Phyllis Eileen Banks
Phyllis Eileen Banks is both writer and artist.Her articles have appeared in Southern New Mexico Magazine, FYI, Vision Magazine, Roswell Daily Record, New Mexico Magazine, Ranger Rick, Concern, Anchorage Daily News, and other periodicals. In addition, with Cynthia Smith she authored The Anchorage Fun Book.
Much of her experience has been as an editor.Her editorial experience includes The Alaska Presbyterian, The Alaska Heart, newsletter of the Alaska Heart Association, the book COCAHINIA (Consultation on Church and Human Need in Alaska), and Roaming Southern New Mexico.
"I have invisible antennae that 'vibrate' when something doesn't seem right.Of course editing someone else's work is easier than editing one's own," she says.
People stories, historical pieces, and travel writing are her favorites.She and her husband, Hal, moved to New Mexico from Alaska.
"New Mexico has some of the same mystic of Alaska – wide open spaces, different cultures.The transition was easy," says Eileen."It is truly The Land of Enchantment and no matter where you reside you carry it with you."
Phone:727-544-3713
Articles by this Author
Alamogordo-city of the "fat cottonwood"
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 11/26/2001
- Southeast New Mexico , Otero County , Alamogordo, New Mexico
- Unrated
Alamogordo had its official beginning in June, 1898, when the El Paso and Northwestern Railroad, owned by Charles B. Eddy, reached the town. Mr. Eddy was very influential in the founding of Alamogordo. He planned a community with large wide thoroughfares and irrigation ditches lined with trees. The name of this community was derived from those trees. They were large cottonwoods and "Alamo Gordo" in Spanish translates to "fat cottonwood."
The Flume at Carlsbad - Watering the Land
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Carlsbad, New Mexico , Eddy County , Southeast New Mexico
- Unrated
What is a flume, you may ask? According to the dictionary, it is a narrow gorge with a stream flowing through it, usually, or an artificial channel or chute for a stream of water. The latter describes the Flume at Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Irrigation was a necessity for the arid Southwest as it couldn't depend on rainfall and snow for moisture to grow crops. For centuries Native Americans and Hispanic peoples regularly watered small fields with canal networks, acequias and brush diversion dams.
Valley of Fires
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Lincoln County
- Unrated
The Valley of Fires, four miles west of Carrizozo on U. S. 380 is one of the youngest and best preserved lava fields in the continental United States. Yet it is little publicized. It was established as a State Park in 1966 but is now administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Known also as the Carrizozo Malpais (badlands), it was formed between 1500 and 2000 years ago when Little Black Peak erupted pouring molten lava for forty-four miles southwest through the valley. It isn't a volcano per se since the lava flowed via vents, burying almost everything in its path. One hundred sixty-five feet deep at the thickest point, the formation is between two and five miles wide.
The Gadsen Purchase of 1854 - Securing Mesilla Valley
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Southwest New Mexico , Dona Ana County , La Mesilla, New Mexico
- Unrated
Events always have a precursor and the Gadsden Purchase is no exception. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war with Mexico. It confirmed U.S. claims to Texas and set its boundary at the Rio Grande. Mexico also agreed to cede to the United States, California and New Mexico. This included what is now California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah as well as parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. The purchase price was $15 million and assumption by the United States of claims against Mexico by U. S. citizens. The U. S. Senate ratified it on March 10, 1848 and the Mexican Congress on May 25.
Clovis - city of the plains
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Curry County , Clovis, New Mexico
- Unrated
The city's history goes back thousands of years earlier to the "Clovis Culture." In 1932, A. W. Anderson of Clovis first discovered evidence of human occupation about 11,000 years ago at the Blackwater Draw site. Now the Blackwater Draw Museum presents evidence of the remarkable "fluted" points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons. They occur in association with extinct Pleistocene age megafauna such as mammoth, ancient bison, horse and large turtles. Recovered bones of these mastodon are also on display. A state museum, it is under the direction of Eastern New Mexico University at Portales and is located 12 miles southwest of Clovis on U. S. Highway 70.
Truth or Consequences - City of Three Names
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Southwest New Mexico , Sierra County , Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
- Unrated
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, universally called T or C, is the third name for that city. When it was first settled it was called Palomas Springs, so named because of the large number of doves (palomas) residing in the cottonwood trees along the Rio Grande. In the early 1800s the area west of the river was considered a neutral place where all Indian tribes could bring their sick or wounded to soak in the healing springs. At that time, the springs were actually mud bogs. The original springs are located next to the Geronimo Springs Museum, named for the famed Apache leader who visited. Bath houses are located in several places within the community for those who want to test the healing waters now.
The Story of Frances Baca-Threads that weave us together
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/21/2002
- Southwest New Mexico , Socorro County
- Unrated
A sequence of events can occur in the most unexpected ways. An article titled “Folklore of Lincoln County Post Offices” brought an e-mail from two sisters in Indiana who were working on their family geneology. The thread that wove New Mexico and Indiana together was that their great grandmother had been one of the postmasters of Lincoln County in the early 1900s. Although family oral history isn’t always totally reliable, Judith P. Hamilton and Kathy Anderson Goins thought their great grandmother had been postmaster (no gender quarrel in those days) in the late 1800s. However, Jim White of Farmington, NM, considered the state historian of post offices, found that Frances Baca Walters, born in 1855, became postmaster on November 16, 1901.
Portales-a "porch" for New Mexico
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/28/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Roosevelt County , Portales, New Mexico
- Unrated
Spring waters gushing from a series of caves shaped like porches across a hacienda home gave Portales its name. It is also a door to human history with the discovery of artifacts and skeletons of mastodons dating back 11,000 years. Originally it was known as "Los Portales," portals to the Southwest United States.
Alto, Glencoe, Ruidoso Downs - small towns in Lincoln County
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/28/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Lincoln County
- Unrated
Alto, 800 population, 7,300 feet elevation, nine miles northwest of Ruidoso on NM Highway 48, was established with a post office in 1901, even though it was settled in 1882.
Postmaster W. H. Walker chose its name, Alto - Spanish for high. Eugene Manlove Rhodes was a cowboy writer who taught here in 1891 and 1892. However, it was known as Eagle Creek during those years. Now it is the home of artists, as well as merchants and businesses. Alto Village, a development with lovely homes, has its own golf course. The entrance to the Ski Apache slopes on Sierra Blanca Mountain is to the west on NM Highway 532 just as you enter Alto.
Newman, Orogrande and Valmont-isolated outposts
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Otero County , Southeast New Mexico
- Unrated
Prior to 1922, if you entered New Mexico via US 54 from El Paso (if that road existed then), Newman was the first outpost, located on the New Mexico/Texas state line. It was a railroad stop and trading post, named for L. E. Newman. He was a Texas real estate man who sold building sites here. The post office existed from 1906-1922. Originally the settlement was called Longhorn, then Hereford, then Newman. Very little came of the development, and the site was moved to El Paso County, Texas. One source says the post office closed in 1914. One wonders which report is correct. Archeologists believe it was the site of a prehistoric Indian pueblo.
Cloudcroft - cloud in a field
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Otero County , Cloudcroft, New Mexico
- Unrated
Cloudcroft, at an elevation of 8,650 feet, population 750, draws its name from its height: It is one of the highest towns in New Mexico. In 1899 Charles B. Eddy built a branch line of the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad to Cloudcroft from Alamogordo. The Railroad built a lodge for its workers which was also used as a summer resort for El Pasoans. The village grew around The Lodge. It burned in 1919 but was rebuilt and is still open, complete with the ghost of Rebecca. The nine-hole Lodge golf course at 9,200 feet is the highest in the state. It is said golfers are warned not to feed the bears on the ninth green.
Tularosa and La Luz-history and roses
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Otero County , Tularosa, New Mexico
- Unrated
Although Tularosa derives its name from the Spanish word tule meaning reeds or cattails, City of Roses is much more appealing and conjures up the picturesque town that Tularosa is.
Original settlers in the 1860s came from washed-out villages on the Rio Grande near Mesilla. Due to frequent raids by the Apaches from what is now the Mescalero/Apache Reservation, occupation was untenable and the site was abandoned.
Roswell - UFO Capital of the World
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Chaves County , Roswell, New Mexico
- Unrated
The above other-worldly tag was superimposed on Roswell with the 50th Anniversary of the Roswell Incident in July of 1997. But there's so much more.
Roswell is the seat of Chaves County, population 58,000, and the fourth largest city in the state; its population is 48,500 and its elevation is 3,649 on average. The city lies at the west edge of the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) and east of El Capitan Mountain, in the rich and fertile Pecos Valley, a place of relaxed pace and friendly people.
Carlsbad - city of contrasts
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Eddy County , Carlsbad, New Mexico
- Unrated
Carlsbad was originally christened Eddy about 1888 with a bottle of champagne. Long before that, around 25,000 B.C., its occupants were representatives of Sandia Man. Other nomadic hunters, including the Apache, followed hunting buffalo. Spanish explorers were next until the conquest by the United States which resulted in the Territory of New Mexico about 1850.
Artesia - water and oil wells
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/29/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Eddy County , Artesia, New Mexico
- Unrated
In 1903 when artesian wells were discovered, the town known as Stegman was renamed Artesia. Water spouted as high as twenty feet. Early settlers were attracted to this plentiful water supply and established an agricultural and farming community. Unfortunately the wells were allowed to flow unchecked and the water table dropped.
Now, however, in this city of 12,000, the water supply is continually replenished with runoff from the Sacramento Mountains about 90 miles to the west.
Originally Artesia was a part of John Chisum's ranching empire in the late 1870s. Today cattle and sheep ranching, alfalfa, cotton, chile and pecan farming are important staples of the economy. In addition, oil was discovered in 1924 and opened up the regional Permian Basin. The Navajo Refinery dominates the eastern side of U. S. Highway 285 as you enter the city.