A little info about our neighboring city to the east.....From the Amarillo Globe News.... N.M. town nuts about farming By KEVIN WELCH PORTALES, N.M. - What began in 1898 as a rowdy, makeshift cowtown has become Portales, a town reliant on farming and the processing of agricultural products, as well as the center of higher education for eastern New Mexico. A cattleman, John Doak Good, was the first resident of area. He came to Portales Springs in 1880 or 1881, according to the book High Plains History, and lived in one of caves near the springs. The springs were located six miles southeast of todays Portales and gave the town its name. Portales is Spanish for porches, referring to the caves from which the water emerged. The caves looked like covered porches, and the springs were a well-known watering hole on Fort Sumner Trail. Uncle Josh Morrison built a one-room store at the springs about 1896. He later moved it to the new town of Portales when Pecos Valley and Northeastern Railroad arrived in 1898. His was the first store in town. The town grew from just a general store, shipping pens and an old boxcar for a station house into a major cattle shipping point and a place of recreation for cowboys. It was a wild west town just waiting for homesteaders to tame it, according to High Plains History. By 1902 Portales had a bank, two general stores, three wagon yards, seven saloons and a Presbyterian church, but many of the businesses were still housed in tents. Indeed, settlers did come to the town, attracted by the railroad and shallow underground water. A person could dig a well 15 to 20 feet with a pick and shovel and they would have water for domestic use, reported High Plains History. The character of Portales, however, was slow to change. Ranchers were less than happy to see their open range parceled into farms and resisted the taming of the prairie. Rancher Tom Trammell was one such man. Dont give the nesters a damn thing, not eyen a cottonwood switch to set out for a tree, he said, according to the book Roosevelt County History and Heritage. Progress toward civilizing Portales was also stalled when the town lost its bid to become the eastern terminal of the new Santa Fe Railroad line that was begun in 1902. Some accused Portales leaders of running off the railroad by apathy and overconfidence, as well as by failure to raise the $50,000 and donate 40 acres of land, as required by the railroad, said History and Heritage. One sign of Portales wild nature was that it was home to numerous saloons. One displayed pet eagles in cages as a novelty to attract customers, while other bars provided roulette wheels and slot machines. By 1906, times were changing in Portales as settlers began to challenge the status quo. A Baptist preacher, E.P. Alldredge, bought the Roosevelt County Herald to lobby for change. Alldredge also preached that, With the help of God the saloon walls will soon fall and Portales will be rid of liquor forever, reported History and Heritage. Reformers continued to change the cowtown image of Portales, and farmers in the area tried various crops to replace pastures. The newcomers brought in dairy cattle and grew crops such as corn and wheat. They then began to try specialty crops ranging from peanuts, in 1914, to tomatoes, green beans and sweet potatoes in the 1920s. Vegetables were a temporary success, creating the need for a canning plant and earning Portales the nickname of Tater Town, according to History and Heritage. The changing economics of production eventually caused these crops to fade from popularity with farmers by 1955. Even broom corn was grown in the area, supplying the broom factory established by the Logan brothers early in the century. Another sign of the maturation of Portales was the founding of Eastern New Mexico Junior College there in 1934. It eventually added two more years of education and became Eastern New Mexico University 15 years later. While the prohibition fostered by Alldredge was eventually repealed, the university, peanuts and dairies came to stay. They are now mainstays in the towns economy, according to Portales city manager Larry Palmer. ENMU is now one of the single largest employers in Portales, while peanut processors and a milk dehydrating plant utilize raw products from the region. The Mid-America Dairy is the largest mild drier in the nation, Palmer said. The Sunland and Borden peanut processing plants dry, roast and shell nuts, and Sunland is expanding its peanut butter manufacturing. PORTALES: Location: 122 miles southwest of Amarillo in Roosevelt County N.M. Portales is the county seat. Founded: 1898 Population. 12,003 How it got its name: Named for Portales Springs, which flow out over flat slabs of rock, reminiscent of Spanish porches or portals. Notable residents: World champion team roper Jake Barnes honed his skill in Portales. Bull rider Craig Chavez is a pro rodeo rookie from Portales. Movie actors Dennis Rhotan and Ronny Cox are from Portales.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 20:25:01 +0000