Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1929: Ridge Whiteman, 19, of Portales wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institute reporting he’d found an arrow point with elephant bones at the site now known as Blackwater Draw. Anthropologists and archaeologists soon realized the discovery was proof that man was living in North America 11,000 years ago.
1952: Curry County Sheriff Val Baumgart announced a lie detector would soon be among the crime-fighting tools employed by his office. Baumgart said the purchase of the lie detector continued the buildup of modern equipment that also included a two-way radio system and fingerprint equipment. He said he hopes to soon be taking photos of every person jailed in the county.
1956: Lts. Anton Michsch and Connell Bule, both pilots at Clovis’ air base, spent their afternoon constructing a 6-foot igloo in the 500 block of Gidding Street in Clovis.
Michsch said he learned to build the igloo in the Air Force Survival School.
The pilots joked they wanted to sell it for $25 and claimed the structure would be warm if the front entrance were covered.
Inside were places to sit, magazines to read and a “pin-up girl” on a wall.
1956: Clovis Air Force Base personnel were using military equipment to check on isolated residents and even feed area cattle as the region tried to dig out from a blizzard that brought a foot of snow to some places.
A couple near the Curry-Roosevelt county line had not been heard from since the storm hit three days earlier, but Air Force personnel located them and reported they were safe and had plenty of food.
Base helicopters were used to drop hay to about 2,000 area cattle.
1963: Magic Steam Laundry on West Seventh in Clovis and Stanley Pawol Prescriptions at Seventh and Main both offered free pickup and delivery services. The pharmacy could be reached at PO3-3451.
1964: Roden-Smith Rexall Drugs at 400 Main in Clovis offered a “giant hamburger and thick malted milk” for 49 cents.
1970: Cooks Discount Department Store in Clovis was open daily at West 21st and Mitchell streets. The week’s specials included:
• Vegetable or flower seeds, 6 cents per package
• Oil filters, 96 cents
• Slumber bags for girls, $7.92
• General Electric AM clock radio, $10.86
• Valentines, 19 cents for a package of 25.
1972: Formation of a Curry County Historical Society was identified as a prime objective for the Clovis Chamber’s Civic Affairs Committee.
Chairman Don McAlavy led the discussion about preserving “historical information from old-timers before it is too late.”
The High Plains Historical Foundation was born of the discussion.
1975: Students at Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Clovis were participating in the observance of Catholic School Week. The week served to remind “the hopeful vision of what Catholic education really is: ‘To teach as Jesus did,’” said school Principal Sister Dolorine Lopez.
1976: Temperatures dipped into the teens across the region and the Texico-Farwell area saw four-tenths of an inch of precipitation, slowing traffic.
Clovis saw a low of 17 degrees and Swan Lake at Hillcrest Park was frozen.
1976: Vicki Gaspard had been crowned basketball homecoming queen at Clovis High School.
She was a senior, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Gaspard.
1987: Clovis City commissioners, in a 5-3 vote, declined to rename West First Street in honor of Librado Casillas.
“Some remember (Casillas) as the kindly grocery store owner who always had a sandwich and a cup of coffee for the sanitation workers who emptied his garbage,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
“Some (remember him) as the owner of the store where a child could buy enough candy for a penny to walk away with a smile.”
About 40 people attended the meeting with the proposal to change West First to L. Casillas Drive.
Commissioners opposed to the name change said they would oppose renaming any street.
Casillas was honored with a street — L Casillas Boulevard — but it took a few more years.
2006: Portales school district voters had approved a tax increase with just 472 of 10,158 eligible voters participating.
“I’m so disappointed that so few people turned out to vote,” County Clerk Janet Collins said. “Maybe people didn’t feel like it was an important issue, but it should be important to them because it’s their schools.”
School Superintendent Randy Fowler said the district would see $635,000 as a result of the election, money it planned to use for building improvements.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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