Town of the Week

Come with us to Roswell, New Mexico; just listen in.

Roswell, New Mexico
December 26, 1998
(rebroadcast from May 13, 1995)

Each October, thousands of New Mexicans point their pickups and stock trucks toward Roswell, New Mexico for the week-long state fair and rodeo. They come in costume, from a period when this town was just a lone store on a cattle trail across the barren plains.

At night, these modern-day cowboys hunker by the chuck wagons and wolf down barbeque and drink thick black coffee from big, battered pots. They drink to the memory of a professional gambler, Van Smith, who won enough money to build a general store and post office, which he named for his father, Roswell.

What was just a trading post is now one of the most attractive cities in the state, huge cottonwoods and willow trees shading the paved streets with fine house and big gardens.

A century ago, artesian springs were discovered here, and this valley of south east New Mexico was transformed from the Chisum Rand to an irrigated cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, developed by the ranch's new owners, Cornell University.

Today, in addition to the fair and rodeo, Roswell celebrates St. Juan's Day each June, and the Old Timer's Reunion and Mexican Independence Day each September. It's a fit location for the New Mexico Military Institute with its murals by Peter Hurd, of early life ins Roswell. It's a town of 44,000, with an air center and museum, it's the home of the high school Coyotes, and it's our Town of the Week, Roswell, New Mexico.