Winter lecture series returns to Mountainair
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, the Manzano Mountain Art Council and Western National Parks Association will once again present the Winter Lecture Series on Saturdays through February.
The lectures are free to the public and start at 1 p.m. at the Manzano Mountain Art Council Center located at the only flashing light in Mountainair, where highways 55 and 60 intersect.
This year Kate Nelson will kick off the series on Saturday, Feb. 3, with a lecture titled “Between Two Worlds — the story of artist Helen Hardin.”
Nelson’s lecture will cover the life of Helen Hardin, who was torn between her Santa Clara roots and the creative foment of the 1960s. Hardin blazed a new trail connected to the traditional Indian art of her mother, Pablita Velarde, and the modernist work of her daughter, Margarete Bagshaw.
Nelson, an award-winning journalist, recently took over as interim editor at New Mexico Magazine. A native of Kansas City, she moved to New Mexico in 1989 and covered statewide politics for the Albuquerque Tribune and later led marketing and public relations efforts for the New Mexico History Museum/ Palace of the Governors. She is the author of the 2012 biography, “Helen Hardin: A Straight Line Curved.”
By popular demand, Robert Julyan will return for this third year as a presenter on Saturday, Feb. 10. Julyan is best known for his award-winning book “Place Names of New Mexico.” Julyan will present the lecture “New Mexico from Above.” Julyan will lead a slide tour of some of New Mexico’s well-known features and landscapes — as seen from above. Then he’ll show them from ground level and talk about their significance.
Julyan is an Albuquerquebased author who specializes in history and geography. His first novel “Sweeney” won the 2012 Tony Hillerman Award of the Arizona New Mexico Book Association. He has written books on New Mexico’s geography, mountains and how they got their names. His latest book is titled “Hiking to History.”
On Saturday, Feb. 17, Mountainair re-enactors Dixie Boyle and Donna Deiner will lecture on “True Stories of Frontier Women.” They will perform a living history debate and give a tribute to the late Dorothy Cole. Boyle has been working on an exhibit of old photographs of Mountainair she and Dorothy Cole collected that will be permanently displayed in the Salinas Pueblo Missions Meeting Room. A reception will follow the lecture at the Salinas Headquarters in order to observe the photo exhibit and listen to music recorded by Dorothy Cole for her historical musical “Diamonds in the Field.”
Boyle and Deiner are both retired teachers who worked for Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument as park guides before retiring and organizing their own living history lectures. They portray the characters of Clara Corbin and Virginia McClurg, two women who wanted control of Gran Quivira — one for the treasure she hoped to find there and the other in order to preserve the site and its history. Boyle’s latest books are “True Stories of Frontier Women” Parts I and II.
The final lecture on Saturday, Feb. 24, will be presented by Lincoln resident Lynda Sanchez. Her lecture is about “Stores of Bootleg Whiskey, Billy the Kid & the Apache.” She will also lecture on the Fort Stanton Cave and how its early history during the infamous Lincoln County Wars was part of a hotbed of bootlegging and counterfeiting.
Sanchez has authored or co-authored six books including a “Pictorial History of Eve Ball.” Her latest book, “Apache Legends & Lore of Southern New Mexico” is an account of the Apache and other legends. Sanchez has received numerous awards including True West’s 2007 National Best in the National Preservation Award.
The authors will have book signings at the end of each lecture.