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Wow – summer’s almost here again. Already have the hot dry weather and from the looks of the
Los Alamos fire preview, we could be in for a terrible fire season here in the
west. One lesson to take away from
the fire problem out here is to BE CAREFUL with fire when you’re out hunting
the lines. Let’s not be
part of the fire problem.
A
couple weeks ago, I had the great fortune to go to the Pacific Northwest to
attend the Western Regional Show at Enumclaw.
Cool and damp up there – so no problem with wildfires!
This was my first Enumclaw show and boy, was I impressed.
Good glass, fine people, great displays and many old friends!
I really had a great time. I
have to comment particularly about the displays.
There were ten of them and these were some of the best displays I’ve
ever seen at the regional level. Particularly
noteworthy was the massive (and I mean massive!) display of Locke
insulators. This took up about 30
linear feet of wall space and featured the largest collection of Locke equipment
displayed in the last 30 years. This work of art was the result of the combined effort of
Elton Gish, Howard Banks, Paul Greaves, Gill Hedges-Blanquez, Bill Rhode, Mike
Spadafora, Robin Harrison, Ben Kirsten, Ed Sewell and Tim Wood.
Doug Smith received the coveted “Peoples Choice Award” for his nifty
collection entitled “Insulators & things” and the Enumclaw blue ribbons
were presented to Larrin Wanechek and Brent Burger.
Larrin had a fantastic display of insulators from the Collins Overland
Telegraph line and Brent’s exhibit contained a breathtaking assortment of CD
102s. This was Vi Brown’s last Enumclaw show, and it was really a
hum-dinger! Thanks, Vi, for your
long-standing dedication to this event (and to the hobby at large)! Everyone is
hopeful that someone new will pick up the reins and continue this longstanding
tradition in the Northwest.
Last
weekend, I had the privilege and distinction of presenting a weekend-long
“tutorial” on telegraph communications at Fort Union, New Mexico.
This is the second year that the superintendent of Fort Union National
Monument has invited me and the president of the New Mexico Historical Bottle
Society to present this seminar. The
Monument was hosting their annual open house so there were more visitors than
usual for the weekend. For those of you that have not been there, this is a true
historic archive of the American west. From
1851 to 1891, Fort Union was the gateway to “the real west” and the
logistical supply point for all the other military establishments in the west.
More importantly, Fort Union was the commercial focal point for the
importation of the major fraction of materials and supplies coming from the
east. Thousands of Conestoga wagons
traveled west on the Santa Fe Trail – to Fort Union, where they unloaded their
haul into the vast warehouses at the fort for further distribution to points
west. Well over half of the fort
was used for such commercial purposes. Fort
Union was absolutely essential during the several major Indian wars of the
period and was the supply base for both soldiers and equipment.
You
might imagine just how difficult it would be to keep such a massive
transportation and supply operation up-and-running without some speedy way of
communicating. Well, until the late
1860s, the fastest mode of communication in northern New Mexico was by
horseback; so it was several days before a message could be delivered from, say,
Fort Union to Fort Apache in central Arizona. This all changed abruptly and dramatically when the first leg
of the military fort-to-fort telegraph system was completed between Denver and
Santa Fe in 1868. Now, all of the
sudden, it only took seconds for the garrison commander at Fort Apache to tell
the quartermaster at Fort Union that he was about to be attacked by the Apaches
and needed 200 troops and ten cannons post haste!
As
early telegraph lines go, this one was in operation for a long time – almost
11 years! It was supplanted by the
telegraph system operated by the A
T & S F railroad when it came to the fort in 1879.
Again
on this trip, I was permitted to browse through the archive storage facility and
bring artifacts up to the Monument visitor’s center to use in my display and
talk. I picked a dark yellow-olive
amber CD 731.3 and a dark olive-green CD 731 as examples of what I believe to be
the telegraph insulators that were used on the original 1868 line.
I also took up a pair of Boston’s (CD 158.2s) up to center as examples
of probable replacement glass. Interestingly,
Boston bottles have been found along the New Mexico telegraph lines in several
places. I also brought up an aqua
blob (CD 126) found at the fort and a chunk of a purple blob! These most likely were used along the Santa Fe RR.
This
trip I was able to locate the position of the telegraph office at the fort from
old drawings and to photograph the remaining walls and surrounding structures.
These I hope to include in a future and more detailed report on the
matter.
At
any rate, the visitors to the Fort Union Monument were quite interested in the
telegraph story and it was fun to share the real insulators with them – an
unusual treat as these things are normally locked away in the archives.
Finally,
let me turn to the upcoming schedule of events. There are some great shows and swaps on the books here in the
west, and here is the line-up:
June 3rd, in
Victorville, California: San Bernadino County Historical Bottle & Collectible
Club’s 32nd Annual Show & Sale, at the Ramada Inn
(Palmdale Rd & I-15).
Dwayne Anthony has the details (909) 862-9279.
June 10th, in
Mountain View, California: 4th Annual San Francisco Bay Area Insulator Show
and Swap Meet at the T.L. Mobile Home Park ClubHouse. Call Dave Elliott, (650) 988-1893, if you need more
information.
June 11th, in
Salem, Oregon: The OBCA Antique
Bottle & Collectible Show and Sale at the Salem Fairgrounds.
Shayne Bowker, (503) 695-2884, has the details.
July 15th, in
Merlin, Oregon: Jefferson State
Insulator Club Outdoor Summer Swap Meet at Howard Banks’ place.
If you want more info, call Howard at (541) 479-8348.
July 27 – 30, The National
Show in Bloomington Minnesota. Ed
Peters, (612) 447-2422 is the right guy to talk to.
September 16 –17, in
Naramata, British Columbia: 13th
Annual Antiques and Collectibles, Insulators and Bottles Sale and Swap at the
Chute Lake resort. Call Gary
or Doreen Reed, (250) 493-3535 for information.
AND FINALLY
(I
just love free advertising!)
September 30th,
The Enchantment Insulator Club’s Thirteenth Annual Insulator, Bottle,
Barbwire and Collectibles Show and Sale. Call
me for details or send me a net
note. Mark your calendars
now for a fall get-away to the desert southwest!!
(By
the way, did you know that the www.insulators.info website has an updated list of all the shows?)
Well,
I think that’s about it for the summer report.
I’m looking forward to seeing you (or maybe meeting you for the first
time!) at the National. Don’t
forget to call me if you have any visions concerning the Western Region.
Regards
and great collecting,
Tom Katonak,
NIA #3567
Western
Region Vice President