Read my synopsis of the history of Santa Fe's water supply, fogusing on the 1880 to present period. Also learn how I faced certain death from the Santa Fe River trickle as a child. Click on the link below to open.

The Myth of Santa Fe by Chris Wilson

CREATING A MODERN REGIONAL TRADITION

Review by Arthur Scott

   This book, The Myth of Santa Fe, Wilson, Chris, 1997, University of New Mexico Press; is to me the best and most well researched book detailing the transformation of Santa Fe from a small city with a declining population and a severe economic decline from the late eighteen hundreds to 1912 to a premier tourist destination in the 1990’s with little regard for its ongoing and past history.  The book is quite long. 410 pages and 215 illustrations although most are slightly larger than thumbnails. There are many before and after photographs. The research is impeccably documented by citations to innumerable old books, newspapers, and other archival material.

   I gained a lot of historical knowledge from reading this book. Even being a third generation Santa Fean, I had never given much thought to the ideas

   Tony Hillerman spins very good yarns. However, here are the facts about the plague incident in 1961. Page 2 documents the death of his field companion, John P. Miller from bubonic plague.

   Dr Leopold had very close ties to Santa Fe.Dr Bergere Kenney was his cousin and his two aunts owned the property called Los Dos out on the Buckman Road. This was one of the suspected sites of the plague-carrying fleas. Drrs Leopold and Miller spent several nights sleeping out at that place while collecting some data on an arroyo. After John Miller's death, Dr Leopold continued to do field work around Santa Fe every year resulting in multiple publications.

Alla en “El Ranchito” Grande

My personal connection to the Pecos high country.

By

Arthur Scott

   A bit about me; I was born in 1938 in Santa Fe. My grandfather and father were also both born in Santa Fe as were my children. I lived in Santa Fe from 1938 through 1976 (with some time out for the military) when a promotion and a divorce from my first wife led me to the Washington DC area. Retirement from the USGS led my second wife and I to Florida. My grandfather, Arthur Seligman, was at times on various Territorial Councils, president and a founder of The First National bank in Santa Fe, Mayor of Santa Fe and Governor of New Mexico from 1930 to 1933 when he died in office. My father, Otis Seligman, died in 1943 when I was 5. My mother remarried a few years later to Burl Scott and was subsequently divorced.  My surname was changed at that time by my mother to Scott.

   My summers from the time I was born were spent in our cabin in the upper Cow Creek. My father purchased 5 or 10 acres from Guillermo Varela in the late 20's. They, along with some labor from Pecos, built a log cabin that originally had one bedroom with another added later

   A different view of land distribution in a relatively new (25 year old) territory, from “Illustrated New Mexico” by William Gillet Ritch, New Mexico Bureau of Immigration, 1883:

This is an interesting unintended cosequence of the 1680 Pueblo revolt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p09zSfzXR6k&feature=related