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Page 8 • May 31, 2012 • Mountain Mail • mountainmailnews.com H.B. Birmingham’s oral history - part four 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act of 1862, and the Socorro Bureau of Land Management’s Cultural Resource Program is increasing emphasis on oral history collection, particularly as it relates to homesteading. H. B. Birmingham was interviewed by BLM archaeologist Brenda Wilkinson in Reserve on March 17, 2010, at the home of his friend and neighbor, Judy Griffin. H. B. is a stickler for accuracy, so these excerpts from the interview are in his own words. We were very saddened to hear of his wife, Peggy, passing in 2011. They were married 61 years. Can you tell me how you met your wife? She’s from New York. And Calberg— that family lived at Quemado. And Peggy’s aunt—she was in the service and she got acquainted with him. And she left the service; she come back. They were in the service together. He never had to go overseas ‘cause he was trainin’ some of these soldiers to use skis. He said hell, I didn’t have to do nothing but ski. Then that’s where Peggy came out. Her aunt married Calberg, and she come out on her vacation. To visit her aunt? For a week, and she liked it. She worked for the telephone company. She went back so she could make enough money to pay her way back out. So she got her train, come back to Datil. But they had a restaurant in Magdalena then, but then they ran that Datil outfit for a long time. She worked there. That’s where I met her, Mildred Eileen. Hell, when she and I was married she couldn’t even cook. (chuckles) Can you tell me the story of how you met? Her sister married Calberg, and she just waited table there. Some Indians come in and she was sellin’ them Indians beer. Howard says “Peggy, you gonna’ cause me to lose my license- you sellin’ Indians liquor.” “Well,” she says. “I didn’t know they was Indians.” So they caught on pretty quick. And when she was waitin’ tables they’d come in. She’d serve ‘em what they wanted. Howard would get after her. “Well, how did I know?” So she was asking ‘em, “Are you a Mexican or Indian?” “No, we’re Mexicans.” (laughing) She’d go ahead and serve ‘em. [Note: Until the law was repealed in 1953 it was unlawful to sell alcohol to Native Americans] So do you remember the first time you met her? Yeah. I met her there at Datil. The woman who worked there told Peggy, said, “If you catch that old boy, you better enjoy it. He’s a hard worker.” And she didn’t know one thing about me then. So when I proposed to her, she said, “Well, when?” Well, I said, you don’t want to set the wedding now. I put the wedding off. “I’ll set it.” (chuckles) Yeah. But she had to learn how to cook. But she worked here for the county - for the city hall, and she could write down what you said in shorthand. She had worked at the telephone company. But they come down there one time, her and her girlfriend - when I had them sheep - and eat supper. They went back - they run their car off the road. Some of ‘em got on to me, said, “Well why didn’t you come back with ‘em?” Well, I says, hell, they were drivin’ - getting late. And I says, be time for them to go to bed when they get home. She was a good lookin’ girl. So did you go out on dates? No, they’d have a dance every once in a while. They had a dance there at the Eagle Guest for the March of Dimes, and we got Dick Bills from Albuquerque to play. He was a good musician. And he played Sunday, and they paid him and his three musicians a steak supper and gave ‘em ten dollars apiece. So he took ‘em up on it. So we had that dance Sunday night. Peggy and George Calberg and George’s wife, they was workin’ in the bar. We started at five o’clock. So we run seven hundred and fifty dollars through the bar that night. They were getting free sandwiches. They used a lot of stuff. They just had to pay for what [they drank] but they got the sandwiches free. What they donated - boy, every one of us was surprised they run that much money through it. He gave ‘em a hundred dollars out of that, ‘cause hell… Hell, I said, there wasn’t standing room in there! And I knew the state cop and I called him at midnight. He wanted to know how the party was going. I said, oh, it’s going good; everybody’s having a good time. “Well,” he says. “I’m on my way to bed, had to go down to San Antone pick up that liquor director. He was drunk, and couldn’t drive. So my wife drove my car back and I drove and put him to bed. You’re not gonna’ have to worry about him.” No, I says, they’re all havin’ a good time, nobody’s drunk. I says, we’ll just close it up. So I went in and I says folks, you better close it up. The bar is closed. The state police is on his way out. So by god, everybody cleared out of the bar. And he got home that next day, Monday, ‘cause he spent the night up there. They done the checkin’, cause they knew how much we started with. We sold seven hundred, I think, fifty-two dollars that night. And that old liquor inspector, someone... That state cop had told him about it. ‘Cause the state cop—he was a Mexican. And oh, he says, that smart aleck, he don’t want you to do this or that. Says, I’m glad when you pull one on him. That state cop says I’d stick it to him myself, I wouldn’t have to arrest him. So how long did you and Peggy know each other before you got married? I guess about six months. Did your family go to church? Peggy was the Catholic, and she never did go. She kinda’ quit goin’ to church. What about your parents? I guess they were Presbyterians. No, Peggy - course, she couldn’t get along with some of them. Well, I said, you go to Horse Springs. It’s only twenty-five mile; they got a preacher there. No, she was pretty much of a greenhorn when she come out. There was a story that Peggy came to the house and asked where her closet was. Can you tell me that story? Oh, yeah. I hung up a piece of iron from the ceilin’, where she could hang her clothes. And then a curtain around it. (chuckles) Was that alright with her? Well, it had to be! (laughing)
Ruins of Goat Springs Pueblo piques archaeologists’ interests By John Larson What may be shaping up to be a prominent archaeological site is not far from Magdalena. The site, Goat Springs Pueblo, is thought to have had 150-200 rooms in a traditional three-sided pueblo. Matt Basham, archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Magdalena has been studying the remains of the pueblo north of the village on Riley Road for the past couple of years. He said by studying glaze on pottery shards, the pueblo is estimated to have had its beginnings 730 years ago. Basham said the southern section of the U-shaped pueblo was the first to be built. Later the western and northern sides were added. The western section is Petroglyph of Franciscan cross. Located in San Antonio, NM 575.835.2208 • 17 S. Pino Street thought to have had a second story of at least 50 rooms. “The question I get asked is, ‘how many people lived here?’” he said. “Well, we don’t have enough data to come to an accurate number. Some of the rooms may have been for storage, some for other purposes. “This site is the subject of an active research investigation by Dr. Susan Eckert of Texas A&M University,” Basham said. “Remote sensing conducted by Dr. Eckert last year has confirmed many theories such as that the large depression in the center of the plaza area is a kiva.” He said the site has been the subject of other studies. “Archeologists from UCLA excavated two rooms on the northern side of the pueblo in the 1960s,” he said. The excavation was not refilled in, and then two rooms are easily identifiable. Southwestern archeologists have suggested that villages in the Rio Abajo, including Goat Springs, played a major role in pueblo social dynamics. “This region may have been a gateway for the introduction of immigrants, religion and glazepainted pottery into the Rio Grande region,” Basham said. “And recent research has shown that lead sources in the Rio Abajo VACCINATION CLINIC Drs. Dean & Pepita Wilkinson ANIMAL HAVEN Veterinary Clinic OF Socorro When: Saturday June 30th 8am -12pm Where: Magdalena Fire Station Please call 835-3545 for further information. ANIMAL HAVEN VETERINARY CLINIC •EMERGENCY SERVICES AVAILABLE Business Hours: M T Th F - 8-12/1:30-5:30 W- 8-12 S - 9-1 1433 NW Frontage Road, Socorro, New Mexico Great Food • Great People Dine In & Carry Out Mexican Food Tues - Sat: 7am to 7pm Sunday: 7am to 3pm were used in the production of glaze paint, that some of the sites in the region may have controlled the access to production.” Because Goat Springs Pueblo is located in the Rio Abajo near a lead source – the Magdalena Mountains – there is a strong likelihood that pottery was produced there. It could be theorized that Goat Springs was possibly a manufacturing site for pottery. Goat Springs Pueblo holds other secrets, not of Piro origin. Basham said that at the end of Don Diego deVargas’ re-conquest of Nuevo Mexico in 1692, after the Pueblo Revolt, his army passed through the Magdalena region as a shortcut on his way back from El Moro to Mexico. “His journal states that he camped at Pueblo Magdalena, what’s now known as Pueblo Springs. There is evidence that he may have been aware of Goat Springs,” Basham said. The evidence is the existence of three Fransiscan Crosses, or Victory Crosses, carved - petroglyph style - into rocks between Goat Springs and the pueblo. “De Vargas’ contingent went from spring to spring to spring, water sources in other words,” he said. “It is entirely possible that the crosses were made by them.” mountainmailnews.com • Mountain Mail • May 31, 2012 • Page 9 USFS archeologist Matt Basham points out a room’s features at pueblo. Photo by John Larson Basham said that taking anything like pottery fragments from the site constitutes a federal crime. “I understand that well-meaning people will want to pick up shards to take home, and this happens. But everyone needs to be aware that the site needs to preserved for study,” he said. “We encourage the public to appreciate the history here.” Magdalenians Steve and Libby Bodio were designated Site Guardians for Goat Springs Pueblo in 2011. “Site Guardians means, basically, keeping an eye on things,” Steve Bodio said. “All we do is make reports about the condition of the site. They have a checklist. Libby has a vast background in Return Conservative Republican Zeno Kiehne To The Office Of Catron County Clerk VOTE June 5, 2012 Experienced • Educated • Enthusiastic Innovative AND Impartial PAID FOR BY THE CANDIDATE archeology and has an eye for anything amiss.” Bodio said the biggest damage is caused by cattle, “and the other thing they fear is looting, which hasn’t been a problem in the last twenty years, but I hear tell that about thirty years ago that somebody dug around. That can really mess up the archeology, shifting strata hoping to get whole bowls, this can mess up the information content of the place. Technically you’re not even supposed to take pot shards.” He said he and Libby visit the site several times a year. The site is gaining interest among southwestern archeologists and another scientific dig is scheduled for this summer.
Page 1 and 2: Thursday, May 31, 2012 IN THE NEWS
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