Subtexts Don Bullis, author of New Mexico Historical Encyclopedia, discusses his new work at Op.Cit Books

Tome on the range

Don Bullis’ New Mexico Historical Encyclopedia (Río Grande Press) is a fat new book featuring descriptions of more than 700 events and places, starting with the Río Abajo and ending with Zuzax, a bump in the road east of Albuquerque that was named after a local curio shop. Some entries are full of detail — the author devotes five pages to Baca Location No. 1 (the Valle Grande or Valles Caldera National Preserve, as it is called today) — while others are little more than mentions. Look up “Ghost towns in New Mexico” and you are told there are “far too many to be listed on these pages.” There are entries on some ghost towns, but you have to look them up by name — for example, Chloride, Hagan, Shakespeare, and Waldo. In his foreword, Bullis acknowledges that while the legend of Billy the Kid has proven stimulating fodder for dozens of books and movies, “small attention is given to the outlaw on these pages, which in the context of New Mexico history, is what he deserves.” But the book is still a wealth of information. Look up “Santos,” and you’ll learn that the area’s early Catholic bishops denigrated their parishioners’ keeping of locally produced, wooden paintings (retablos) and carved figures (bultos) of saints. There is an entry on the coyote and its character in Navajo mythology, but there is no article on the roadrunner. But there are plenty of entries that invite exploration, among them the Aubry-Weightman Duel, Fort Nasty, and the forgotten 19th-century “road ranches” that were known for their saloons, brothels, and outlaw patrons. Bullis discusses and signs copies of New Mexico Historical Encyclopedia at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Op.Cit Books in the DeVargas Center (157 Paseo de Peralta, 505-428-0321). — Paul Weideman