Cibola County’s 40th celebrated with pride, reminiscence, and togetherness

Community members and husband and wife duo Roger and Evelyn Siegmann have been facilitating an annual “All Fools’ Day Car Cruise” for six years now. It started in 2016, during which the Siegmann’s remember enduring a sudden winter storm for the very first cruise. The cruise has evolved since then, gaining steady participation each year and more preferable weather. This year, however, was a bit different.

Roger, being a member of the Grants MainStreet organization, became aware of the organiza tion’s desire to do something special for Cibola County’s 40th anniversary and offered the idea of having the celebration coincide with his All Fools’ Day cruise. MainStreet was all for the idea and passed it along to County Manager Kate Fletcher, who also supported the idea.

Many parties felt that this celebration was especially needed because Cibola County’s 40th birthday was technically last year, having been established on June 19, 1981, but not much could be planned due to the persistent COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Siegmann’s, MainStreet, and the County all agreed this event would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate the tail end of Cibola’s 40th year as a county.

On the bright, spring morning of Saturday, April 2, at 9:00 a.m., the Siegmann’s, community members, and county officials gathered in front of the Cibola County Complex building to kick off the celebratory event. Roger explained the cruise route, the order in which each pitstop would take place, and the fun games and prizes that the event would encompass. According to Roger, the time that went into planning the specialized event so that it could be enjoyable for all was about 20-30 hours. A dice game is included annually, Roger said, but this year required more effort in incorporating the Cibola County themes, prizes, and details.

Following Roger’s speech about the event, Evelynn helped about 20-plus participants accumulate their goodie bags and supplies needed to play the games. Meanwhile, Cibola County Commissioner Robert Windhorst, who was accompanied by fellow Commissioners Christine Lowery and Ralph Lucero, delivered a speech on the endurance and victory story of Ci bola County, as well as offered support for his fellow commissioners.

“I just want to let you know that we’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs in the past four years… but we are resilient. We’re moving forward. And I want you to know I work with Dr. Christine Lowery, Commissioner Lowery, and with Commissioner Ralph Lucero, and I am the low Republican on the Commission, so I want to let you know that these two people have been instrumental in the progress that we have made, with our budget, the way that we handle the county. And we just found out that we, our county, when I first got elected, had 183,000 dollars in reserve. We, at the end of June, of this fiscal year, should have close to 11 million. This has been from careful control of the budget, we stopped all trips to Washington, D.C., we stopped spending money on us. The things that happened in the past, we stopped that. And I just want you to know that I support Dr. Lowery, I support Ralph Lucero for county commissioners. And they deserve re-election…. I’m so glad you came here today. We’re grateful to be a part of this town. Thank you,” concluded Commissioner Windhorst.

Participants applauded the county’s financial growth and began the games with their first dice roll of the day. Each dice face had the letters of “CIBOLA” on them, and the first participant to spell CIBOLA won. Participants would have the chance to roll the dice at each pitstop, which included SoloWorks Cibola located at 210 E Santa Fe Avenue, the Cibola-McKinley County Line outside of Milan and Bluewater, the Cibola Arts Council Double Six Gallery located at 1001 W Santa Fe Avenue, and finally, the Cibola County Historical Museum located at 525 W High Street.

At each stop, participants had the chance to converse, tour the locations, grab informational pamphlets, snacks, refreshments, photos, and reminisce on the history of Cibola County and the areas it encompasses. At the final destination, participants heard from Cibola County Historical Society President Mary Savacheck, who spoke a little one aspect of why Cibola County was created in the first place. According to Savacheck, before Cibola County was created, it was Valencia County, which was very large. “It was a huge county at one time. Valencia was huge, and there was a lot of problems getting people to go clear to Los Lunas for their legal [errands, like] going to the courthouse. And things I think got done sort of slight-of-hand sometimes because nobody wanted to go clear to the courthouse, and so it’s much easier now,” explained Savacheck.

To conclude the dice and poker games, participants took turns rolling their dice until someone finally spelled CIBOLA. Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace ended up spelling CIBOLA first and he was declared the All Fools’ Day Cruise winner and was awarded a jester’s hat, which he gladly put on with a smile. The poker hand game winner was awarded a can cooler, and the rest of the participants were given custom Cibola County license plates and pins with the bison emblem and June 19, 1981 date on them. Savacheck invited everyone to return to the museum with their families, and Roger thanked everyone for participating in the Sixth Annual All Fools’ Day/Cibola County Celebratory Car Cruise.