Title: “The Other State - New Mexico, USA” Author: Richard McCord Publisher: Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, N.M., 2003 Paperback, 119 pages ISBN: 086534-403-5
“I read so that I can live more than one life in more than one place,” author Anne Tyler
I recently discovered this charming paperback at a used-book sale. The 30 short stories offer a unique perspective on the state’s rich multicultural history.
Two journalists, Richard McCord and Laurie Knowles, fled their New York city lifestyle in 1971. The duo were on their way to San Francisco when they decided to finance the remainder of their road trip by doing odd jobs in Santa Fe.
The adventurous pair quickly adapted to the southwestern lifestyle of “mañana,” which means whatever isn’t finished today can be done tomorrow. And they became avid readers of the city’s daily newspaper, The New Mexican.
“Nowhere else will we find a town as vivid and as vital as this,” recalled the author about their decision to live in Santa Fe.
Legends about the Santa Fe Trail and the Palace of Governors in the city’s plaza added to the mystique.
McCord, a history buff, was curious about the Palace of Governors built by the Spanish in 1610 to house colonial government officials. The plaza was also the terminus of the 900‑mile Santa Fe Trail, which was the main commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe between 1821-1880. Approximately 565 miles of the Trail run through the Sangre de Cristo mountains in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
( Santa Fe de Nuevo México was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain established by Spain in 1598. It encompassed modern-day Mexico plus California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida.
Spain continued to administer the viceroyalty until the 1836 Santa María–Calatrava Treaty that established Mexico’s independence from Spain.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between Mexico and the United States ended the Mexican-American War. And Mexico ceded nearly one-half of its territory to the U.S. including New Mexico and Colorado.)
McCord writes about his personal experiences based on living in the Land of Enchantment for more than three decades. He discovered local legends, folklore, and numerous true stories.
One of these is a tale about a traveling salesman who discovers a grisly scene when he stops for gas at the only service station in Ramah during a snowstorm. The 1960 incident became part of the local legends for El Morro area residents.
The town of Lincoln is known for its claim as the site where Billy the Kid gunned down several men before Sheriff Pat Garrett shot the Kid in Fort Sumner in 1881. “The Dead Ringer” is the story of a Florida lookalike who found a summer job impersonating the notorious outlaw.
The author describes his encounters with John Erhlicman, ringleader of the notorious Watergate scandal that engulfed the Richard Nixon administration. Erhlicman submitted occasional guest columns to the Santa Fe Reporter which were published under the pseudonym “Agricola.”
The “Lonesome Place” is a destination for those seeking complete solitude. Eerie silence is the dominant feature of the BistiWilderness Area, 3,946 acres on the Navajo (Diné) lands of northwestern New Mexico. “You don’t get there by accident,” said McCord, “Very few get there at all.”
Plans to reintroduce the native gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park (Montana and Wyoming) and the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico ignited a storm of controversy according to the McCord. He noted the vociferous opposition by ranchers but acknowledged that official records show that no human in North America has ever been killed or even seriously injured by a wolf attack. A total of 17 cows were reported killed by wolves in Montana between 1987-1992. The dispute about introducing wolves into New Mexico continues to this day.
“The Severed Foot” describes an event in the Santa Fe Plaza during the 1970s. In the middle of the day someone chiseled the word “savage” off the 1868 stone obelisk that was dedicated to Juan de Oñate y Salazar who had served as viceroy for the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México of New Spain.
The perpetrator remains unknown.
The right foot of the large bronze Oñate statue near the city of Española was chopped off late one night in the 1990s. The non-violent protest was a symbolic act of retaliation for Onate’s 1598 order to amputate the right feet of all Acoma Pueblo warriors.
The bronze foot was never found.
A wistful McCord concludes, “Living here [in Santa Fe] was easier in those days, before the skyrocketing real estate, the hilltop mansions, the tony shops, the ‘discovery’ of Santa Fe, the bigbox chain stores, the conglomeration of the world. I doubt that a newcomer now could live the story I lived,” concluded a wistful McCord more than 20 years ago.
SIDEBAR:
Richard “Dick” Mc-Cord (1941-2020) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and the author of several books. He co-founded the Santa Fe Reporter newspaper in 1974, which set the standard in New Mexico for journalistic excellence.
His book, “The Chain Gang: One Newspaper Versus the Gannett Empire,” recounts how Gannett, the nation's biggest newspaper chain, resorted to illegal and immoral tactics to force other newspapers out of business.
“The Other State New Mexico, USA” is the only book ever to make The New York Times bestseller list in both fiction and non-fiction categories.