnamed at the family’s request, was also shot and taken to a Lubbock hospital, authorities...
On this date ... 1911: Homer Jones did not shoot his business partner at Taiban as authorities had alleged. Jones’ innocence was declared by Edward Gardner, the man Jones was alleged to have shot. Police arrested Jones because his boot tracks were found near the scene of Gardner’s shooting. But when Gardner recovered from his wound enough to talk to authorities, he told them he and Jones were the best of friends and had never had a cross word. Gardner said Jones’ arrest was ...
Law enforcement authorities early Monday arrested a man accused of shooting and killing two 23-year-old Texico women, shooting a 5-year-old in the head and kidnapping a 10-month old baby on May 3 at Ned Houk Park. The News has pieced together a timeline of events based on public documents and police interviews: May 1-2 Alek Collins, 26, of Manvel, Texas, drives a rented vehicle – a maroon Honda sedan -- from the Allen, Texas, area through the Texas Panhandle, arriving in C...
