<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday, I\u2019m going to knock around in town. It\u2019s been a while. I had to vacate Storrie Lake [State Park Campground] because I\u2019d been there 14 days straight (more, actually) and Manny, the Ranger, wouldn\u2019t give me a waiver to stay longer \u2013 even though I was the only one there most of the time. But I understand. Rules are rules\u2026blah, blah, blah\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I tooled down the road to the Vegas RV Park (my other homestead here in Las Vegas). Nice. Full hookups and a shower facility. I even have pressurized \u201ccity water\u201d \u2013 as soon as I get a new hose, because mine started leaking like a sieve.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n –Journal entry: Thursday; December 20th, 2018; 9:28 am. Content in my camper, Cochise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nis a luxury. I\u2019ll make the best of it and definitely get my money\u2019s worth. The\nrules for state parks in New Mexico require you to leave the campground after\n14 days (used to be 21) and not return for a week. It\u2019s a good thing for the\nsummer, when campgrounds all over the West fill up with vacationers and RV warriors\nwaiting to escape their urban environs and breathe a little Mother Nature – lest\nwe rubber-tramp vagabonds become year-round squatters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be nice if the system could be flexible in the off-season, though, when plenty of space is available. Why chase off paying customers when there\u2019s an abundance of empty spots? Government \u201cpolicies\u201d often seem so silly to me. But it is what it is\u2026even when it\u2019s stupid. Dang gummint.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, instead\nof paying just $4 per night to have electricity and a frost-free water spigot\nat a state park campground (saving $10 per night because I have an annual\npass), I pay $125 a week to have all the amenities of city services, here on\nthe not-so-quiet edge of town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Being able\nto walk to the shower each morning was something I hadn\u2019t experienced since\nbecoming a rubber tramp the previous May – over half a year earlier. The only truck\nstop shower in town was $13, but the Romero Rec Center would let you use their\nshowers for a buck. Heck of a deal, if you\u2019re not hung up on privacy, or seeing\na lot of tattoos on flabby, old wrinkled skin, and fathers bringing their young\ndaughters in. That\u2019s kind of weird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I tried to shower\nonce a week when I was tramping, whether I needed to or not. Fortunately, I didn\u2019t\ninteract closely with other human beings unless I was grocery shopping or at\nthe library. Otherwise it was just Rambeaux and me, and dogs don\u2019t seem to mind\nsmelly things. They rather like them, which is one of the reasons I\u2019ve always\nloved dogs – except for those little yip-yapping ankle-biters that would better\nbe used for muskie bait. Just sayin\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staying at the RV park also means that I have to deal with neighbors, as many spots are filled by folks who don\u2019t appear to be going anywhere. Deeply discounted monthly and annual rates make this an affordable place to live if you\u2019re comfortable in your RV. I\u2019d be more comfortable in mine if I could just stand up inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess I was a little too anxious to get a trailer \u2013 and the price was right \u2013 when I bought Cochise, and didn\u2019t notice that the only places I could stand my 6\u20193\u201d frame were in the roof-vent wells of the cabin and bathroom. Oh well, it\u2019ll work much better when I shrink a few inches. That\u2019ll be nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHappy NYE! Looking forward to 2019. I gotta good feeling… <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been freaking cold here this past week. 12\u201d of snow and temperatures that haven\u2019t been above freezing until today. My water system froze up and I\u2019m attempting to thaw it now. Dang.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yesterday the Packers finished a terrible season with a horrible loss. 31-0 to the Lions. AT LAMBEAU FIELD! Glad this season\u2019s over\u2026 I think tomorrow I\u2019ll take BroBo down to the lakeside open space and see how it powers through powder. Let \u2018er rip!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n –Journal entry: Monday; December 31st, 2018; 9:28 am. Living large in my cold, dry camper. Back at the campground in Cochise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Time passes peacefully at Storrie Lake State Park. The holidays end, and a new year begins. Boldly, in a new land. Feliz ano nuevo!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA\u2019ight den\u2026after my second 2-week stint at the campground I\u2019m back here at the Vegas RV Park and full hook-ups. It\u2019s a treat, but kind of pricey for my lifestyle. I\u2019m going to look into being a caretaker at a property downtown that needs watching until it\u2019s ready to go on the market. It has a beautiful old three-story residence with a carriage house that used to be a Bed and Breakfast, but has turned into a shooting gallery for junkies since being vacant for over a year.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was recently bought by a wealthy fellow from California who owns the Plaza Hotel in Old Town (as well as La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona) and who purchased the Castaneda Hotel a few years ago in East Las Vegas [New Town], right next door to the train depot \u2013 both built in the 1880s, after the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s been renovating the classic old Harvey House hotel and wants to either live at the property I\u2019d be watching or make it available to Castaneda staff once the business is up and running. Everyone seems to be pretty stoked to see the \u201cCasty\u201d coming back to life, after being dormant for many decades.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I met the GC [General Contractor] of the renovation at Dick\u2019s [Pub and Restaurant], which his company also renovated. Turns out he was born in Shawano [the same small town in Wisconsin where I was born]. His mother was a year behind me in high school. She was a hottie, and her family-owned ****\u2019s [the only place that served food after the bars closed, and had the best french fries around – served with tartar sauce that supposedly had a classified recipe]. He went to college at Naropa [a Buddhist university in Boulder, Colorado] and was taking classes there when I was working a few blocks away for ReSource. STRANGE WORLD THIS!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n –Journal entry: Wednesday; January 9th, 2019; 7:57 am. Back at the Vegas RV Park, living the life of luxury in Cochise<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strange\nworld indeed. Having that connection with the GC got me in with his crew, most\nof whom came to Dick\u2019s after work for happy hour, since the Casty was only a\nfew blocks away. They almost all had animal names: Bear, Moose, Goat and Horse\n(and Nich and Toby, who were just Nich and Toby). <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d done my\ntime in the building trades and worked on restorations of old houses and other\nstructures, so I could understand what they were saying when they talked about\nthe day\u2019s work. They took pride in being part of renovating what everyone knew\nwould be the gem of East Las Vegas as was the Plaza Hotel in West Vegas. The\nfact that they were both owned by the same fellow (and his world-famous, artist\nwife), who had money and a vision, made it all the more believable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt the work-buzz\nbouncing off them, and when they invited me over \u201canytime\u201d to see what they\nwere doing I took them up and visited the jobsite often. They had a huge\nchallenge in front of them, as the place had fallen into serious disrepair\nsince it closed as a hotel in 1948 – seventy years prior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But its\nhistory spurred its intrigue. This place had its share of stories, and probably\nmore than a few ghosts \u2013 as all the old hotels from the Wild West Days seem to\nhave. The evidence of apparitions appeared overwhelming at times, and the\nsubject was spoken of mostly in whispers and quickly dismissed, so as not to\ninvite paranormal misfortune. Enough said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole\ntown was rife with rough history, and the unending stories of badass activity.\nOld Town hosted the original Hispanos who had to ward off marauding Apache and\nComanche raiders, as well as highwaymen and banditos preying on the commerce of\nthe Santa Fe Trail. Then came the damn gringos who proclaimed the whole\nterritory part of the United States and not Mexico anymore, which ticked off\nenough locals to kick off the Taos Revolt of 1847, in the midst of the\nMexican-American War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\nall paled by comparison to the riff-raff rail-trash that came on the train in\n1879 and conceived New Town, about a mile east of the Old Town Plaza. What was\nto become known as East Las Vegas, until the official consolidation of the two\nseparate Las Vegases in 1970, also became known as the roughest, toughest most criminally\nwicked settlement on the southwestern frontier, with more killings than Dodge\nCity, Kansas, or Tombstone, Arizona, during its heyday of hellraising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most\nnotable outlaw was Doc Holiday, who had a saloon and dentist shop a few blocks\nfrom the Casty, but had to bug out after shooting a loudmouthed patron and leave\ntown before being lynched. He returned a year or so later, with his companion\nBig Nose Kate, to settle a beef with a bartender working on the Old Town Plaza,\nbut only grazed the fellow with a bullet before hustling back to the train\ndepot and beating it out of the territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His cohort\nWyatt Earp also graced the multitude of saloons, brothels and dancehalls, as\ndid Jesse James, Mysterious Dave Mather, HooDoo Brown and a host of other colorfully\nnicknamed ne\u2019re do wells. Billy the Kid was brought through town on his way to\ntrial in Lincoln, NM, after being arrested by Pat Garrett for killing a sheriff\nduring the Lincoln County War, a running battle between established landowners\nand newbie ranchers not far to the south. A mob of townsfolk gathered to string\nhim up, but Garrett and his men got The Kid onto the train with guns drawn and hustled\nhim away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Wildest of The Wild West<\/em>, author Howard Bryan (who wrote about local history for The Albuquerque Tribune<\/em> from 1948-1985, and went on to write several books about the area\u2019s unique, outlaw past) quotes an earlier chronicler of the Southwest frontier, New Mexico historian Ralph Emerson Twitchell, who, in his monumental, five-volume The Leading Facts of New Mexican History,<\/em> wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWithout exception, in the days of the construction of the Sana Fe railway into the Southwest, there was no town which harbored a more disreputable gang of gamblers, desperadoes, and outlaws than did Las Vegas. They controlled, for a while, the local peace officers, and the dancehalls and public resorts were the scenes of many shooting affrays and robberies. In the new town, in the immediate vicinity of the present Castaneda hotel, were located some of the most disreputable saloons, dance-halls, and resorts ever seen in frontier days. The gambling houses never closed and the gambling fraternity did about as they pleased. It finally became necessary to organize a committee of one hundred for the safety of the better classes and visitors to the place. Several desperadoes were summarily dealt with, taken from the jail or from their resorts and hung. Notice was served upon every \u2018undesirable\u2019 to leave forthwith and in this manner the town was rid of as desperate a gang of cut-throats and \u2018bad men\u2019 as ever congregated in one place in the Southwest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Miguel A. Otero (governor of New Mexico from 1897-1906, and an early resident of Las Vegas) wrote in his book My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor more than a year after the entry of the railroad, it can be stated without fear of contradiction that Las Vegas was the \u2018hottest\u2019 town in the country. Such a statement would be substantiated by the record, for one month, which the old files of the (Las Vegas) Daily Optic establish. They show that twenty-nine men were killed in and around Las Vegas, either murdered outright or shot in self-defense or hung by the well-regulated Vigilance Committee. Such a record, I am certain, would be hard to parallel in the history of any of the wild towns of the West.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The deeper\nyou dig into the history of Las Vegas, the more muck and bones you quickly\nuncover, for murder seemed to be a practice that was practiced by all, and not just\na product brought in on the train. The Hispanos had centuries of hardship under\nSpanish Colonial rule, and suffered the oppression of the Church as well as the\nharshness of the land. Skin grows thick under these conditions, and the outlaw\nlife becomes a release. When the gringos arrived and announced they were taking\nover, the release became easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vicente Silva was a respected Las Vegan who ran a not-so-respected saloon and gambling hall on the Old Town Plaza called The Imperial several years before the train arrived. Greed led him to form and lead a secret crime organization known as La Sociedad de Banditos de Nuevo Mexico<\/em> (The Society of Bandits of New Mexico), which consisted of about forty men described by Otero in the aforementioned book as \u201ca tough a bunch of bad men as ever gathered outside a penal institution.\u201d They would later be referred to as Vicente Silva and the 40 Thieves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But violence and fear-mongering weren\u2019t always used simply for personal gain. It found itself manifest in a community-minded vigilance force when an unscrupulous bunch of land-grabbing lawyers, hustlers and developers occupying the statehouse, known as the Santa Fe Ring, began stealing traditional Land Grant property used to raise sheep and produce for the Santa Fe Trail commerce. Howard Bryan describes their appearance in the opening paragraph of a chapter titled Night Riders in Wildest of the Wild West:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was nearly midnight on March 11, 1890, when more than 200 armed horseback riders, wearing white hoods pulled down over their faces to conceal their identities, suddenly appeared on the streets of East Las Vegas in a demonstration of strength and determination. Las Gorras Blancas, they were called, The White Caps, a secret and militant organization of rural Hispanic settlers united to protect the common lands of the Las Vegas Grant from interlopers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nalleviate any misconceptions about their intentions, they penned a Declaration\nand promulgated it upon posters nailed to doors and posts throughout the\ncommunity, as was the method of mass communication before the digital world of\nsocial media. It read, in part:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot wishing to be misunderstood, we hereby make this our declaration.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our purpose is to protect the rights and interests of the people in general: especially those of the helpless classes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We want the Las Vegas Grant settled to the benefit of all concerned, and this we hold is the entire community within the grant<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We want no \u2018land grabbers\u2019 or obstructionists of any sort to interfere. We will watch them.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not down on lawyers as a class, but the usual knavery and unfair treatment of the people must be stopped\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are down on race issues, and will watch race agitators. We are all human brethren, under the same glorious flag.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We do not care how much you get so long as you do it fairly and honestly.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The People are suffering from the effects of partisan \u2018bossism\u2019 and these bosses had better quietly hold their peace. The people have been persecuted and hacked about in every which way to satisfy their caprice. If they persist in their usual methods retribution will be their reward.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are watching \u2019political informers…\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Intimidation and the \u2018indictment\u2019 plan have no further fear for us. If the old system should continue, death would be a relief to our sufferings. And for our rights our lives are the least we can pledge.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the fact that we are law abiding citizens is questioned, come out to our houses and see the hunger and desolation we are suffering; and \u2018this\u2019 is the result of the deceitful and corrupt methods of \u2018bossism.\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Be fair and just and we are with you, do otherwise and take the consequences.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The White Caps <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1,500 Strong and Growing Daily.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They\nwore what looked like flower sacks with cutouts for the eyes, giving them more\nthe visage of homemade Halloween ghost costumes than the tailored hoods of\nKlansmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The illegal\nranchers got fat and rich raising cheap beef for the burgeoning population of\nAnglo immigration, and also government buyers who distributed the meat, often\nspoiled, to the growing number of Indian reservations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their land-grabbing actions contributed to the Lincoln County War of Billy the Kid fame, where rogue cattle ranchers fenced out the traditional sheepherders on acreage granted them by the Republic of Mexico before the Mexican-American War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the\nNight Riders did their work, tearing down fences, burning barns and haystacks,\nand scattering cattle. They threatened worse, and were often blamed for murders\nthey didn\u2019t commit. They even torched a pile of thousands of railroad ties in\nresponse to the AT&SF Railway refusing to pay its workers a livable wage. But\nthey got their message out, and eventually hostilities ceased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In town, however, the desperadoes still ruled, so the locals banded together and sent a message of their own. Here is how they presented themselves, in a proclamation published in the Las Vegas Optic<\/em> newspaper on April 8, 1880:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo Murderers, Confidence Men, Thieves:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The citizens of Las Vegas have tired of robbery, murder, and other crimes, that have made this town a byword in every civilized community. They have resolved to put a stop to crime, if in attaining that end they have to forget the law, and resort to a speedier justice than it will afford. All such characters are therefore, hereby notified, that they must either leave this town or conform themselves to the requirements of law, or they will be summarily dealt with. The flow of blood must and shall be stopped in this community, and the good citizens of both the old and new towns have determined to stop it, if they have to HANG by the strong arm of FORCE every violator of the law in this country.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n VIGILANTES\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nVigilance Committee performed its duty in the absence of legitimate law,\nstringing up dozens of bad men (and one bad woman) at a windmill on the Plaza,\nand the riff-raff gunslingers moved on down the rail \u2013 but the outlaw culture\nnever completely left. It is there still, existing as the Dark Side of the Land\nof Enchantment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has its\nallure, dear reader, and I feel it calling this writer back. Solemnly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I shall return – someday. And I hope you will stick around to join me on this seemingly unending adventure. So, until the next episode\u2026 Orale!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/ul><\/div>\n