Enjoying our history; thankful to those who helped

History is important. Our history — here in Valencia County — is significant and cherished by those who want to know and recognize where we came from.

History helps us understand the present by providing context about how we’ve changed, how we’ve grown and how we’ve also remained true to our heritage. Studying our history helps us grasp our place in the world and share our culture with others.

We are privileged to have some excellent and honored historians amongst us — Richard Melzer, John Taylor, Cynthia Shetter, Patty Guggino, Maggie McDonald and Louis Huning Jr. — all who have contributed their knowledge of Valencia County’s history over the years.

We have also lost some of our most treasured chroniclers — BF Burr and Jim Sloan — along with their passion and perspectives of where we have been.

Last month, the News-Bulletin published our second Hometown History special section, filled with photos from our past. I was lucky enough to design and choose the photos that were included, although the task was filled with difficult decisions.

I have a plethora of photos, thanks to our Remember When ... feature that is in the paper most weeks. In the beginning of our history venture, Jim Sloan, the Belen Harvey House Museum’s official historian, made it his mission to send me photos for publication. Many of the photos he had were given to him by us when we moved our office, but a lot were taken by him throughout his lifetime.

After he passed away in 2022, I turned to Louis Huning Jr., the manager at the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage & Arts. Not only has he sent me some of the most amazing historic photos of the village, he is quick to furnish me with pictures from around the whole county.

As I was preparing for this year’s special section, I looked back at all our Remember When ... collection and realized there’s a lot more photos out there that we and the public hadn’t seen. That’s when I got the bright idea to ask again for more help.

I reached out to Jim Lane, president of the Meadow Lake Parks Area Association; Paul Baca and Teresa Scott, of the Valley Improvement Association; John Taylor, with the Valencia County Historical Society; and Kathleen Pickering, the director of the Belen Public Library and the Belen Harvey House Museum. They were all very helpful and generous.

Jim sent me some interesting photos of Meadow Lake and the clubhouse, which I never even knew existed. He also relayed a first-hand account about the fire that destroyed the structure. Thank you, Jim!

John, who is always willing to impart his knowledge about Valencia County, sent me several photos taken in Bosque Farms and Peralta. Muchos gracias, John!

Kathleen, who is always a wealth of information and knowledge, allowed me to copy numerous photos from the Belen Harvey House collection. What a treasure. I was only able to gather a couple of dozen photographs — a small fraction of what’s in their vast collection.

Luckily for all of us, volunteers at the Belen Harvey House have been working on an archive digitization project, funded by National Endowment for the Humanities, for a consortium of archives coordinated by Archive-It.org.

Kathleen was able to obtain a grant that is paying to digitize thousands and thousands of local, historic photos and, eventually, make it available to the public. I appreciate you, Frances and all the volunteers at the Harvey House!

Then I hit the jackpot! I contacted Paul Baca and Teresa Scott from VIA, knowing they have tons of records, maps, brochures and photographs. Not only did they have materials related to Rio Communities, Las Maravillas and Pasitos de Cielo subdivisions and the rest of their properties but they have an enormous amount of photos of the rest of the county.

As I looked through just a small portion of VIA’s collection of historic material, I found myself in awe. It was a windfall of local history! Thank you, Paul and Teresa!

When I walked out of the office, I had dozens and dozens of photos that tells the story of our valley, of our community.

As I sat down to look at my historic haul, I didn’t realize how many I had gathered. It took me a couple of hours to scan everything and then choose what I was going to use for the special section.

With a limited amount of space in the publication, I soon realized I couldn’t publish as many photos as I wanted. So instead of waiting until next year’s special section to share these treasurers with all of you, we’ve decided to start publishing a special photo page starting in the coming months called Hometown History.

We hope you enjoy the stories and the pictures of our past, and if you have any interesting historic photos you’d like to share, send me an email at cgarcia@news-bulletin.com.