Pietown Homesteaders

[THE PILGRIM]

A while back I went down to the Farm and Ranch Museum, Las Cruces New Mexico. They were having an open house with a lot of neat displays including some chuckwagons.
Inside the museum they have a large display of Russell Lee photography. He worked for the government back during the depression and went around the countryside photographing people. One of his most famous series is Piketown, New Mexico.
Pietown was one of the last places that have large-scale homesteading. The folks all came from back East and were trying to make a new life at Pietown.
Russell Lee photos are found on several sites, This one works well on my iPad.
everyday_i_show: photos by Russell Lee
I found these photos to be very powerful images which displayed the determination and strong will of these people.
The problem was Pietown is just not a farming area. No matter how hard they worked, how hard they tried they did not succeed. I don't think anybody actually farms in Pietown today.

 

[pinduck]

Thanks for the great pics, Pilgrim, I was in the 1st grade in 1940. A lot of those scenes look familiar.
Glen

 

[gm272gs]

Came to this thread looking for photos of delicious pies.
I am a man who likes pie, and the idea of a "Pietown" had piqued my interest. I was already planning a trip.

 

[BigBill]

Wow who has it better US today or them in pietown. You gotta wonder. Even though life was much simpler back then.

 

[boatme99]

Great pics, thanks.
I've seen the second photo somewhere recently. The square dance.
Looks like the fight is about to start in a couple of seconds.

What a tough life. When you look at the community picnic shots, realize that everyone is wearing their "Sunday best", wether it's the high falutin men with jackets and boots hunkered down eating by the cars, or the homesteaders with their cleanest dirty shirt on.

 

[Iggy]

Them folks could be my grandparents and parents. My Grandparents came from Missouri and homesteaded out here in Wyoming at the turn of the last century.
My Grand Dad plowed up a half section of prairie with a team and one bladed plow. Planted the ground to corn. Never a plant come up the next spring.

He took a hand cranked grass seeder that held 5 pounds of seed at a time and walked and reseeded that half section back to grass.

I'm hopin' he spread them sacks of seed around in that half section and din't have to walk back to the corner where he started to reload ever time.

That was the end of farmin' in my family.

Them fellers a hunkerin' there takes me back. That's the kind of guys I watched as I was growing up and hope that today I'm as good a man as they was back then.

 

[kozmic]

Very powerful indeed. These folks had nothing yet had no idea how bad off they were and wanted for nothing. Notice how attentive the children are. Not likely to find that in a classroom today.

 

[feralmerril]

Looks like they didnt have money for BBQ guns and rigs. We must have been lied to? I imagine those dug out houses were do to no water air coolers and definitely no AC. Guess they didnt have people telling them their rights to eligibility for welfare. I and many others can no longer squat like that to eat! (I never could). I do recall the vehicles.

 

[3dots]

Thanks for the photos, wow, what a hard living. A lot of kids with no shoes in the cold. Reminds me of a story Mom used to tell us of a little boy they called "shoe booty". Only had one shoe and one boot but he was lucky to have warm feet.

 

[EQGuy]

My father grew up on a homestead around Clayton NM. His father grew corn and made whiskey out of it. He remembers his father giving him a 30-30 and standing guard over the still when he was a youngster. He remembers he would have shot first and asked questions later. Luckily no one came by while he was standing guard. My grandfather did get caught and spent some time in jail. He told me of the time they had one of those New Mexico thunder storms and several horses were next to the barbwire fence and were killed by a lighting strike. They all moved out to California before the dust bowl hit and were the welcoming committee for the Oakies.

 

[wbraswell]

Looks tough to me. Life in E. Texas in the 50s and 60s sure was luxurious compared to Pietown, in the 40s.

 

[feralmerril]

My folks went west in 39 or 40. To them, especially to my dad it was a lark. They were young and my sister was about 2 years old. They picked fruit on the applegate ranch out of Grants Pass Oregon. The foreman or owner found out dad knew farm machinery better than the others and put him to work for the princely sum of $2.00s a day. Thing was, ma was suppose to work packing peachs for about 75 cents a day. The snag was ma had to pay a dollar a day for a woman to watch wendie. I think the log cabin was part of the deal. Yet dad told me it was the happiest time of his life! His old machinist job that he was laid off from, A.O. Smith in Milwaukee called him back in late 40, gearing up for the war they seen coming. They happened to check in with the folks back home and got the news that dad had like two or three days left to report in or be bypassed. Mom was pregnant with me and they said they had $12 saved up to make the trip back on! Dad had about a 32 Studebaker president. Mom said he sold spotlights etc off it for gas along the way back to Wisconsin. Mom took over her dads country general store and dad worked in Milwaukee about a 120 miles away. I was born and then the war fired up and dad was froze to his job. He would find a way home or save gas coupons to come home about a day every couple three months. I never really knew him until after the war.
About two years before he died at 90, he had me drive him to that ranch. Some woman local historian owned what was left of it. She really dug dad walking the ranch with her and telling her what was where, and what fields they planted what in etc. Dad was raised a poor farm boy in a huge family and to him those days were a adventure. I believe that might have been the same ranch Rex Applegate was raised on. I wish I had asked dad that as I remember him telling how the owner come to hire him as none of his hands knew how to run the haying operation and dad told him he was raised doing it. Might have been Rex Applegates dad. Dad was born in 1913 and Rex Applegate in 1914 as my mom was. The area, dads storys etc were almost the same as that movie and book,"Of mice and men" by Steinbeck. The folks lived it.

 

[mjlabs]

Never seen life in the 40's in color until now, all the old family photos I have at home are black and white. Really brings things to life....in color....

 

[sophie]

Man those are some good pictures and I really enjoyed them. Don't know where Pietown was though. Thanks for posting.

 

[MOONDAWG]

WOW, those are some mighty sharp color images. Puts some of today's HD photos to shame.

 

[WuzzFuzz]

Pilgrim,

Since you're in ABQ, have you been over to Pie Town? There used to be one cafe still going, there on the south side of main street...

North of the cafe, was a old deserted building, Lots of old papers strewn about...Might have been some sort of accounting office...Most of the other buildings were abandoned, but still a few houses with people still living there....

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't one of the TV stations still report the weather for Pie Town? I was interested in the old town, because there was a old delapidated hanger at what was left of a airport there on the west side of town....

It makes for a nice back roads drive from Belen to the west...And end up in Springerville Ariz. Spend the night there in Springerville. The motel and the cafe next to it for a good breakfast in the morning. Nice to pass thru Alpine and Hannigans Meadow there on the far east side of the state. Then take the road from Springerville north to St. Johns, another nice old west town to visit. Then on North to get back on I-40.

Just makes for a nice week-end trip to get away....


WuzzFuzz

I've seen those photos of Russell Lee...some really neat photos. It's really neat too, to visit places like that years, and years later....

A while back I went down to the Farm and Ranch Museum, Las Cruces New Mexico. They were having an open house with a lot of neat displays including some chuckwagons.
Inside the museum they have a large display of Russell Lee photography. He worked for the government back during the depression and went around the countryside photographing people. One of his most famous series is Piketown, New Mexico.
Pietown was one of the last places that have large-scale homesteading. The folks all came from back East and were trying to make a new life at Pietown.
Russell Lee photos are found on several sites, This one works well on my iPad.
everyday_i_show: photos by Russell Lee
I found these photos to be very powerful images which displayed the determination and strong will of these people.
The problem was Pietown is just not a farming area. No matter how hard they worked, how hard they tried they did not succeed. I don't think anybody actually farms in Pietown today.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Sure, I have been there. I was through there last a few months ago.
Not much going on their nowadays. I'm not sure if there are any businesses still open there.
According to online it looks like there's actually two or three places still open.
But when you drive through there it don't really look like there is much going on.
When I'm going through that way I will often eat lunch at Quemado.
That's a town west of Pie town which has a pretty good restaurant.

 

[shouldazagged]

Those are wonderful, Pilgrim. Thanks for posting them.

Hard times, and tough, resourceful people.

If you haven't read any of Studs Terkel's fine oral histories, Hard Times will give you a look at that era from many perspectives, as The Good War will about WWII.

 

[DR505]

WOW, those are some mighty sharp color images. Puts some of today's HD photos to shame.

I used to LOVE Kodachrome ASA 12.

 

[rburg]

I and many others can no longer squat like that to eat! (I never could).

I'm old and grumpy these days. But one of my favorite things to do is watching my little grandson squat on the floor and play or look at things. For whatever reason, the little guys can do things that I'd never get up from. It just seems natural for them because no one has ever taught them to squat down like that. Another painful but interesting thing is how they sit on the floor. Legs not tucked under them, but with their feet turned to the outside. My wife catches me watching him do that and gets a little angry with me, telling me his father used to sit like that all the time.

And of course I don't care what she says, I enjoy watching and plan on continuing.