When I was a little girl, my sister decided to start raising litters of Boston Terrier puppies. When the first batch came along, I got to pick out a puppy for my very own.
Looking back 40, 30 and 20 years ago, the following are excerpts from the Artesia Daily Press. 40 years ago June 9-15, 1984 Elephant Butte Irrigation District Officials say they are supporting a battle by the Carlsbad Irrigation District to overturn a state engineer’s decision that would allow irrigation district members to sell water rights outside their district.
Fathers are not honored in our society as they once were. In fact, in some quarters, it is taught that fathers are not necessary for a child’s well being.
The Rev. James Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95. His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor.
By any standard, in the past decade oil production in New Mexico has attained world-class stature. In 2023, New Mexico was producing about 1.8 million barrels per day (657 million barrels that year) of crude oil, 10 times more than it was producing in 2010, thanks to investments in new fracking technologies. This quantity places New Mexico just about even with the oilrich countries of Mexico, Kazakhstan, and Norway, and slightly above Nigeria and Qatar. If New Mexico were a nation it would rank about 14th in the world in oil production, well above the OPEC countries of Libya, Algeria, and Venezuela. Visionary as they might have been, it seems unlikely that Mary and Martin Yates, thrilled by the gushing black liquid at Illinois #3 in Spring of 1924, could have imagined that exactly one century later their descendants would still be drilling in a New Mexico now producing more oil than Qatar.
I am pleased to join the Permian Basin Centennial celebration. In many ways, it is a celebration of New Mexico’s national, pre-eminent leadership in energy production; its contribution to our energy independence and free world leadership; and a tribute to the men and women who work in the oil fields.