Tatum’s "First Street". Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks

When a town is small with no visible attractions on the main highway, reasons to cause people to stop for a while, it becomes a place on the way to . . . . Tatum is 21 miles to Lovington to the south on New Mexico Road 206 or 73 miles west to Roswell or 15 miles east to Texas on U. S. Highway 380.

Tatum, population 768, elevation 3,986, was founded in 1909 by James G. Tatum when he filed on a homestead of 320 acres and opened a general store. There was no post office, so as a service to his customers he brought mail three times a week from Scott, another settlement, no longer in existence. Eventually Tatum was granted a post office, and Mattie G. Tatum was the first postmistress.

A school was financed with box socials and neighborhood dances. Eventually the Lea County oil boom reached the town in the 1940s and brought some prosperity. Agriculture is still the town’s mainstay, although some active oil wells still exist in the area surrounding the town. Travelers sometimes stop when passing through, but the description of a sleepy little town in the West does fit Tatum.

Rodeos are popular entertainment, and there are two parks, a community building, and a library. The Senior Citizen Center provides a meeting place for the town residents. A local ironworker makes silhouetted scenes in black wrought-iron for street signs, businesses and mailboxes. They are attention-getting because of their individuality.

For those who like the slow-paced living of a small town, where getting together with neighbors for potlucks or coffee is a favorite pastime, Tatum bears investigating.

Obviously Crossroads would or should be at a crossroads. It is – at the intersection of NM Highways 206 and 508, 18 miles north of Tatum. There are conflicting reports as to the date the post office was established. One source indicates it was 1923, and the other 1925. It is a ranching community, and a widow, Lora Miller, homesteaded in this area. She applied for a post office under the name of Cross Roads, reportedly in 1925. Evidently the postal service did not like two-word names so Crossroads was the name assigned to it. In 1980, a couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Wolf, started the Wolf Wagon Works. They built or restored horse-drawn carriages, wagons and even stagecoaches. A small white church is on the south side of the crossroads across from a service station, the center of the settlement.

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Lovington’s Chaparral Park. Photo by Charles Kelley

Lovington became the county seat of Lea County when it was created from the eastern portions of Eddy and Chaves Counties in 1917. A man named Robert Florence Love, known by his middle name, was determined to establish a town where his homestead was located, the site of present-day Lovington. He filed for a post office permit under the name of Loving. However, it was denied as there was a settlement south of Carlsbad known as Loving. He changed the application name to Lovington, and the post office was established on September 12, 1908.

There were lean years with drought and isolation, but Lovington began to come of age in the late 1920s. Oil at Hobbs and later at Lovington caused rivalry between the two cities. However, after World War II both cities began to unite in a common endeavor.

Agriculture, Lovington’s economic mainstay, advanced with irrigation farming, and the size of herds of cattle vastly increased. This, plus the discovery of oil, gave the city increased wealth. Recently the dairy industry has branched into cheese processing.

Lovington was proclaimed a city in February, 1955. Today, with a population of 9,800, located on U.S. Highway 82, 18 miles from the Texas border, it is a friendly, uncrowded and progressive place to live. At 3,934 feet elevation the climate is dry with warm, sunny days, and cool nights. It has mild winters with an average rainfall of 14-15 inches.

Community spirit is alive and well with the Activity Center for both youth and the general public, plus the library, five city parks, one swimming pool, nine baseball fields, Little League practice fields, five basketball courts, six tennis courts, one nine-hole golf course, one eleven acre fishing lake and one shooting range. A Senior Citizens Center provides service to the elderly.

Support of the arts is evident with May and November Arts and Crafts Festivals. The July 4 celebration at Chaparral Park includes the World’s Greatest Lizard Race, with almost 100 entries of all kinds of lizards including iguanas.

Education has always been a high priority, beginning with its first school built in 1908. Serving both Lovington and Hobbs, the College of the Southwest was established in 1956. On the same highway several blocks farther south is the New Mexico Junior College, the only institution of its type in the state when it was founded, which required six years of community and legislative effort. Its first college president began serving July 1, 1965, in temporary offices and construction began in February of 1966. The college opened in the fall of that year with 728 students. Today it houses a dozen or more buildings, plus the Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame, as well as a rodeo arena.

Carlsbad Caverns is only about 90 miles to the southwest of Lovington.

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Pumpjacks are everywhere throughout Eunice. Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks

As often happened when areas were settled, the date of founding is the same date a post office was established. Eunice is a case in point.

J. N. Carson from Shafter Lake, Texas circulated a petition in 1908 seeking a post office for the present-day location of Eunice. He had claimed 320 acres for homesteading by plowing a furrow around the boundaries. He then applied for a post office.

Conditions at that time required that a name be chosen for the post office and that the mail be carried without charge for three months. Supposedly, a cowboy suggested naming it for Carson’s oldest daughter Eunice. That name, among others, was submitted and was the one chosen by postal authorities. The post office opened in 1909.

Thus, the town of Eunice was born and Carson’s son, E. O. Carson, was the first postmaster. Carson built a home and a general store on his homestead. In 1910, homesteaders in the area started a subscription school, adding to the appeal of the community.

The musical Carson family with daughter Eunice at the piano, began weekly musical productions that reportedly might last all day. That tradition continues, with annual fiddling contests drawing contestants and an audience from hundreds of miles.

At an altitude of 3,569 feet, and a population of 2,676, nineteen miles south of Hobbs on alternate New Mexico Highway 18, Eunice has had difficult times. There were no producing oil wells until 1929, when one well finally came in. The town then began to recover. A byproduct of natural gas, carbon black, which is used in ink, paints, fertilizer, carbon paper, cement and dark chocolate, spawned several companies. Oil drilling services, however, provide most of the employment.

Pumpjacks, resembling giant grasshoppers, are everywhere throughout the town. With their steady pumping rhythm, it is less than a quiet place. The story is told that in the 1930s the light provided by the lighted natural gas flares allowed people to drive at night from Eunice to Jal without headlights. Another historical tale is that there wasn’t enough illness to support a physician for whom they had advertised.

The proximity to Hobbs provides wider shopping conveniences but allows Eunice to keep its own identity. Carlsbad is approximately 70 miles to the west and Andrews, Texas is about 30 miles to the east.

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Cattle and plowed fields indicate hardworking people live on these southeastern New Mexico plains. Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks

Buckeye is located on NM Highway 238 seventeen miles southwest of Lovington. The settlement is named for the Buckeye Sheep Ranch nearby, and does not have a post office. Traveling this part of eastern New Mexico reinforces your awareness of the size of the state, fifth largest. There are so many miles of nothing but miles and miles.

After you pass through Lovington from the west, turn left on NM Highway 209 eleven miles to McDonald. Its post office was established in 1912, the year New Mexico became a state. This settlement was named for the first elected governor, William C. McDonald – the territorial governors had been appointed. Oil and agriculture are the area’s economic support. There is nothing but a sign, "McDonald,"to let you know where you are, as the settlers are spread throughout the surrounding area.

Thirteen miles east and south of McDonald is Prairieview. Its name lends a clue as to the landscape. Located on the Llano Estacado (staked plains), it was a pioneer settlement. At one time it had a store and a school with three teachers, but that ended in 1948. It is still a rich farming community, but does not have its own post office.

Retracing your route to McDonald, go north to Tatum and turn east on U.S. 380 for about eight miles to Gladiola. There was a post office here from 1919 to 1956. It was also a settlement originally named Warren, after a local family. At one time there was a school, store and service station. There is little here at the present time, except the Warren Petroleum Company and the oil pool.

The history of these small communities is all very similar, but the plowed fields and tall corn indicate habitation, and that hardworking people still live on these plains.

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Hobbs City Hall Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks

Hobbs came into existence on January 28, 1910, with the opening of a post office named for the pioneering Hobbs family. For nearly two decades, the town remained isolated and inconvenient, a difficult place for settlers to wrest a living from the land.

All that changed, however, when the Midwest Refining Company (now Amoco) began drilling for oil near Hobbs on October 12, 1927. Soon the plains area was the stage for one of the great oil booms of the West. November 8, 1928, marked the No. 1 well’s depth of 4,220 feet producing 700 barrels of oil per day.

People arrived in Model T’s, airplanes, trucks and on foot. The population explosion brought on by the oil discovery resulted in Hobbs, New Hobbs and All Hobbs. Eventually these were all consolidated into one city, Hobbs. Only a few years later, during the depression years of the 1930s, the population began to diminish.

That did not last long, though, as renewed interest in drilling in 1934 led the city to the prosperity it has today. Hobbs, part of the Llano Estacado ("Staked Plains") and the Permian Basin, is located on U. S. Highway 62/180 in the southeastern corner of New Mexico about three miles from the Texas border. At an average elevation of 3,615 feet, the 32,000 people who live there enjoy the mild, dry climate, abundant sun and low humidity.

In addition to the oil and gas industry, dairy and ostrich farming are widespread. New Mexico Junior College, located in Hobbs on the Lovington Highway, took six years of community and legislative effort to establish and was the first Junior College in the state. It opened in the fall of 1966 with 728 students. Today it houses fifteen buildings on 243 acres with approximately 2,800 students. The College of the Southwest, also on the Lovington Highway, was established in 1956 under a different name and then became the College of the Southwest in 1962.

The city has numerous parks, one municipal and one country club golf course, lighted tennis courts, racketball courts, a swimming pool, jogging and bicycle trails. The Southwest Symphony presents concerts throughout the year, as does the Southwest Symphony Band.

Residents enjoy many annual events such as the Lea County Fair and Rodeo, Arts and Crafts Festival, Gus Macker Three-on-Three Tournaments, Frontier Days, Hoedown Days, Annual Christmas Parade and the Hobbs Holiday Basketball Tournament.

The Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center on the campus of New Mexico Junior College is a popular attraction. It was founded in 1978 to honor those residents of Lea County who have distinguished themselves in rodeo, as ranch cowboys, as pioneer or present day women on ranches. The New Mexico Wing of the Confederate Air Force is located in Hobbs. With a national membership of 7,000, the CAF has been locating, restoring and flying the aircraft that won World War II. The Soaring Society of America is headquartered in Hobbs, publishing a monthly magazine on phases of gliding and soaring. And the Seventh Wonder of the World, Carlsbad Caverns, is but a mere 90 miles to the southwest.

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