David Wallace Adams. Three Roads to Magdalena

In the early 1980s, David Wallace Adams arrived in west-central New Mexico eager to conduct research on Indian boarding schools. He soon became intrigued by the region’s unique history and cultural heterogeneity. Residents’ tales of struggle, cooperation, and antagonism captured his imagination. By the end of his stay he had materials that far exceeded the scope of that original project. These many years later, Adams has followed his initial curiosity to assemble an impressive range of archival sources and oral histories. The result is the deeply engaging Three Roads to Magdalena: Coming of Age in a Southwest Borderland, 1890–1990. West-central New Mexico experienced a burst of growth at the start of the twentieth century. Miners, ranchers, and homesteaders arrived in waves, all imagining that the region could be quickly transformed into a place of riches. Thriving towns like Kelly and Magdalena quickly blossomed. Ultimately, though, the realities of the unforgiving landscape yielded fleeting fortunes for only a few. Although Magdalena managed to survive, Kelly became a ghost town.

Archaeology · Curiosity · Ethnology · Geography · Social science · Sociology · Thriving · American History and Culture · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies