The main highway between Las Cruces and the towns of Arrey and Derry in New Mexico isInterstate 25 (I-25).. This route passes through these towns and is the primary thoroughfare connecting southern and northern parts of the state. In the past, U.S. Route 85 (US 85) also followed this route, but with the construction of I-25, US 85 was relegated to a secondary highway. Russell Lee undoubtedly passed through this town as he went from El Paso, Texas to the south to northern New Mexico (Albuquerque, Sante Fe, Taod and beyond).
Jack Delano, was one of the group of photographers who fanned out throughout the United States in the 1930’s and 40’s on behalf of the New Deal’s Farm Security Administration (FSA).
Daragh Vaughn from Dublin Ireland at McDonald’s in Truth or Consequences, NM. He had had surgery for a genetic deformity. He already had the same surgery on his other hand. “To top that,” he says in his Irish brogue, “I’m a piano player!”
It’s probably hard to believe it, but I never saw this image of Russell Lee’s until this morning. This keeps happening. It either means I’m an unoriginal wannabe, or that there is still a lot out there that is similar to what used to be out there, and it’s still good “Cannon Fodder,” for a photographer.
The Postmistress, Iola Alvarez, in Garfield, New Mexico, claims these mailboxes were first installed in 1919.
New Post Office rules require that no one can look into another person’s mailbox,” so, says Iola, “I covered them up a “few years ago.”
Ila Alvarez has been at her current job in Garfield since 1988.
She loved the old mailboxes so she found a magazine, bought several issues, cut up the pictures of American flags that she found on its pages, snipped out the “stripes,” and turned them vertically and taped them into each box.
Problem solved. History preserved. A touch of patriotism achieved with a “defaced,” flag.
Commentary by Bruce Berman FUNK! Americans loved in 1939 and Americans love it in 2024. Not only that, but, the rest of the world loves that Americans love it. You don’t see giant hot dogs along the roadside in Belgium. Russell Lee recognized that the roadside was where Americans liked their “art.”
Jim and Jimbo Williams are from Quemado, New Mexico and are ranchers. Jim, left, restored his 1951 International Harvester truck over a ten year period until, “It runs like a top.”
New Mexico, 1940. A time in which
homesteaders still used burros/donkeys as a means of transportation, Photograph by Russell Lee
Jim Williams’ grandmother, and Jimbo’s great grandmother, Eleanor Heacock (Williams) is the subject of a famous photograph taken by Russell Lee for the FSA, at their Rising Sun Ranch. The Lee photograph depicts Miss Heacock riding a mule in a race.
He and his father Jim are aware of Russell Lee and Jim “treasures the photograph.” The name of their ranch, and where the famous phoitograph was taken, is called the Rising Star Ranch.
The grant that has made this project possible is called The Rising Star Grant.
Tito Gonzales was born in Fort Sumner, NM, in 1939, across the street from the Coronado Motel, where this photograph was made. The Coronado is on U.S. 60, the road that Russell Lee traveled, back and forth, during his journey through western New Mexico and back again. Russell Lee drove past Tito’s house/motel several times in his travels.
by Bruce Berman
“I really like it here,”says Tito. “It’s comfortable and you get a lot of people passing through looking for Billy the Kid and whatnot. You’re the first one who ever asked about the whereabouts of a dead photographer!” Mr. Gonzales has lived in the Coronado for over thirty years.
This is the highway west of Magdalena, New Mexico, heading to Datil and Pie Town. This is a road that Russell Lee traveled many times, I am sure, when he needed to resupply himself for his adventure in Pie Town, 70 miles to the west. He came back down this road, kept going, and got re-stocked in Socorro. In 1937, the road was dirt. Now it’s two lane blacktop. Traffic is sparse. The land does not feel desolate, but it is vast. Today, when heading west up into the mountains it’s not easy to even remember the brutal Interstate or the homogenizing Walmart world you’ve left behind.
