On this date — Oct. 11

On this date …

1962: Cannon Air Force Base was making weekend plans for its 20th anniversary. A Main Street parade was scheduled to include six marching bands, six former state fair queens from Curry County and an Air Force precision drill team. Meanwhile base personnel were busy lifting a transformer to the top of Tucumcari Mountain, using a helicopter, completing the task in less than an hour. The transformer was for state police radio communications.

1956: A Clovis railroader was acquitted of murder in connection with the shooting death of Juan Martinez. “There were two women who cried throughout most of the trial and its outcome. They were the mother and niece of the dead man,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. Defendant David Dominguez, represented by Attorney Dan Buzzard, declined to accept the return of the gun used in the shooting, which a jury said was in self-defense.

1930: The biggest single rise in the Pecos in 16 years occurred at Fort Sumner when the river hiked 10 feet and carried out three spans of a De Baca County bridge. Up to 5 inches of rain fell across eastern New Mexico and central-eastern New Mexico, causing the floods. Two farm houses were reported washed away and three “orchestra boys” found their vehicle submerged in nearly 6 feet of water near Melrose as they drove to perform in Fort Sumner. No deaths were reported in the storm.

Price check …

1930: Piggly Wiggly, located on Clovis’ Main Street, offered a pound of grapes for a nickel, a quart glass jar of mustard for 19 cents, a large bottle of Libby’s catsup for 21 cents and Kellogg’s Rice Krispies for 11 cents a box.

Did you know …

Capt. E.E. Hull, father of the newspaperman Jack Hull, founded Clovis’ first bank, Clovis National Bank, which opened June 27, 1907.

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

[email protected]