Paul Formisano
Dr. Romano
English 540
27 February 2009
CSWR Assignment
Activity #1
I’ve been trying to find information on a number of different topics ranging from Mormon settlements in Colorado and New Mexico to 19th century women mountaineers. I didn’t have too much luck with either of these in the UNM holdings and so I began to look at Colorado’s San Luis Valley and its ongoing battles over water use. Using LIBROS, I came across a recent newspaper published in the valley and dedicated to this issue.
Valley Voice Spring 1992 v. 2 no. 1. TD 169 V3
This is a newspaper published in Colorado’s San Luis Valley by Citizens for SLV Water. The Spring 1992 issue is the fifth issue of the publication and seems to have been created in response to efforts to reapportion the valley into different House districts which would have pitted different valley organizations against one another. The paper defines itself as “a publication about water and environment.” Only 12 pages in length, the paper covers a variety of topics regarding various environment issues in the region. Obviously, water is the primary concern and articles treating mining tailings, cyanide use for gold extraction, and the Hispanic League’s involvement in defeating measures to divert water out the valley comprise the bulk of the issue.
I gave a closer reading to Christina Nealson’s article “Valley under siege from many sides” in which she calls the valley’s citizens to resist the ongoing encroachment of what she calls “maldevelopment.” She references American Water Development, Inc., Stone Container, Inc., the Air National Guard, and the Government as the principle entities which are working to defile the integrity of Colorado’s poorest region. She notes that while the valley has had its challenges with racial division between Hispanics and Anglos, they have recently come together to fight to keep San Luis Valley water in the valley rather than agreeing to export the resource to more populated and economically vibrant areas like Denver.
Activity #2
Similar to the first activity, I pursued a number of different interests for the online digital archive search. I searched through the Western Water Digital Archive on documents related to water use in Southern Colorado but didn’t find anything that grabbed my attention. I shifted attention to trying to find any document related to Mormon settlement in New Mexico or Colorado and had no luck through CSWR. Therefore, I began a search through the University of Utah’s and BYU’s digital archives and found lots of digital material related to pioneer journals and maps of the overland route used by those migrating westward. However, I still wasn’t taken by anything in my initial search although I did happen upon the U of U’s Mountain West Digital Archive along with a database in BYU’s special collections on Mormons and the environment—both seem very promising and should likely be great resources for my dissertation work. I returned to the RMOA and typed in ‘mountaineering.’ I came across the papers of a woman from Wyoming whose papers supposedly contain information regarding this activity in the early twentieth century. Of course, that database doesn’t actually have the original documents available to view online so again I came to a dead end.
Finally, I found two primary documents of interest. I located the first through CSWR’s Digital Collection of manuscripts and happened upon an Official Bulletin of the State Land Office from 1916 championing New Mexico’s landscape and culture. Entitled “Picturesque New Mexico: The Most Direct Path to Nature and the Best Time to Follow It,” this six page brochure promotes the newly formed state that lies “in the heart of the most picturesque part of the United States” (1) in terms of its scenery, history, and health benefits. Believing that the Sahara is more familiar to Americans than New Mexico, the brochure explains the advantages of exploring the state and informs readers that the land is rich in mineral resources which “pierce her [New Mexico’s] veins through her whole body” (1), while the local Indians are friendly, mostly speak English, and appreciate buyers of their wares. This was a very interesting document that reveals local and national perceptions of New Mexico and the rhetorical choices made to promote interest in the area.
My second find occurred by using UNM’s online databases. I looked under ‘English’ as a subject heading to see what online databases were available. Although I regularly use MLA Bibliography, I am less familiar with the other options in this field. Scrolling through the list I came across Sabin America 1500-1926, a database that has digitized online documents of the Americas with special focus areas on topics including exploration, slavery, and women. I began a general search using terms like “mormons,” “mountains and women,” “New Mexico,” and “Colorado River” to see what I could find. The Colorado River search yielded a number of exploration journals from various men like Zebulon Pike and Horace Hayden. I chose to take a closer look at Pike’s 1811 Exploratory travels through the western territories of North America which provides some of the first Anglo accounts of New Spain and what would eventually become the American West. I read through his chapter on New Mexico and found commentary on the region’s rivers, lakes, ecology, mineral resources, and Indian tribes. Of primary concern to Pike is whether the region’s rivers would provide a link between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, a question Louis and Clark similarly pursued in reference to the Missouri and Columbia River basins. He posits that a possible connection exists in an area of northern New Mexico (present day Colorado) where the Arkansas and Colorado rivers begin.
While this wasn’t an “ideal” find, I was quite pleased to become familiar with the Sabin Americana website and the other online research application available through CSWR, UNM and other institutions.
Pike, Zebulon Montgomery. Exploratory travels through the western territories of North
America: comprising a voyage from St. Louis, on the Mississippi, to the source of that
river, and a journey through the interior of Louisiana and the north-eastern provinces of New Spain. London, 1811. 455pp. Sabin Americana. Gale, Cengage Learning. Univ of New Mexico 26 February 2009 <http://galenet.galegroup.com.libproxy.unm.edu/servlet/Sabin?af=RN&ae=CY102369532&srchtp=a&ste=14>.