The following is a recap of local events for this time period throughout history.
Josef Murphy does things most children his age would scoff at. He was raised with a diabetic mother and has learned to care for her. His love for her led him to dial 911 Thursday evening when his mother went into shock. The 12-year-old saved Bobbie Murphy’s life. “I was up pretty late, and my mom kept fainting and then waking up,” Josef said Friday in his mom’s hospital room. “She was talking strange. At first I thought she was doing it to be funny, but then I called the paramedics.” Once the paramedics arrived, they tested Bobbie’s blood sugar. “It was very low,” Josef said. “They put sugar water in her arm, and I got her some cranberry juice to help revitalize her,” he said.
The Daily Times
A four-year=old Shiprock boy was scheduled for release from the Public Health Service Hospital today after nearly drowning in a Bureau of Indian Affairs irrigation ditch Thursday afternoon. Clifford Harris Jr., son of Mr. And Mrs. Clifford Harris of Shiprock, floated about 100 yards down the cement lined ditch behind Navajo Housing Authority and was unconscious before being rescued by Gilbert Reuben. Reuben responded to the scene after hearing Clifford’s six-year-old sister, Kimberly, yelling, “My brother fell in the ditch.” Reuben, who had one arm bandaged with 128 stitches from an injury last week, pulled the child out of the water but said he was unable to climb out of the ditch until someone threw him a chain. … A number of other children were playing in the area at the time Clifford slipped in. Two children drowned in the ditches this spring.
The Daily Times
Sgt. Jim Ralston, U.S. Marines, son of Mr. and Mrs. E.P. Ralston, has arrived back in the states from Korea where he fought for ten months and was wounded. He plans to visit his parents here when released from the hospital where he is taking treatments. Sgt. Ralston fought with the Marines in World War II.
Aztec Independent Review
Vic Walker had the misfortune to get his Graham truck buried in the sands of the Chaco River this week. He was on the return trip from Gallup loaded with freight and got stuck in the Chaco. He got an Indian to help pull him out with a team, but as it was a hard pull for the Navajo team he decided to pull the truck onto an island and leave it until morning. In the morning he discovered a heavy flow of water had come down in the night and had washed away the island and buried the truck in the sand almost to the top.
Farmington Times-Hustler
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution, accompanied by Mrs. Fewkes, visited the Aztec Ruins on Monday and stated that they were one of the most interesting and finest Pueblo ruins and would be a great asset to Aztec after they are explored and restored. Dr. Fewkes conducted the excavation last summer in the Mesa Verde Park and unearthed new ruins of extraordinary interest. In fact, Sun Temple, as it has been named, is an altogether new and mysterious type of ruin. Earl Morris of Farmington left this week to meet Mr. Nelson and together they expect to start the work on the Aztec Ruins sometime next week. It will take three to five years to entirely restore the ruins and during the time the work in going on they will be viewed by thousands of tourists.
Aztec Independent
J.W. Lee, who resides about seven miles up the San Juan, was in on Monday, and took out iron piping for an extensive irrigating plant that he is putting in. He will hoist the water out of the San Juan by using a steam engine and automatic injector. This is the first experiment of this kind put in operation in this section and the results will be watched with interest. Mr. Lee thinks that it will prove surer and cheaper than the common irrigating ditch on the San Juan.
The Farmington Times
This Week in Local History is compiled by Debi Tracy Olsen, local journalist and volunteer at the Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village. The stories are pulled from newspaper archives and are reprinted as they appeared, errors and all.