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In 1898, Melvin W. Mills established the town of Mills. There were
two different town sites for the town. The first was on the
Canadian River. This site was wiped out by a flood in 1904.
The second site is the present on on NM Highway 39. This site was
settled after the 1904 flood. At one time, Mills, NM was quite a place. It had
a population of 3000 people. Mills was established in the late 1890's when
the land was opened to the homesteader whose main crops were wheat, beans, corn,
and feed. There was also a depot for the Poly Train, which traveled from
Dawson to Tucumcari. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the
closing of the railway all contributed to the downfall fo the town.
In the early 1940s, the school closed,. Students began attending
school in Roy.
The town of Mills, at its present location was
established in 1913, when Mr. Cress and Mr.
Pelphey gave 40 acres for a town
site. At this time, the Wilson Company from New York came and built a
large store, and elevator, bean house, stock pens, lumberyard, hotel and 14
resident houses for their employees.
By 1913, Mills had
3 stores, 5 hotels,
a theater, dance hall, 4 doctors, a hospital, barber shop, Turo implement
sheds, a bank, 2 saloons, 3 churches, a school with grades 1-12, a dry goods
store, 3 gas stations, a boarding house and a jail built out of concrete.
Mills High School was a two-story brick
building. The school had a gymnasium with a
large stage. The original high school burned down in the
1920's and a new one was built next
to the grain towers in the middle of town. This school was torn
down in the early 1980's. The foundation is the only thing left.
The school had a basketball team called the
Mills Bobcats
. They played for 16 years. Mills high school had the best boys basketball team in
the state in 1940. They went the entire season without a loss.
"The coach of Mills,
Aubrey Newton, was so confident with his
team's ability, he gave the first team a break in the quarterfinal
round. He sent his first tem to the local 'Pool Hall' and played
his second team against Springer. The second team had already
beaten Springer earlier in the year by more than 20 points. Springer was
winning at the end of the third quarter so Coach Newton ran down to
the pool hall and gathered up his first team at the start of the fourth
quarter. As they returned to the gym, the game had just ended.
Springer won by one point."
James Fischer,
Shine Griffith and
Corey and
Henry Case were the stars on this team.
Information about the basketball teams comes from a book by Steve Flores
- Ghost
Town Basketball.
Today, there are three residences, a few buildings, the
U.S. Post Office, numerous foundations, and the grain elevators. The
Mills
Post Office was first erected in 1898. To be accurate, a man by the name
of Henry Lebert had the first Hotel in Mills and he would meet the
Southern
Pacific train, as it ran from Tucumcari to Dawson every day. He would take
the mail to the Hotel and distribute it. As more settlers were coming to
homestead, the need for a Post Office Building was urgent. A family built
a home in the Crest Addition with living quarters and a Post Office in front.
This building was used for the Post Office from that time until 1944. In
1944 The Post Office was moved to the Old Citizens State Bank Building on Wilson
Avenue.
The community of Mills was named after
Melvin Mills who
lived down in the canyon by the
Canadian River. Mills was a rancher,
farmer, attorney, Senator, Judge, and Governor. he was an accomplished
fruit grower and had a large orchard consisting of 2500 peach, 500 pear, 200
apple, 1000 quince, mulberry, plum, grape vines and almond trees. The
water was carried by flume from the river several miles upstream and poured into
ditches to water everything. Mill's projects were his orchard, fields,
garden, and livestock. He had a garden house where fruit was cooled and
crated. He transported fresh produce to Springer and Wagon Mound.
This all ended in 1903 when a flood leveled the land, destroying thriving
communities. Small and large dwellings disappeared along the
Canadian
River.
Mills Canyon was a stagecoach stop
along the route from Kansas to Santa Fe. There are lots of stories about
eastern girls that were held as prisoners. Also, the stage stop was the
site of much gambling. A tunnel was said to exist leading from the house
to the river, for purpose of escape. If the tunnel exists, the
secret entrance is well hidden. For years, many people have searched the
grounds of the house and riverbanks for clues.
The county has had it's share of strange weather
phenomenon; an earthquake on August 3, 1924; windstorms in February 1908; dust
bowl wind storms of the 1930's; snow blizzards in 1911; extremely cold
temperatures in January 1917; freak snow storms in the 1970's; and floods in
1903 and 1965.
Today,
Mills Canyon Recreation area
has excellent fishing sites for sportsmen in the
Canadian River. The
hunters have deer,
antelope,
Barbary sheep and ibex. There are also small
rodents, birds and smaller animals of many different varieties. There are
good hiking trails, and a public campground. If you are in the Mills, New
Mexico area, stop and visit the canyon.
Much of this information came from an
article in the New Mexico Magazine - April 1999 - written and
photographed by Clay Martin. Quoted by permission. |
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