SocorroFest

By John Larson
SOCORRO – SocorroFest returns this Saturday, Oct. 10, with four music venues, arts and crafts, food vendors, a harmonica contest, spirits tents and family activities.
“SocorroFest is a delightful opportunity for the city and its people to showcase their talents and skills both to out-of-town visitors, and their own neighbors,” Dean said. “It’s going to be great, We ended up with four stages, and this year we’re starting Friday night with two great bands.”
Friday night, Darren Córdova’s mariachi band, Mariachi Calor, will accompany young mariachi singers competing for prizes starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Plaza.
Gunzawless, a group anchored by the Gonzales brothers, Socorro musicians now living in Phoenix, will take over at 8 p.m. with their Latin-funk-rock-blues sound, and winners of the 2008 Phoenix Music Awards “Instrumental Performance of the Year.”
Eight food vendors have signed up for the hungry, serving “sausage links, Indian tacos, green chile stew tacos, burgers and more,” Dean said.
The spirits tent will include wines from Deming’s St. Clair Winery, and beverages from Socorro Springs Brewing Co., Abbey Brewery in Santa Fe, Sierra Blanca Brewing Co. from Moriarty, and Tractor Brewing Co. in Los Lunas.
About 30 arts and crafts vendors will also be stationed throughout the plaza area, offering a wide variety of creations, from jewelry to woodworking to pottery.
Sponsored by the City of Socorro and aided and abetted by a loyal cast of businesses and individuals, SocorroFest organizers pledge that this year’s celebration of all things Socorro – and New Mexico – will be the biggest and best yet.
Dean said Saturday’s festivities will begin at noon with the second annual Harmonica Contest on the City Hall stage, followed by 20 musical acts.
Suzanne Barteau, organizer of the harmonica contest, said a special tie-in this year will be a free Harmonica Workshop called “Getting on Stage with Harmonica” given by Joe Mancuso and Friends at Socorro’s historic Capitol Bar on the plaza, at 3 p.m.
“The workshop will focus on amplifiers, microphones, and different styles of harmonica playing as they relate to stage performance,” Barteau said. “Joining Joe will be harmonica teacher Brian Walker and sound technician Brian Boggs, both from Albuquerque, to make sure that every one gets some individual attention and comes away from the workshop with the kind of knowledge that can take your playing to the next level.”
Those interested in attending the harmonica workshop should contact Suzanne Barteau at (575) 835-0424 or (505) 340-4280 (cell) for more information.

Noon – Et Alia Belly Dancers (Plaza)
Noon – Harmonica Contest (City Hall Stage)
1 p.m. – Roon. Folk rock. (Plaza)
2 p.m. – Wagogo. Zimbabwe, island, Chicano influence. (Plaza)
2:30 p.m. – Freaky Styley. Jam-based rock. (City Hall Stage)
3 p.m. – Linda and Alexis Mansell. Folk. (Stage Door Grill Patio)
3 p.m. – Harmonica Workshop with Joe Mancuso (Capitol Bar)
3:30 p.m. – Tory and Friends. Spanish. (City Hall Stage)
4 p.m. – Gunzawless. Blues, rock. (Plaza)
4 p.m. – Susie Jean and Ross. Country swing. (Stage Door Grill Patio)
4:30 p.m. – Skallywags. Classic rock. (City Hall Stage)
4:30 p.m. – Toby and Ernie Jaramillo. Spanish. (Capitol Bar)
5:30 p.m. –Doug Figgs. Country, cowboy, folk. (Stage Door Grill Patio)
5:30 p.m. – The Westerners. Country, oldies. (City Hall Stage)
5:30 p.m. – The Bernie Romero Band. Northern Mexico folk. (Capitol Bar)
6 p.m. – Albuquerque Blues Connection (Plaza)
6:30 p.m. – Remedy. Country, Spanish, rock. (City Hall Stage)
6:30 p.m. – Los Ladrones. Old time country. Spanish. (Capitol Bar)
7 p.m. – Tom “Hound Dog” Romancik. Blues. (Stage Door Grill Patio)
8 p.m. – Darren Cordova with Grupo Calor; Mariachi Calor and Dynnette Cordova (Plaza)
8 p.m. – Stage Door Jam with Huckaby Junction (Stage Door Grill Patio)
10 p.m. – Rhythm Prophets. Classic rock, blues. (Capitol Bar)

SocorroFest

OPINION: Mountain Mail and Sylvia Rise From Ashes Like the Phoenix

Sylvia
By Anne Sullivan

“Sylvia, please come out of your doghouse and eat some breakfast,” I called to her the other morning.
“No, thank you,” she said without moving. “I’m not hungry.”
“You didn’t eat a thing yesterday,” I scolded. “You must be hungry.”
“No, not at all. I’ve lost my taste for life.”
“Nonsense, you can’t sulk in your doghouse forever.” I tried gentle persuasion. “Don’t you want to go up-canyon to hunt for the Lost Adams Diggings gold? I’ll go with you. We can have picnic.”
“No, there’s probably no gold anyway. No gold for me anywhere. I’m nothing. I’m a nobody,” she insisted.
“You’re Sylvia. Sylvia The Author.”
“No more. I have no column anymore. I’m no one.” The mumblings from the doghouse became less and less distinct.”
“I know you’re bummed out about the paper closing down, but you’ve got to get a hold of yourself. Everyone in Catron County and Socorro is upset about it. I’m none too happy myself.”
“You have no idea how I fee,” she cried with more emotion than she’d shown for days. “Once I was someone. Now it’s all been taken away. I’m just another dog.”
“You’re not just another dog.” I said, patting her head. “You’re my dog.”
“That won’t even get me unemployment insurance. No unemployment for dogs, that’s what they said when I tried to apply. No job, no unemployment, no dog food, no pigs’ ears.”
“Lots of people are facing unemployment these days. You’ve just got to pull yourself together and show what you’re made of.”
“Some other time,” she said, turning around in her house so that her generous rear was the only part showing.
Just then the phone rang. I raced inside to answer it. A minute later, I returned to the porch, phone in hand.
“It’s for you,” I said.
“Me?” Sylvia questioned. “Me? Nobody cares about me. Who is it?”
“He says his name is Gary Jaramillo,” I said, handing her the phone.
“This is Sylvia,” I heard her say as she squeezed her way to the back of her house so I could hear no more. After what seemed like an eternity she burst out of the doghouse shouting, “Guess what?”
“What?”
Sylvia took a long breath after which the words same somersaulting out of her mouth. “Gary Jaramillo and his family just bought the paper – the Mountain Mail – and it’s going to start publishing again this week and he said, and I quote, ‘The rumors of the demise of the Mountain Mail have been greatly exaggerated,’ and they want me – me, Sylvia – to write for it and they have lots of ideas which sound good to me – and – and … ”
“What are some of their ideas?” I interrupted to ask.
“They want to make it even more of a community paper and they want to know how people felt about it closing down and about it starting up again,” Sylvia still spoke in doubletime. “That’s easy. People in Catron and Socorro counties felt terrible about the paper closing. I can’t tell you how many people spoke to me about it and they were all said. So I know that people will be absolutely delighted that the Mountain Mail rides again and that their subscriptions will be honored. And did I tell you that Mr. Jaramillo and his family want a paper with more stories about people – old people and young people and people in the middle and I hope maybe even about dogs – about what they’re doing that’s good and beneficial for others and the rest of the world. He says there’ll be more about families and the things that are important to us and the paper’s going to be longer with a Spanish section muy pronto,” Sylvia said the last in the most atrocious Spanish accent ever heard in the Rio Grande Valley. “Plus it’s going to have color pictures with all this good news.”
“That’s good news right there,” I said the second I could get a word in edgewise.
“My new friend Gary Jaramillo said, and I quote gain, ‘We’re hoping that we have a long and happy history with the people in Socorro and Catron County.”
“All right,” I said with a sigh of great joy.
“All right, indeed,” Sylvia agreed. “Now what about a picnic? I’m famished. I’ve got to keep my strength up so I can write.”

OPINION: Mountain Mail and Sylvia Rise From Ashes Like the Phoenix

Mountain Mail’s Last Issue

After nearly 30 years of publishing local news for Socorro and Catron counties, the Mountain Mail will cease to produce a local newspaper.
Owner Thomas Guengerich said the newspaper’s financial situation is unsustainable and that the outlook for the future does not seem to look any brighter.
“I want to sincerely thank all the people who have been faithful readers of the Mountain Mail for many years,” Guengerich said. “Hearing positive feedback from people in all communities in Socorro and Catron counties was the most gratifying part of being involved with the Mountain Mail.”
He also expressed thanks to all the contributing writers and photographers who have helped produce the newspaper over the years.
Over the past year, the newspaper’s advertising revenues have continued to slip in every area. Cost-cutting measures, such as eliminating full-color printing, were not enough to make a difference. While readership remains strong with only a small decrease in subscriptions over the past year, the advertising revenues have fallen dramatically.
“The decision to close the doors and stop publishing was very difficult,” Guengerich said, “In the end, going out of business is regrettable, but the best choice. We had a good run, but it’s time to call it quits.”
The last edition of the Express will be published next Monday, Sept. 14. The Magdalena Mountain Mail was first published in 1980. Valley Independent Publishing purchased the newspaper in 2002.

Mountain Mail’s Last Issue

The Earth Doesn’t Need Us

Magdalena Potluck
by Don & Margaret Wiltshire

The planet would do wonderfully well without us. When we talk about saving the planet; we are really talking about saving us. We are destroying what we need to survive, air, water, food.
The wolf would limit numbers of grass eaters and the prairies would grow grass to maturity. The aquifers would remain and feed moisture to those grasses. The grasses would shelter seedling trees. The air would have more oxygen, less erosion.
We have been destroying it all. That’s what we are good at.
We destroy species that help us live and could help us live.
Over grazing destroys grasslands. It is natural for a wolf to help the grasslands as it lives to survive. It does the earth a service. We don’t.
We live to survive. We have good brains to help us. Yet we often don’t use them well. Our brains are compromised by our egos and our greed.
Every year we learn more about the intelligence of animals and plants. For centuries we have been too ego centered to acknowledge their intelligence. We live in a constant state of denial.
Chief Seattle’s speech on land is one of the greatest documents in our recorded history. Politely, he told us how we are destroying ourselves. He told us how we could save ourselves. In turn, Western Civilization just took advantage of him.
Some think that on the close horizon there is the end of Western Civilization. If that is the case, some will survive who want to do it all over again with the same ego-greed orientation. They, of course, will save their weapons.
Others are raising their consciousness. They know we belong to the earth, we don’t own it. The earth’s crust is the EARTH’s crust. The aquifers belong to the earth and no man can own them. The grasslands belong to all, not just the greedy.
To raise your consciousness you don’t have to read a book, belong to a group, join a political party. All you have to do is breathe deeply. Use your senses. See the truth before you. Listen less to the ego voice in your head and more to what is around you. Consciousness is awareness.
Many indigenous people have told us we live in a dream world. We are not conscious. We want things to be as we want them to be. Usually because of our own greed; that nagging sense of being empty, alone and fearful.
Being conscious one can discover they are all they need to be, they are never alone and their needs are truly few. Conscious-people don’t need ego tasks like proving identity and personal value. They are in tune with nature, wholly part of the universe.
However, food, shelter, air and water needs to be available. It needs to be good.
Using science we have made some poor choices in the past. Pesticides continue to handicap us worldwide. They hurt plants, animals and humans. Still we continue using them.
Now environmental science tells us we are in our 11th hour, in the last few minutes of the last hour, historically speaking. They want us to make it, to survive. They are speaking to us just as Chief Seattle did years ago. Will we listen?
Many don’t want to listen. They think economics is the bigger problem. Economics is nowhere without nature and its resources.
We are nowhere without nature and its resources. Living in a box that’s gold lined, diamond studded and dollar padded will kill you if you don’t have good water, food and air. Not to mention how fast you’d get bored!
We have the ability to remember the past and look to the future. They say that separates us from animals and plants. I have my doubts. Whatever the case, they plan for the future better then we do.
Take a deep breath, live and let live.

The Earth Doesn’t Need Us

OPINION: Sylvia And Her Mining Company Become Victims of Squirrel

Sylvia
by Anne Sullivan
“Sylvia!” I shrieked, “How many times have I told you to stop digging under the house?”
Without stopping, her paws spraying dirt behind her, Sylvia answered, “I don’t know exactly. Maybe four or five times.”
“So why are you still digging?”
“Because the gold from the Lost Adams Diggings is buried here. I know it.”
“No, it’s not,” I said to divert her. “I happen to know it’s buried up-canyon where the tall rocks are. Why don’t you do more digging there?”
‘I would,” she replied over her shoulder and still without ceasing her labor, “but there’s no way to transport the gold down here.”
“What about your sweet little wagon pulled by squirrels?”
“There’s been a problem with that,” Sylvia said, actually stopping her digging. “The squirrels have gone on strike.”
”How come? I thought you were paying them with my walnuts.”
“The strike wasn’t because of lack of payment. You remember that two-timing rat of a squirrel I was interrogating under the house. The one that escaped when you stopped me from killing him.”
“Yes, I remember well. It was considerably more than interrogation.”
“Not really,” Sylvia said. “It was sanctioned by the government of Swingle Canyon.”
”What government is that?”
“RingWorm, Gordo and me. The Big Three Government.”
“Lord help us and perish the thought,” I said with a sigh. “Anyway, what’s that poor squirrel got to do with the strike?”
Sylvia’s usually kind face registered her rage. “The big sissy evidently went to the grievance rep to complain about his treatment and the union steward took his side. I tell you, help isn’t what it used to be.”
“Maybe not, but what happened?”
“All our squirrels went out on strike and now they’re suing me for everything I’ve got. That stupid squirrel said I bullied him. It’s all your fault; you should have let me kill him.”
“It’s a poor leader who passes the blame.”
“Huh?” said Sylvia, resuming her digging. “Anyway, now we have no way to transport the gold.”
After digesting this news, I suggested, “What about using some other animal to pull the wagon?
There’s Gordo. What about him?”
“I already asked him. He says it’s not in his job description. I have been wondering about the mice. Didn’t they pull a carriage for that Cinderella person?”
“I believe they did. That’s a great idea,” I said. “We have a plethora of mice this year. Giving them honest work might keep them out of my bedroom. Think of the mouse lives that could be saved.”
“A lot, I guess,” Sylvia allowed. “It will take many mice to pull the wagon, especially when it’s full of gold.”
“How will you recruit them?”
“I’ll put it to them that it’s better than death by sticky trap and axe. That ought to convince them,” Sylvia said. “If that doesn’t, RingWorm and Gordo as their overseers can crack the whip. Gordo enjoyed practicing his whip cracks until he broke the whip.”
“To show you how sincerely I believe the gold is buried up-canyon and not under my house,” I said, “I’ll stake you to another whip, a bigger one.”
“Do you really and truly believe there’s gold in these here rocks?” she asked.
“Bound to be,” I said, and maybe it wasn’t a lie.

OPINION: Sylvia And Her Mining Company Become Victims of Squirrel

Man Awaiting Murder Trial Accused Of Theft

By John Larson
SOCORRO - A Socorro man who was free on bail and awaiting trial on a murder charge has been arrested for the theft of a boat, its motors, and related fishing gear.
Atanacio “Smokey” Cordero, 25, who will be tried in District Court on Feb. 1, 2010, for the Christmas Eve murder of Michael Martinez, was arrested Monday, Aug. 31, following an investigation by Off. Rocky Fernandez of the Socorro Police Dept.
In addition, Juan Benavidez, 34, and Jennifer Garcia, 30, have each been charged with the same four felony counts. If convicted on all counts - burglary, larceny, conspiracy, and vehicle theft – each could be sentenced to nine years in the penitentiary and pay fines of up to $30,000.
According to the criminal complaint, Cordero removed a boat and trailer from a storage establishment on Frontage Rd. with the assistance of Benavidez and Garcia.
In his report, Fernandez said that Juan Benavidez confessed the robbery. Benavidez told Fernandez that he and Cordero initially tried to take the motors off the boat while still in the storage yard. Attempts to remove the motors at the scene failed, so the entire boat and trailer were hitched to Jennifer Garcia’s vehicle and towed off the property.
The report states that the boat and all of its contents were then taken to a spot near New Mexico Tech, where they had time to figure out how to remove the motors. The motors eventually ended up at a residence in Valencia County, the report said.
The stolen property was valued at $13,421.52, according to an itemized list submitted by the owner. Fernandez said the final amount could be substantially higher. An arrest warrant has been issued on Juan Benavidez. Jennifer Garcia hearing will be Thursday, Sept. 10, at 9 a.m.

Man Awaiting Murder Trial Accused Of Theft

Chemist Drawing Metals From Soils Using Native Plants

By John Larson
SOCORRO – The mining of the future may be in the extraction of metals, such as uranium, from a crop of blue fescue, rather than digging it from the ground. A scientist at the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center is working on research that will accomplish just that.
New Mexico Tech Professor Dr. Christa Hockensmith said that her project has proved successful in reclaiming soil polluted by toxic chemicals and even radiation.
The plants concentrate these metals in above-ground portions of the plants. The plants can be harvested, dried, and smelted to recover the metal in a process known as metal phytomining.
“I’ve been working with this for the last ten years,” Hockensmith said. “Even before I came to New Mexico Tech. Here we’re testing which are the best plants to absorb the heavy metals out of the soil.”
She said her research has been successful with lead, mercury, uranium, and other heavy metals.
“Suppose you have a field contaminated with heavy metal, and you would like to grow corn or whatever,” Hockensmith said. “You test the soil for what metals are present. Then you plant a crop of plants that ‘like’ that metal. Then you harvest that crop and test the soil again to measure the remaining amount of metal. If it’s still present, you can plant the crop again until the soil is clear of the contaminating metal.”
The process is known as phytoremediation.
She said uranium can be remediated by blue fescue, and salt cedar is a “sponge for nickel.”
“Some plants are also used for removing pesticides, and you can even remediate PCPs with plants,” Hockensmith said.
After the toxic substance is pulled into the plant, the metals can be removed.
“You can do a number of things with the plants after harvesting,” she said. “For example, you can burn them at relatively low temperatures and harvest the metals from the plants.”
Phytomining is a win-win situation because the cost is low, and the recovered metals are valuable, Hockensmith said.
Hockensmith is conducting further research into which plants are the most productive in a special greenhouse at EMRTC.

Chemist Drawing Metals From Soils Using Native Plants

Missing Man Found In Old Abandoned Mine

By John Larson

SOCORRO – The body of a Magdalena man was recovered Friday night from an 65 foot mine shaft after being missing for over a month.
David Heiss, 53, was last seen July 22 by Deputy Marshal Ed Sweeney following a report of Heiss threatening two men with a firearm at his campsite above Patterson Canyon.
Magdalena Marshal Larry Cearley’s police report stated that on Wednesday, Aug. 26, Nester Martinez told him he found a makeshift cover built over the abandoned Mask Mine, and also spotted Heiss’ pickup high centered in an arroyo near the mine. Martinez said he went to the mine and found personal items including a rifle owned by Heiss.
Heiss had renamed the mine the “Iron Mask Mine.”
The report said that Cearley investigated Martinez’ statements, arriving at the mine, a quarter-mile from the dead end road at Patterson Canyon, at about 3:30 p.m.
Cearley found Heiss’ orange pickup truck stuck in an arroyo next to a tree, and noticed spider webs around the tires, indicating the truck had been there some time.
The pickup’s door was also open.
The report said that there was a campsite at the mine, which was a vertical shaft covered by several wooden planks making a frame. A bedroll was on the frame. Food was thrown about the area from animals.
Cearley saw a single rope attached to a log and the frame that stretched across the opening of the mine. The rope had been used by Heiss to lower himself down into the mine.
Cearley took a mirror and looked into the bottom of the vertical shaft, about 85 feet down.
He noticed the east wall of the shaft had fallen in, and with the mirror a white object was seen “which could have been Heiss.”
The east wall of the shaft had fallen into the shaft and the rope was stuck.
Cearley left the area and returned at about 6 p.m. with New Mexico State Police officer Steve Carter, who attempted to pull on the rope, which broke under the large rock that had fallen into the shaft.
The rope was pulled out and left on the outside of the shaft.
Before investigating the scene further, Cearley went back to town and checked Heiss’ residence at 1302 First St. in Magdalena. They found the doors padlocked from the outside and no sign of Heiss.
Heiss’ mother, Lucy Pino, said she had not seen her son for about a month, and that she was worried.
Carter then contacted Captain Randy Trujillo for a search and rescue mission.
Rescue and recovery personnel from several agencies, including the State Police dive team, and other personnel from as far away as Carlsbad and Questa.
New Mexico State Mine Inspector Terence Foreback and his staff also assisted with the recovery of Heiss. Foreback, whose office is under the auspices of New Mexico Tech, received a call August 27 from Cearley, requesting assistance.
“At that point we contacted the Bureau of Mine Safety at New Mexico Tech to begin a coordinated search of the shaft,” Cearley said. “We need to recognize those people. They really know what they’re doing.”
A press release from New Mexico Tech said that Foreback first contacted Robert Eveleth, senior mining engineer with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources at New Mexico Tech to obtain the history of the mine to ascertain what conditions could be expected.
Then, Foreback assembled experts for the purpose of examining the old shaft at the Iron Mask Mine to determine if Mr. Heiss had suffered an accident. Mine rescue personnel from several organizations were contacted for assistance: Chevron Mining Inc.’s Questa Mine, Carlsbad Waste Isolation Pilot Project, AML personnel from the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division AML Bureau in Santa Fe and search and rescue personnel from the National Park Service. These groups converged at the site Thursday, Aug. 27, and made preparations to begin exploring the mine shaft the following morning.
“The University of New Mexico owns a pickup truck with a hoist and cage that Dr. Scott Altenbach, bat biologist, uses to enter abandoned mine shafts for the purpose of internal mine bat surveys,” Foreback said. “Dr. Altenbach agreed to offer use of this truck for the search and possible recovery effort.”
Associate State Mine Inspector Chris Hefner was on site at 6 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28, to oversee the safety of the search and recovery operation.
“We lowered a National Park Service Search and Rescue member down into the mine in the basket of Dr. Altenbach’s hoist. He found the body about 65 feet down floating in water,” Hefner said. “A haz-mat team had to be called in, because of the biological hazard and gasses that may have been present at the bottom of the mine, and we contacted the State Police dive team.”
The dive team arrived on site Friday and recovered Mr. Heiss late in the afternoon.
“This was a very successful operation” said Hefner. “The cooperation between state and federal agencies, state and local law enforcement and private industry was remarkable. We hope to never have a rescue situation in the future, but we will be much better prepared if we do.”
The Iron Mask Mine was last operated in the 1930’s as a silver and copper operation and is on patented claims. The Iron Mask Mine is one of what could be hundreds of old mines in the Magdalena Mountains that haven’t been sealed off after they were abandoned.
Five weeks earlier was apparently the last time anyone had seen Heiss, Cearley said.
His report said that Addy Allen and Gary Edder had called him to report a fire burning in Patterson Canyon on July 22. The two men went ahead up to the area and found Heiss, who was irate. They said he ran them off and threatened them with a firearm.
Cearley and Deputy Marshal Ed Sweeney, along with Seventh District Attorney investigators R.D. Hayes and Levi Lovato, met Heiss in his parked pickup truck next to the mine shaft. Heiss told them he was planning on staking a claim on the mine, and showed Cearley a knotted rope he had fashioned to lower himself into the mine from a head-frame he built over the shaft. Heiss also had a bedroll over the mine shaft where he slept.
According to Socorro County Clerk Rebecca Vega, Heiss had filed a lode claim in 1989, but apparently for a manganese mine. Vega had no record of a claim for Heiss’ Iron Mask Mine.
After two days of preparation, Heiss’ body was recovered Friday afternoon.
Cearley said people must be careful when running across open mines.
“I can’t emphasize this too much. Mines are dangerous. Stay away from them,” he said. “The reason these mines are closed because there’s nothing in them, except a level of water at the bottom.”
Cearley said there are at least 100 open mines in the Magdalena Mountains.
“Even on the north side of town,” he said.
A memorial service for Heiss is scheduled for 11 a.m. this Saturday, Sept. 5, at Montosa Campground on Highway 60, west of Magdalena.

Missing Man Found In Old Abandoned Mine

Small Quakes Shake Valley

By John Larson

SOCORRO – The ground has been rumbling under the Socorro area in recent weeks.
The second local earthquake of greater than 2.0 magnitude in the last two weeks was felt last Sunday in the Lemitar area.
The epicenter of the quake was about seven miles northeast of Socorro and 3.1 miles below the surface. In the last 10 days of August, a swarm of micro-earthquakes occurred, keeping the seismologists busy, but not noticeable to residents.
The first quake to shake up Socorro this month was August 19. According to measurements taken by instruments operated by the New Mexico Tech Geophysics Program and U.S. Geological Survey, the 2.6 magnitude quake occurred at 7:57 p.m.
It was centered about three miles northeast of Socorro. Many residents also heard the quake rumble. As of early Tuesday, New Mexico Tech seismic technician Jana Stankova-Pursley had identified hundreds of small earthquakes, most much too small to be felt, in the area associated with the recent activity.
The chairman of the Earth and Environmental Science Department, Dr. Rick Aster, told the Mountain Mail that the epicenter was only about four miles below the surface.
“That’s why it was felt so strongly in the immediate Socorro area even though it was a tiny earthquake,” Aster said. “It also created a loud boom that was heard throughout the area.”
Within two hours following the event, two aftershocks smaller than magnitude 1.0 had occurred, Stankova-Pursley said.
The recent earthquakes appear to be similar to hundreds of such quakes that have been documented in the area during the past several decades, Aster said.
The quakes, just east of the Rio Grande, are linked to a thin lens of molten rock – known as the Socorro Magma Body – situated 12 miles under the surface in the Belen-Socorro area.
Aster said the pancake shaped “blister” is slowly inflating and stressing the rocks above it, causing the ground above it to rise one to two millimeters a year.
“This inflation, and rising, probably in association with shallow heated water, causes shallow earthquakes, generally in the 1.0 or 2.0 magnitude range,” he said.
Records at New Mexico Tech show that the Socorro region averages six earthquakes a year with a magnitude of 2.0.
The strongest recorded earthquake was recorded in 1906, and measured near 6.0 in magnitude.
“This is the most seismically active area in New Mexico,” Aster said. “And the Socorro magma body is the most studied geologic feature of its kind in the world.”

Small Quakes Shake Valley

Obituary

Lester Garland Davidson
July 5, 1918 – Aug. 28, 2009

Lester Garland Davidson, 91, who was born in a dugout home in Plain, N.M., in Quay County, on July 5, 1918, and came to Albuquerque through Tijeras Canyon in a covered wagon in 1928, passed away Friday, August 28, 2009, at his home in Bosque Farms. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary June Wright Davidson.
Davidson lived in Socorro County (Bosque and Veguita) for many years following his retirement in the 1980s in Albuquerque.
Davidson was the son of John C. Davidson and Elizabeth Rector Davidson, who came to Quay County and Plain from Bowling Green, Ky., to homestead in 1907.
A World War II veteran, Davidson was an Army infantryman in the Pacific theater, and was part of an invasion force into Japan until the use of the atomic bomb ended the conflict. He was one of four brothers in the war. The others, all of Albuquerque and still living, are Clint Davidson, 94, and younger brothers James (Jay) 87, and Dave, 82. Lester is also survived by a sister, Jean Seck of California. Two sisters, Daisy Givens of Albuquerque, and Lena Neuman of Tucumcari preceded him in death.
He is also survived by four children – daughters Lesta Davidson Moffett of Bosque Farms, Leslie Anne Gabaldon of Albuquerque, and Elaine Hurd of Haskell, Okla., and son, Lester Davidson Jr., of Bosque, N.M. He left nine grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Davidson will be laid to rest at the Santa Fe National Cemetery next to his wife.
He attended Forrest Grade School, Quay County, before coming to Albuquerque where he attended Monte Vista Grade School, Lincoln Junior High and Albuquerque High. He worked at Kinsella Glass for more than three decades, and served as shop foreman for most of that time.
As a young man, Lester played semi-pro baseball in Albuquerque’s top league, along with his brothers and father, who often made up most of the infield, including the pitcher. In the late 1930s an American Legion team he played for, Coca Cola Bottling, represented New Mexico in a national tournament in Wichita. He also bowled in Albuquerque’s highest leagues.
He will be remembered for many things, including his strong work ethnic and love of family.
There will be a celebration of his life at the home he shared with his daughter Lesta and her husband in Bosque Farms, 900 Green Acres Lane, at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4. All are invited to attend the celebration and share memories.

Obituary