New Mexico History Conference in Silver City 0330-040123

[Author's Note: This photographer and author tried to get to every session and get at least one photo of a presenter. Along the way of navigating the various sessions—35 of them—scattered all over the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center, she may have missed some and for sure did not get the names correct for everyone or every session. She was unable to attend the plenary session, the special presentation or the luncheons or banquet. Please if you notice an error in the photo cutlines or in this article, please notify editor@grantcountybeat for a correction.]

Photos and Article by Mary Alice Murphy

(part 1)

(part 2)

The very successful and well attended New Mexico History Conference took place on March 30 - April 1, 2023 at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center in Silver City, New Mexico. According to main organizer, Susan Berry, more than 325 people attended and participated in the event. From a participant who said he regularly attends these conferences, this was one of the better attended events.

Six sessions took place Friday morning from 8:30-10 a.m. They included

• Leveraging New Mexico's Archival Resources, moderated by Heather McClure, and presented by Dylan McDonald, Jonathan Pringle and Kathleen Dull;

• Tracking the Trackers: A 60-year Search for the New Mexico Mounted Police, moderated by Don Bullis and presented by Chuck Hornung;

• New Mexico or Bust: The Bull and Culture Story, moderated by Troy Ainsworth and presented by David G. Thomas, Joy Poole and Susan Berry;

• Ranching and Historic Horses moderated by Leah Tookey and presented by Leland Turner and Steve Dobrott;

• Twentieth Century New Mexico Artists, moderated by Kermit Hill and presented by Pamela Arch, David F. Bower and Dorothy Stermer; and

• Doctors, Chaplains, and Army Wives: fort Bayard's Historic past, moderated by Douglas Dinwiddie and presented by Cecilia Bell, John Bell and Liz Mikols.

Six session took place Friday morning from 10:30 a.m. - noon. They included:

• Black Range History, moderated by Garland Bills and presented by David L. Morrison, Charles Doran and Joseph Britton;

• Ballads of Women Who Made History, moderated by Carol Sullivan and presented by Carmella Scorcia Pacheco and Aulton E. "Bob" Roland;

• The de Kooning Caper: Lost and Found, moderated by Stephen Fox and presented by David Van Auker and Olivia Miller;

• Forming a County-Wide Archive Collaborative: Lessons Learned, moderated by Caroline M. Browning Hell, who also served as a presenter along with Richard Melzer and Louis Huning;

•Borderlands Architecture and Builders, moderated by Mary Ragins and presented by Jerry D. Wallace and Troy M. Ainsworth; and

• Territorial New Mexico moderated by Denis Reinhartz and presented by Alan C. Downs, Jeffrey P. Shepherd and Erik Berg.

Five sessions took place Friday afternoon from 1:30-3:00 p.m. They included:

• John Gaw Meem in New Mexico: His Architectural Legacy, moderated by Susan Berry and presented by Mary Ragins and Gayla Bechtol;

• Safeguarding Oral History, moderated by Dennis Ditmanson and presented by Kathleen Dull, Douglas Dinwiddie and Javier Marrufo;

• Alabados: Nueva Vizcaya to Nuevo Mexico, moderated by Dennis Daily, who also served as a presenter along with Robert Martinez;

•Community Dynamics and Change, moderated by Ruaidhri "Roth" Belfry Crofton, and presented by Samuel Reitenour, Nancy Terr and Dianne R. Layden; and

• Nde Benah: From Creation to Restoration, moderated by Robert Redfeather, with panelists Joe Saenz, Juan Luis Longoria, Kristi Moya and Bill Tooahyaysay Bradford.

The Friday afternoon sessions from 3:30-5 p.m.. included:

• Communities Lost and Found, moderated by John Taylor, and presented by Mark Gutzman, Lynn Melton, Timothy E. Nelson and Kate Brown;

• Newspaper Reporting and U.S.-Mexico Relations, moderated by Robert J. Torrez and presented by Josh Mika and Thomas Hester;

•Spreading the Word: Women's Inspiring Stories along New Mexico's Highways and Byways, moderated by Healther McClenahan and presented by Celia Foy Castillo, Douglas A. Jackson and Lisa Nordstrum;

• Confronting Colonialism, moderated by John P. Bloom and presented by Carol Sullivan, Sandra Mathews and Tai Kreidler;

• Military Posts: Frontier Duty and POWs, moderated by Fred Friedman and presented by Mollie Pressure and Sherry Robinson;

Saturday morning included two sessions. The first from 830-10 a.m. featured:

• Grant County Personalities, moderated by Bart Roselli and presented by Chuck Hornung, Steve Cary, Twama Sparks and Patsy Ybarra Madrid;

• Laguna Pueblo: Railroad Colonies and a Historic Mission Church, moderated by Joseph Britton and presented by Thelma Antonio, Harry Antonio and Fr. Charles McCarthy;

• Through the Lens; Perspectives on Historical Photographs (by Arturo Flores), moderated by Michell Hall Kells and presented by Lawrence (aka Lorenzo, Lencho, Larry) Flores, Terry Humble and Javier Marrufo;

• Small Town, Big Stories, with Lee Gruber and Phillip Parotti;

• Creating the Next Generation of New Mexico Historians, moderated by Brandon Johnson and presented by Heather McClenahan, Claudie Thompson, Lee Wilson and Silver City National History Day students, Abigail Henderson, Lizzy McDonald and Faith Pellegrino {a short article on their presentations will follow); and

• Indian Trading Posts, moderated by Robert J. Torrez and presented by Scott Fritz and Judy Cline.

The final sessions took place from 10:30 a.m. to noon and featured:

•Woman's Suffrage in New Mexico, moderated by Kathleen Dull and presented by Stephen Fox and Sylvia Ramos Cruz;

• Early Jewish Settlers of Grant County, moderated by Tomas Jaehn and presented by Julia Robinson:

• Episodes from Apache Land, moderated by Sherry Robinson and presented by Daniel Aranda, Bill Cavaliere and Fred Friedman;

• Notorious Outlaws, moderated by Gus Seligmann and presented by David G. Thomas, Richard B. McCaslin, Billy Roberts and Tim Roberts;

• Supporting Classroom Teachers with Museum Resources, moderated by Brandon Johnson and presented by Shannon Wilson; and

• Mimbres Pottery and the Gila Cliff Dwellings, moderated by Dennis Ditmanson and presented by Danielle Romero, Dana Dick and Carolyn O.Bagy Davis.