 |
| Seal of the City of Farmington |
###
A
massive fluffy plume boiled up out of a gigantic smokestack and rode the
prevailing air currents beneath our wings like one of the malevolent spirits of
native folklore, spreading mischief far to the southwest. Plans for a new
electric power-generating plant, to be fed by area coal mines, were slowly
making their way through the bureaucracy to one day add dollars to the economy
and carcinogens to the environment.
“Those
emissions look nasty.” Aggie reflected my own thoughts. “You know much about
Farmington?”
I
chuckled. “I’m a history buff, so I know a little about a lot of places, and
not a lot about any of them.”
Farmington,
a small city of just under 50,000, which the early aboriginals called Tótah, or
the Meeting Place of Waters, perched on the Colorado Plateau at the conjunction
of the San Juan, Animas, and La Plata Rivers. Combined, these three rivers
accounted for twenty-five percent of all the water in the state. The local
economy was carbon-based: natural gas, coal, and oil.
“There’s
something that worries me more than that smokestack at the moment,” I said. “Farmington’s
been the target of several civil rights investigations, mostly for hate crimes
motivated by racial discrimination. The place is virtually surrounded by Native
Americans—the Navajo Nation west of Farmington, the Ute Mountain Reservation to
the northwest, and the Southern Ute to the northeast—and that’s sparked trouble
at times. It’s not much of a leap to conclude that a couple of gays might run
into the same type of prejudice.”
###
 |
| Looking over Farmington west toward Shiprock |
BJ’s stated concern about hate crimes in the area were
based on actual fact. Farmington has earned headlines in the past for hate
crimes against Native Americans, particularly Navajos. The city spent years
attempting to shake it’s designation as “the Selma, Alabama of the Southwest.”
The 1970s were the heyday of “Injun rollin’,” when youths from border towns in
the area beat up Navajos (usually sleeping alcoholics) with rocks, pellet guns,
bottles, and baseball bats as a rite of passage.
Rodney Barker’s book, The
Broken Circle – a True Story of Crime and Magic in Indian Country, recounts
the April 1974 “Chokecherry Massacre,” the murder and mutilation of three
Navajo men near Farmington. Their bodies were thrown into a nearby canyon.
Three Farmington high school boys admitted to the killings but were never tried
for the crime of murder. They were sent to reform school as juveniles, instead.
Attempts by tribal members to march in protest of this lenient treatment turned
into riots when permits for peaceful demonstrations were denied.
Thirty-two years later, fears were raised again by
violent, racially charged incidents between whites and Navajos which started
with the beating of a forty-seven-year-old Navajo man who was offered a ride by
three white teenagers in Farmington, driven to the outskirts of town, and
beaten. Six days later, a twenty-one-year-old Navajo was killed by police
responding to a domestic dispute in a Wal-Mart parking lot. When the Farmington
police declared it a justified shooting, the FBI declined to investigate. They
later reconsidered their decision.
 |
| Aztec Ruins Near Aztec, New Mexico |
Although BJ’s concerned had some basis in history, the City
of Farmington is not totally defined by its racially charged past. The area was
settled by the Anasazi in the Seventh Century (visit the nearby Salmon and
Aztec Ruins as BJ and Aggie do while following the trail of Lando Alfano and
his companion, Dana Norville). In 1868, the Navajo Nation was ceded the western
half of San Juan County, New Mexico. A number of settlers moved into the
remaining territory from Southern Colorado and established Junction City. In
1901 the town was incorporated and renamed Farmington. At the time it boasted a
population of 548. By September 19, 1905, the railroad connected Farmington to
Durango, Colorado. The 1920s saw investments in natural gas and oil in the
area, although significant production did not occur until the 1950s.
Something I didn’t know: In 1967, an underground nuclear explosion
took place 50 miles east of Farmington and about 25 miles south of Dulce, New
Mexico in the present day Carson National Forest. This detonation was the pilot
project of Operation Plowshare (Project Gasbuggy), an attempt to fracture
underground bedrock for greater extraction of natural gas from wells in the
area.
Something else I hadn’t known: On March 18, 1950, over
half the town’s population reported seeing large saucers in the sky flying at
rapid speeds—a mass UFO sighting!
Today, Farmington is an active, vibrant town that has
hosted the Connie Mack World Series baseball tournament for players between 16
and 18 years of age for 43 years. The games are played every August at Ricketts
Park.
The three local rivers are celebrated by the Farmington
Riverfest each year. The festival boasts music, fine arts displays, food,
entertainment, river rafting, and a 5K and 10K run and walk.
The city sponsors an annual strongman competition on the
last Saturday of July on San Juan Plaza. There is a Four Corners Storytelling
Festival and a Renaissance Faire in October, and youngsters from the Four
Corners Home for Children dress in traditional clothing and pose for the Live
Navajo Nativity Scene on the 23rd of December.
This piece wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the excellent
fishing, both in the rivers and on the lake.
It’s a great place to visit.
Next week: Probably
something else from THE BISTI BUSINESS.
New posts are
published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment