Pages past — Sept. 10

On this date ...

1969: The longest steel beams ever installed in New Mexico — 138 feet long, weighing 22 tons each — arrived in Clovis. They were part of the overhead bridge spanning U.S. 60-84 at the entrance to Cannon Air Force Base, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Five beams were scheduled to be installed.

1956: Hillcrest Park Zoo was home to two new bear cubs — one captured after a wild chase near the state capitol in Santa Fe and the other captured at a lumber mill near Taos. Zookeeper Ellis Green reported the cubs showed apathy toward food, likely a result of their new surroundings.

1940: Haynes Motors & Co., at 112 E. Grand in Clovis, was advertising the Buick Fireball. Starting at $935, it offered “more room for legs, for elbows, for heads, more room for entrance and more room for carrying luggage.” The six-passenger, four-door sedan was “the silhouette the cars of the future will seek to achieve.”

For adults only ...

1970: The Lyceum theater on Clovis’ Main Street was showing “Cherry” and “Goodbye,” both movies rated X with no one admitted under 17.

Tragic times ...

1929: Dozens of Clovis business owners and community leaders took out a full page newspaper advertisement to show their continued support for the Transcontinental Air Transport after a plane crash at Mount Taylor, New Mexico, killed all eight people aboard. “Storms, washouts, typhoons and the like can’t be legislated from the path of transportation companies,” the Chamber of Commerce of Clovis stated in its support of the coast-to-coast plane-train service that included a stop in Clovis.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. Contact him at:

[email protected]