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20 Pages. Stapled pamphlet type publication by Lynn Perrigo, professor of history at New Mexico Highlands University.Tight bright book with no defects noted. Includes several black and white photographs including a centerfold rare etching of Las Vegas dated 1882 from the City Museum by Carl Ilfield . This etching resembles an aerial photograph. There is a photo of The Rough Rider's camp in Lincoln Park in 1899. Dozens of names are in this book including a list of Rough Riders from Las Vegas. Two page Bibliography. From the Introduction --- On the afternoon of June 24, 1899, the vigorous and popular governor of New York State, Theodore Roosevelt, alighted from the steps of his special coach onto the station platform of the Santa Fe Railroad at Las Vegas, New Mexico. As he came into view, he was greeted enthusiastically by a reception committee of leading citizens and by his regiment of Rough Riders, who were encamped in Lincoln Park for their first reunion after the strenuous Cuban campaign the preceding June. Present also was a crowd of five thousand who had been waiting in a torrential downpour of rain. Their cheers almost drowned out the patriotic efforts of the musicians in the band. For this reception the Las Vegas band had been joined by the best bands in the Territory, from Santa Fe, Silver City, and Albuquerque. In addition the band from Chihuahua had been sent up by the governor of that neighboring state in Mexico. This was a memorable event. On that gala occasion the threads of several separate historical skeins had been drawn together and woven finally into a grand design. First in the historical sequence had been the exploration and settlement of this frontier by the courageous Spanish pioneers. Next had come the stirring events of the American occupation, the local campaigns of the Civil War, and the development of this area as a territorial unit in the United States. Simultaneously our nation had been surging forward as a world power, and this power had been wielded swiftly and effectively in sympathetic support of the Cuban insurgents who were engaged in a valiant struggle for independence. At that moment, the wealthy, city-bred Theodore Roosevelt, who had acquired his good health and strong spirit out West, emerged as a national leader. When the regiment of Rough Riders, nearly half of whom were recruited In New Mexico, were led into battle in Cuba by Roosevelt, these separate strands finally had been brought together opportunely, and nowhere else could this union of historic forces be celebrated as appropriately as it was in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on those June days of 1899.
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