Pages past — Feb. 21

On this date ...

2006: Holiday Inn Express opened in Portales.

The hotel had 65 rooms, a conference room that could accommodate up to 50 people and a health/fitness center.

Rates ranged from $65 to $89 per night.

The hotel employed 15 people, including seven housekeepers.

1956: Clovis Junior High School officials had plans to install an iron barrier and fence around the campus as precautionary measures.

John Abernathy, 13, had recently been injured when struck by a car driven by another junior high student.

Abernathy suffered a fractured left wrist and bruises as a result of the accident.

The iron barrier would be installed to “close off North Pile Street” while a fence would be erected on the west side of the campus next to Main Street.

“Due to the increased traffic as a result of paving Main and the continued growth of the northern part of Clovis, every precaution must be taken to prevent accidents on Main as well as Pile,” Principal Harlan Beasley told the Clovis News-Journal.

1946: A 20-year-old man who had recently lived in Clovis, Portales and Farwell had been arrested in Sublette, Kansas, after an alleged altercation with a police officer.

Ervin Ball was wanted in Clovis for the theft of boots, billfolds and other merchandise from Eddy Cain’s Boot Shop.

He was also a suspect in a California automobile theft.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:

www.highplainsyesterdays.com