The following is a recap of local events for this time period throughout history.
A couple of mallard ducks swam past nonchalantly, quacking their approval, and a rainbow trout snatched a bug floating on the water’s surface, sending ripples across the otherwise glass-smooth surface of Farmington Lake. It seems everyone – and everything – is pleased with the new handicapped accessible fishing pier on the lake’s west side. The pier was officially dedicated at a ceremony Friday morning during which the structure was named for the man who was the driving force behind the effort to get it built. Clinton Waggoner, who knocked on hundreds of doors, shook thousands of hands and spent dozens of hours on the phone for the past two years, was visibly moved as the sign bearing his name was uncovered amid cheers from the crowd.
The Daily Times
U.S. Senator Pete Domenici announced today that the City of Bloomfield has been awarded a grant for $1,142,422 for wastewater treatment work and construction. Sen Domenici, a member of the U.S. Senate environmental pollution subcommittee, said the plant would “enable the city to substantially improve its wastewater treatment.”
The Daily Times
The summer recreational program, under the direction of George Peppin, will begin on Monday. … Activities to be included in the program will depend a lot on the enrollment, but baseball, volleyball, various playground games, tennis, teen-age dances and square dances are some of the activities that will be offered.
Aztec Independent Review
Chance Dufur, formerly of this place but now of Del Norte, Colo., recovered a body of a girl floating down the Rio Grande River last Sunday while fishing. He saw the body, waded out, grasped it and carried it to shore, only to learn when he examined it that it was the body of his own daughter, Helen, 8 years old. Dufur, overcome by grief, was assisted in making his way up the stream by nearby fishermen. A mile above the point where he recovered his daughter’s body from the river, Dufur and his companions came upon an automobile wreck, in which his wife had suffered a broken collar bone and his other daughter, Doris, 9, had incurred a broken arm. He learned that his wife had been motoring with the children when she lost control of the machine and plunged into the river. It will be remembered by some of our citizens that Mr. and Mrs. Dufur lost a little girl by drowning in an irrigation ditch here about 10 years ago.
San Juan Review
A number of local speed fans are agitating for an automobile race from Durango to Gallup to take place on or about the Fourth of July. The route would be from Durango through Cedar Hill, Aztec, Farmington, Shiprock to Gallup, and bulletin boards could be maintained at each town and the time each number car passed each community entered on the boards. The cars would leave Durango either fifteen or thirty minutes apart. All interested in entering cars may correspond with Oren Randall of the Aztec Auto Company. The distance is 185 miles.
Aztec Independent
Chas. A Stevens, G.W. Puckett and E.R. Cline arrived in Aztec from Lincoln County, N.M., Monday. They came overland and have spent some time in looking over all parts of this county. After careful inspection they have decided that Aztec and vicinity are just what they want and will locate some land under the new Bloomfield ditch and make their home here as soon as they can move their families here. Mr. Stevens has been manager of the Iowa and New Mexico Mining and Milling Co., but will try his hand at farming and fruit raising. San Juan County has room for hundreds of energetic citizens like the above-named gentlemen.
San Juan County Index
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.