I moved to NM, & was able to stay ~15 yrs. Ths is a very sad cemetery in a poor town. People are good - old "Co. town."Emplmnt was @ "the mines" mostly - some worked @ schools, stores, hospital in Silver City. Walmart was a big boon - starting salary min. wage... Lots of elderly - poverty - nothing "to do." RR tracks bisect town - used to be an :Anglo" side, & a Mexican side. No grocery store; now a gas station/convenience store. Cute houses that came by train prefab'- but hi poverty, unemployment, drugs. alcoholism. "Successful" people work in Silver City, or for mines. Largest employers are the hospital, the one University, Walmart, maybe schools.History of area is interesting. Classic "labor movement" movie, "Salt of the Earth" filmed here.Check it out!(shown in college sociology courses!)
I came across this page looking for pictures of the old smelter stack, the location of which I need to map for a report. I used to work out of Hurley for the mine in another lifetime, late 90's, when it was all operational. Coming across things like this during this search really let loose some melancholy nostalgia. I can't wait to check out 'Salt of the Earth' that the previous commenter mentioned.
Great blog site btw. I'm looking forward to reading more of it!
My thanks to both Anonymous in May 2021 and hierochloe for your personal experiences and observations.
In my January 26, 2013, post (A Revolution in the Middle of Nowhere), I share some of the gobsmacking history about this seemingly quiet corner of the world. So *many* stories and layers of history that surrounded Local 890! Remarkable. Here's the link to that post: https://blog.livingrootless.com/2013/01/grant-county-new-mexico-revolution-in.html.
The movie, Salt of the Earth, is on youtube as of today. But since it could disappear at any time, you can also stream it free via Kanopy or Hoopla, if your library offers one of these services to you.
3 comments:
I moved to NM, & was able to stay ~15 yrs. Ths is a very sad cemetery in a poor town. People are good - old "Co. town."Emplmnt was @ "the mines" mostly - some worked @ schools, stores, hospital in Silver City. Walmart was a big boon - starting salary min. wage... Lots of elderly - poverty - nothing "to do." RR tracks bisect town - used to be an :Anglo" side, & a Mexican side. No grocery store; now a gas station/convenience store. Cute houses that came by train prefab'- but hi poverty, unemployment, drugs. alcoholism. "Successful" people work in Silver City, or for mines. Largest employers are the hospital, the one University, Walmart, maybe schools.History of area is interesting. Classic "labor movement" movie, "Salt of the Earth" filmed here.Check it out!(shown in college sociology courses!)
I came across this page looking for pictures of the old smelter stack, the location of which I need to map for a report. I used to work out of Hurley for the mine in another lifetime, late 90's, when it was all operational. Coming across things like this during this search really let loose some melancholy nostalgia. I can't wait to check out 'Salt of the Earth' that the previous commenter mentioned.
Great blog site btw. I'm looking forward to reading more of it!
My thanks to both Anonymous in May 2021 and hierochloe for your personal experiences and observations.
In my January 26, 2013, post (A Revolution in the Middle of Nowhere), I share some of the gobsmacking history about this seemingly quiet corner of the world. So *many* stories and layers of history that surrounded Local 890! Remarkable. Here's the link to that post: https://blog.livingrootless.com/2013/01/grant-county-new-mexico-revolution-in.html.
The movie, Salt of the Earth, is on youtube as of today. But since it could disappear at any time, you can also stream it free via Kanopy or Hoopla, if your library offers one of these services to you.
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