THE PAST 100 YEARS

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Feb. 10, 1919: Basket Dance At San Juan

The Pueblos at San Juan are figuring on giving the old time basket dances shortly. The exact date is to be announced later.

Feb. 10, 1969: A man who was at the root of Santa Fe tradition died last night. He was Will Shuster.

Mr. Shuster died at Veteran’s Hospital in Albuquerque. He had been a victim of acute emphysema for many years, and was admitted last to the hospital a week ago.

He is survived by his wife Selma; two sons, Donald B. Shuster, Albuquerque; John Adam Shuster, who is working as an engineer in Bangkok, and grandchildren.

Will Shuster was an artist, and beyond that, a creator. It was he, who in the 1920s, along with four other painters, established “Los Cincos Pintores,” and became a part of Santa Fe’s famous art colony.

It was he who created Zozobra in the late 1920s — the famous “Old Man Gloom” whose burning begins the annual Fiesta.

Feb. 10, 1994: The Santa Fe City Council stepped closer Wednesday to building a community recreation complex with an ice skating rink on the city’s south side.

The council approved in concept a proposal to buy 50 acres on Rodeo Road from the Rodeo Grounds Association. The rodeo grounds consist of 107 acres along Rodeo Road east of Richards Avenue.

The price would be at the current appraisal of about $1.4 million — about $28,000 an acre.