-Arizona border: ItÌs well over 1000 miles from Mexico City to the Arizona border, along very difficult mountainous and desert terrain. Basil extends Carmencita a thousand thanks, or about one thanks a mile. Basil mentions later in the chapter that, ÏIÌve not used my wits on a case in weeks.Ó

-Carmencita was introduced in the previous book, Basil in Mexico. This book is a direct sequel and takes place in 1895.

Carmencita kneels to allow Dr. Dawson and Basil to dismount.

-Dawson recounts some of the adventures of the previous book, Basil in Mexico. This book is a direct sequel.

Thorbridges: Lord HathawayÌs former cook and butler. They own a hotel near the Grand Canyon. Basil has taken the case at HathawayÌs request. Their name is reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes story The Problem of Thorbridge.

-Chief Celada: Mexican border policemouse. He recognizes Basil and dawson at once.

-Ratigan: Dawson makes a special reference to the fact that Ratigan, who he describes as an escape artist, is not in this book.

-Mrs. Teresa Celada: prepared many types of cheeses after dinner, as a sort of dessert.

-asadero: Also known as Oaxaca, asadero is a Mexican name of semi-soft, white, string-type, Hispanic-style cheese. This kind of cheese is used on sandwiches or melted on cooked foods, including pizza and nachos. It is a stretched curd cheese, kneaded then formed into a ball-shape which is plunged in brine for several minutes. Its name comes from the name of state in which it originates. It is a kind of pasta filata cheese and it is produced in different shapes and weights. This cheese belongs to the group of fromage forts cheeses made from mixed, fresh or ripened cheese blended with herbs and spices.

-Lipto: Also called Liptauer, it is Hungarian spiced, white cheese made from the mixture of sheep's and cow's milk. The cheese has its name according to sheep's milk called Liptoi. As Hungarians are great lovers of spicy food, Liptauer is very popular in the country as the taste is a mixture of onion, caraway seeds, capers, paprika and salt. It is used as the basis of numerous local dishes. This cheese is sold in the pots.

-Feta: is one of the most famous cheeses in Greece. It is made in various sizes, often as a loaf-shape. Feta is solid, but crumbly with some fissures. Pure white, it has a milky fresh acidity. Feta was originally made with either ewe's milk or a mixture of ewe's and goat's milk, but today most feta is made with pasteurized milk and tastes of little besides salt. Some people are put off by the strong salt content but the salt is intended only as a preservative and is not supposed to overpower the taste of the cheese. Feta can be soaked in fresh, cold water or milk for a few minutes or longer, if necessary, to make it less salty. It has a fat content of 40 - 50%.

-Domiati: This is a variety of cheese made extensively in the area around the Mediterranean Sea. It can be eaten fresh or aged for 60-90 days before consumption. Goat milk is well suited for making this variety of cheese.

-Asiago: Asiago is made in the region of Vicenza and Trento. It is a traditional, farmhouse and creamery, unpasteurized, hard cheese. Originally made of ewe's milk, now is made entirely of cow's milk. There are two types of Asiago: first one (mistakenly taken for Pressato) is a lightly pressed cheese made from whole milk matured for 20-30 days. Another one (Asiago d'Allevo) is the mature cheese made with skimmed milk. Long and slow maturation process creates fruity, slightly sharp cheese with a compact, granular interior full of small holes. Matured over 2 years, becomes intensely flavored. Can be grated and used as a condiment.

-Bleu: Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk and/or goat's milk cheeses with a blue or blue-green mold. Roquefort cheese is a particular blue cheese that is made in the south of France. Some other blue cheeses are Stilton (England), Gorgonzola (Italy), Danablu (Denmark, and Americas' entry, Maytag Blue Cheese. These are just a few, there are many more blue cheeses.

-Anatolian: there are several types of Turkish cheese that can be said to be Anatolian. The most common is a kind of feta, but the term can apply to any cheese produced from Anatolian milk farms.

-Camembert: A very famous French cheese, Camembert dates back to the 18th century and is named for a Norman village in which there is a statue of the creator of this particular variety (Marie Harel). Originally, this cheese was dry and yellow-brown, but after a few modifications it became softer and more earthy. In 1855 one of Marie Harel's daughters presented Napoleon with a piece of that cheese, saying that it came from village called Camembert. He liked it a lot and from that moment Camembert became known by its contemporary name. At the beginning of its ripening, Camembert is crumbly and soft and gets creamier over time (usually 2-3 weeks). A genuine Camembert has a delicate salty taste.

-The tale Celada tells of artifact smuggling fits in very well with BasilÌs hobby of archeology.

-Basil already names the investigation, ÏThe Case of the Smiling Smugglers.Ó

Chapter 2: The Case of the Smiling Smugglers

-Mouse scientists search for pre-Columbian mouse artifacts. Two things can be intuited from this: There were mice in the New World before Columbus, and mice traveled with Columbus.

-Mousmopolitan: The name most mouse societies give their museum.

-ÏA Japanese saing- to know the unknowable, to seek the unseekable÷Ó: I have no information on this saying, perhaps it is a Japanese mouse saying.

Chapter 3: Armchair Detective

A smuggler bargains with an innocent farmer and his wife.

-The Mexican mouse border police know nothing about museum pieces. The entire story seems based on actual artefact smuggling from third world countries.

Chapter 4: The Story of CLOPS

-Horace Greeley: (February 3, 1811 - November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and politician.

He was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, where he worked as a printer, then left for New York City, where he started the New York Tribune in 1841. He was editor of the Tribune for the rest of his life, using it as a platform for advocacy of his causes, though he was known for his inconsistencies. He originally supported the rights of the Southern states to secede from the Union, but became an abolitionist and supporter of the North in the Civil War. His passion for detail distinguished modern newspapersÌ fact-supported and statistic orientation from the more discursive editorial essays then current in newspaper writing.

He was a consistent supporter of Whig policies, ÎimprovementsÌ protective tariffs, and the abolition of slavery. He served as Congressman for three months, from 1848 to 1849. He also ran unsuccessfully for election to the House of Representatives in 1850, 1868, and 1870, and for the United States Senate in 1861 and 1863. His personal guarantee of bail for Jefferson Davis did nothing to enhance his popularity.

In 1872, Greeley was among several high-profile investors who were defrauded by Philip Arnold in a famous diamond and gemstone hoax.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States in 1872, running on both the Democratic and Liberal Republican tickets, advocating non-punitive treatment of the South, but was defeated soundly by President Ulysses S. Grant. Not long after the election GreeleyÌs wife died and Greeley lost control of the New York Tribune. He descended into madness and died before the electoral votes could be cast.

Greeley was an agrarian and supported liberal policies towards settlers: one of his famous phrases was ÏGo West, young man.Ó

While Greeley had been pursuing his political career, Whitelaw Reid, owner of the New York Herald had gained control of the Tribune. Weeks later, Greeley, in his final illness, spotting Reid, cried out ÏYou son of a bitch, you stole my newspaper,Ó and died. Reid reported GreeleyÌs last words as ÏI know my redeemer liveth.Ó

Greeley had requested a simple funeral, but his two surviving daughters ignored this request and arranged a grand affair. He is buried New YorkÌs Green-Wood Cemetery.

Horace Greeley had a home in the hamlet of Chappaqua, New York in Westchester County. The Greeley House, one of two Chappaqua abodes owned by the Greeley family, is located on King Street; it now houses the New Castle Historical Society. The local high school is named for him, and the name of one of the school newspapers pays homage to the 19th-century paper owned by Greeley.

-Mrs. Greeley: Horace Greeley had a long, but unhappy, marriage to Mary Cheney Greeley, a sometime suffragette. Mary Cheney Greeley believed in spirits and was a rigorous adherent of The Graham Diet. Mrs. Greeley doted on one son to the extent that an infant daughter died from neglect. The eventual death of that son was devastating to Mrs. Greeley. Horace Greeley spent as little time as possible with his wife and would sleep in a boarding house when in New York City. After the death of the Greeley couple the two daughters found thousands of dollars worth of china, objets dÌart, and finery under covers in the basement.

-Ï÷many mice stowed away in railway cars and wagon trains.Ó This is a normal mode of travel for mice and a direct indication that mice, acculturated to certain humans, follow the migrations of those humans, expanding with them.

The formation of CLOPS.

-mouse towns: towns of mice, separate from humans, were formed in the west, as elsewhere.

-mousewife named Melissa: in offering a pony cheese this female mouse inadvertently invented CLOPS.

-ponies loved poetry and music: or at least the mice felt so. Note that the mice name the ponies, but donÌt know the names the ponies call each other. Either the mice use a language common to ponies and mice or the mice have trained the ponies to understand mouse language.

-Longfellow: the leader of the ponies, a grandfather at the time of this story, and one of the organizers of CLOPS. It is said that carts and howdahs were built for the mice at his suggestion. A shaggy Shetland pony, with good legs and a full chest.

Longfellow is named for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882) an American poet who wrote many poems that are still famous today, including The Song of Hiawatha, Paul RevereÌs Ride and Evangeline. He also wrote the first American translation of Dante AlighieriÌs Hell (Inferno) and was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets. Born in Maine, Longfellow lived for most of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a house occupied during the American Revolution by General George Washington and his staff.

He was born in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland, Maine, the son of Stephen and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow. His father was a lawyer and his maternal grandfather Peleg Wadsworth was a general in the American Revolutionary War. He was descended from the Longfellow family who came to America in 1676 from Otley in Yorkshire, England and from Priscilla and John Alden on his fatherÌs side.

In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter who died a few years later (1835) in Rotterdam while the couple was traveling. He took up a professorship at Harvard University and later married Frances ÏFannyÓ Appleton, living at Craigie House, overlooking the Charles River.

While he was courting Miss Appleton, he frequently walked from Harvard to her home in Boston, crossing the river via the West Boston Bridge. That bridge was subsequently demolished and replaced in 1906 by a new bridge, which was eventually renamed as the Longfellow Bridge.

He retired from Harvard in 1854, devoting himself entirely to writing. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws from Harvard in 1859. In 1861, Frances died in a household fire, which had resulted from her attempting to seal a letter with parafin wax, a devastating event for Longfellow. He commemorated her with the sonnet ÏThe Cross of SnowÓ (1879). He died on March 24, 1882.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1884 he was the first American poet to have a bust of him placed in PoetÌs Corner of Westminster Abbey in London.

His work was immensely popular during his time and is still somewhat today, but many modern critics consider him too sentimental. His poetry is based on familiar and easily understood themes with simple, clear, and flowing language. His poetry created an audience in America and contributed to creating American mythology.

-CLOPS: Cheese Lovers Official Pony Service: The name given to a mouse transportation service in the American West that utilizes trained ponies.

Basil catches a student in the act of smuggling.

-Moriarity, New Mexico: Moriarty is a city in Torrance County, in the Albuquerque metro area. The community is in the Mountain Standard time zone.

The latitude of Moriarty is 34.99N. The longitude is -106.048W. The community was named for Michael Moriarty, settler.

Basil flies into a rage, believing the town to be named after the enemy of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Moriarty. This is as crazy as we ever see Basil, the only moment in the entire series where he loses his cool., and it comes about as a result of his hero worship for Holmes.

Professor Moriarty first appeared in WatsonÌs tale ÏThe Final Problem,Ó in which Holmes, on the verge of delivering a fatal blow to MoriartyÌs criminal organization, is forced to flee to the Continent to escape MoriartyÌs retribution. Moriarty follows, and the two apparently fall to their deaths whilst locked in mortal combat atop the Reichenbach Falls.

Moriarty plays a role in only one other of WatsonÌs Holmes stories: ÏThe Valley of Fear,Ó published after but set before ÏThe Final ProblemÓ in which Holmes attempts to prevent a murder being carried out by MoriartyÌs agents. Moriarty himself does not appear, although he does send Holmes a note of commiseration at the end.

In addition to these, Holmes mentions Moriarty reminiscently in five other stories: ÏThe Empty House,Ó ÏThe Norwood Builder,Ó ÏThe Missing Three-Quarter,Ó ÏThe Illustrious Client,Ó and ÏHis Last Bow.Ó

Although Moriarty only appeared in two of the sixty Sherlock Holmes tales, HolmesÌ attitude to him in those two stories has gained him the popular impression of being HolmesÌ nemesis, and he has been frequently used in later stories by other authors, parodies, and in other media. In fact to some casual fans, it is assumed the real overall plot arc of the Holmes stories is the war that the detective wages with Moriarty who oversees the crimes that Holmes foils.

In the early stories, Watson never meets Moriarty (only getting a distant glimpse of him on one or two occasions in ÏThe Final ProblemÌ), and relies upon Holmes to relate accounts of the detectiveÌs battle with the criminal. In stories discovered later, Watson has encountered Moriarty more often.

Watson himself is inconsistent on his familiarity with Moriarty. In ÏThe Final Problem,Ó Watson tells Holmes he has never heard of Moriarty. But in The Valley of Fear, set earlier on, Watson already knows of him as Îthe famous scientific criminal.Ì

MoriartyÌs weapon of choice was the Ïair-rifle,Ó a unique weapon constructed for the Professor by a blind German mechanic, Von Herder, and used by his employee Colonel Sebastian Moran.

Holmes described Moriarty as follows:

ÏHe is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him.Ó

Chapter 5: Tom Talltrees

-BasilÌs fame has spread throughout the animal world, so that even a natural predator such ass an owl would not harm Basil. It probably helped that Longfellow was nearby.

-Basil has composed a piece based on The Owl and the Pussycat, a poem he quoted in an earlier adventure.

-Basil and Dawson carry small, mouse-scaled six-shooters.

-Tom Talltrees knows Longfellow, apparently CLOPS is not specific to mice of European descent. TomÌs headdress marks him as an important member of his tribe. He is a teacher.

-Wenonah: Tom TalltreesÌ wife. She is a teacher.

-The mouse town of Moriarty is about one mile outside the human town of Moriarty, built inside the courtyard of a burnt out building. No human visits the charred remains of the old buildings. The town is run by an evil gangster known as J.J., a sort of robber baron who uses his fortune to virtually enslave the poor. He plans to become a king.

-A renegade CLOPS pony named Satan does work for J.J.Ìs evil mouse gang.

The name Satan is applied to an angel, demon, or minor god in many religions. Satan plays various roles in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha and the New Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, Satan is an angel that God uses to test man for various reasons usually dealing with his level of piety (i.e. the test in the Book of Job.) In the Apocrypha and New Testament, Satan is portrayed as an evil, rebellious demon who is the enemy of God and mankind. These two ideals are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

-J.J.: Gangster and smuggler who runs the mouse town of Moriarty. HeÌs smaller than the average mouse, mean, with piggy eyes and a long tail. HeÌs in a wheelchair due to a bad fall.

-Verdi: a CLOPS pony who is too honest to help lawless mice. He sings arias composed by his namesake, Giuseppe Verdi.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 - January 27, 1901) is to date the most influential composer of XIX CenturyÌs Italian School of Opera. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as La donna À mobile, from Rigoletto. Oftentimes scoffed at by the critics, in his lifetime and today, as catering to the tastes of the common folk, overly simple in chromatic texture and shamelessly melodramatic, VerdiÌs masterpieces dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.

-Cactus Charlie: A friend of Tom Talltrees who has seen and described J.J.

-Mouse Sheriff Bennett Shaw: a lawful western sheriff of the mouse town of Moriarty, and fried of Verdi.

The SheriffÌs name is reminiscent of famed Sherlockian Scholar and collector John Bennett Shaw of Sante Fe, New Mexico. Moriarty, the town, was important to ShawÌs local scion, (a scion is a Sherlock Holmes club) The Brothers Three of Moriarty. Their annual trek to that pitiable village was called the Happy-Birthday-You-Bastard-Moriarity celebration.

-Johnny Sohl: one of J.J.Ìs gang.

-Pete Blau: one of J.J.Ìs gang. HeÌs brainier than the rest.

-When Basil hears a voice once he can mimic it perfectly. Like Holmes, when Basil became a detective the stage lost a great actor.

-Sy: one of J.J.Ìs gang.

-Bob: one of J.J.Ìs gang.

-Mike: one of J.J.Ìs gang.

-Barry: one of J.J.Ìs gang.

-Highland Fling: Highland dancing is one of two basic types of Scottish dancing which can be seen at nearly every modern day Highland games event. As the term is used today, Highland dancing is a highly competitive and technical dance form which requires many hours of practice and training over a period of several years to perfect. In terms of its technical requirements and the training required for its performance, Highland dancing has much in common with ballet with which it shares common roots in the classical dances of earlier times

Chapter 7: Mission- Impossible???

-Jughead Jake: In Boise Idaho there is the legend of ÏJughead JakeÓ and ÏPan Handle Pete.Ó Legend has it, the two used the fool's gold to whoop it up in the valley and then left town before their secret was learned, leaving many Boise businessmen nothing to show for it except Ïbogus gold.Ó

-Jesse James: Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 - April 3, 1882) was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. His father, the Rev. Robert James, was a Baptist minister who helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, MO.

Some people say it was the cruel treatment from Union soldiers that turned Frank and Jesse to a life of crime during the Civil War. Certainly during the war years they learned to kill while riding with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson.

After the war, Jesse was wounded while surrendering. Within a year, Frank and Jesse are believed to have pulled off the first daylight bank robbery in peace time. They made off with $60,000 from the Liberty, MO bank not far from their home, and one man was killed.

For the next 15 years, the James boys roamed throughout the U.S. robbing trains and banks of their gold, building a legend that was to live more than a century after JesseÌs death.

Jesse married his own first cousin after a nine-year courtship. She was named for his own mother, Zerelda, and he called her Zee for short. They had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency was called in to help catch the famous desperadoes. Once during a nighttime raid on the family home outside Kearney, MO, a firebomb was tossed into the log cabin. When it exploded, it tore off the hand of JesseÌs mother, and led to the death of his half-brother Archie.

Jesse reached his Waterloo in September, 1876, when his gang, including the Younger brothers, took on the bank at Northfield, MN. Within minutes the town people returned fire. All except Frank and Jesse were either killed or were wounded and captured.

On Christmas Eve, Jesse and Zee moved their family into a small house atop a high hill overlooking St. Joseph. Living under the assumed name of Tom Howard, Jesse rented the house from a city councilman for $14 a month. He attended church, but did not work for a living.

During the winter of 1882, Jesse tried to buy a small farm in Nebraska. But in April, he was short of cash. All of his earlier gang members were either dead or in prison, but Jesse recruited Bob and Charlie Ford to help him rob the Platte City bank. The Ford brothers posed as cousins of Jesse James, but actually were not related to Jesse at all.

The $10,000 reward on Jesse proved too appealing. While Jesse stood on a chair in the family home at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph to dust and straighten a picture, Bob and Charlie Ford drew their guns.

Bob Ford put and end to the James Legend with a single bullet to the back of the head on April 3, 1882.

Dr. Dawson, flat on his face in the Mud!

-Zapodidae, Neozapus: zapus hudsonius luteus, commonly known as the New Mexican Jumping Mouse. Rodent slightly larger than the common mouse, found in North America and N Asia, also called the kangaroo mouse. Its long hind legs and tail enable it to leap distances up to 12 ft (3.7 m). Jumping mice have gray to brown fur and are white underneath. They can scurry as well as leap and are good swimmers. Solitary, nocturnal animals, they are found in marshes and on stream banks in coniferous and deciduous forests of both coasts of North America and also in fields and pastures. Two genera, Zapus and Napaeozapus, are North American, ranging from the Arctic Circle S to New Mexico and Tennessee; a related genus, with one species, Eozapus setchuanus, the Szechuan jumping mouse, is native to China. Jumping mice feed on a diet of grass seeds, fruit, and insect larvae. They gain weight in autumn and hibernate in fur-lined burrows during winter. Litters, containing from three to six young, are born in late spring. Jumping mice are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Zapodidae.

-Oddly, Basil doesnÌt plan on tracking J.J. down, he merely plans to visit the Grand Canyon.

- Clovis, New Mexico is a small city located in Curry County, New Mexico, United States, with a population of approximately 32,700 (2000 census.) It is the county seat of Curry County.

Clovis is located in the Llano Estacado and eastern New Mexico regions. The largely agricultural town is also noted for its role in early rock music history. Nearby Cannon Air Force Base has a significant impact on the community. The eastern New Mexico region was home to the Clovis culture, a significant early anthropological group of Native Americans. This community is frequently studied in the history of North American anthropology and is fairly well know, even among lay persons. Historical remains were found at the Blackwater Draw site, south of the town, which remains a historical and tourist site.

Before receiving the name Clovis, the community was known as RileyÌs Switch .

The town takes its name from Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, at least according to most reports; it is often reported that this is because the daughter of the settlementÌs railroad stationmaster was studying French at the time of the townÌs naming and proposed the appellation.

-Hobbs, New Mexico: Hobbs is a city in Lea County, New Mexico . As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 28,657. Hobbs is located at 32É42'44" North, 103É8'26" West.

-The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the largest railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859. Although the railway was named in part for the capital of New Mexico, its main line never reached there as the terrain made it too difficult to lay the necessary tracks (Santa Fe was ultimately served by a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico.) The Santa FeÌs first tracks reached the Kansas /Colorado state line in 1873, and connected to Pueblo, Colorado in 1876. In order to help fuel the railroadÌs profitability, the Santa Fe set up real estate offices and sold farm land from the land grants that the railroad was awarded by Congress; these new farms would create a demand for transportation (both freight and passenger service) that was, quite conveniently, offered by the Santa Fe.

-Flagstaff, Arizona is a city located in Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the west of the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 52,894. It is the county seat, an important railroad town and home to Lowell Observatory and Northern Arizona University. The cityÌs name commemorates a Ponderosa Pine tree made into a tall flagpole in 1876 celebrating the United States Centennial.

-ÏStampedes, shootouts, square dances! Broncos, barbecues, bluebonnets!Ó It seems to be a mouse form of gameplay, in which spontaneous alliterative exclamations are made. I think of it as a mouse love of wordplay.

-Palma: A mouse town apparently near the human town of Palma, New Mexico is Torrance County.

Chapter 8: Stampede!

-The route Basil, Dawson and Longfellow follow is along the modern Route 66.

-Cuervo, New Mexico: DawsonÌs memory is playing him false here, for the town of Cuervo didnÌt exist in 1895. Between 1901 and 1903, the Southern Pacific pushed through Cuervo and a town was born. Named after nearby Cuervo Hill, Cuervo is Spanish for Ïcrow,Ó which are abundant in the area.

Around 1910, the land surrounding Cuervo was opened to cattle ranching which created a land boom and the town began to grow. When Route 66 came through, the new highway created the additional trade of gas stations and hotels.

At its peak, Cuervo boasted two schools, two churches, two hotels and two doctors, along with numerous other businesses. In the 1930Ìs, Cuervo reportedly had a population of almost 300. By the mid 1940Ìs; however, it had already fallen to less than 150.

-Montoya, New Mexico: Montoya got its name in 1902 when the railroad arrived and was a shipping center. Ruins can be seen just off I-40 along the railroad including one structure that was an old store. But there was the cattle town of Rountree here before the railroad, so Dawson must be using the modern names of the towns and sites he passed through.

-Tucamari, New Mexico: Again, Dawson is mistaken. Once nicknamed as ÏSix-Shooter Siding,Ó Tucumcari, New Mexico got its start as a rowdy railroad camp filled with saloons and outlaws. The camp began in 1901 when the Rock Island Railroad pushed west through the area. The small settlement of Liberty, some three miles north, wasted no time dismantling and moving closer to the railroad. Soon, the camp was filled with merchants, gamblers, saloon-keepers and dance hall girls.

The fathers of Tucumcari were five businessmen from Liberty who filed on the land, then donated 120 acres of land for town site. They were: M. B. Goldenberg, A. D. Goldenberg, Jacob Wertheim, J.A. Street, and Lee K. Smith. J.A. Street is credited for erecting the first tent in the new railroad camp.

The camp was officially called Douglas in the very beginning but just one year later the town took the name of Tucumcari to reflect with the scenic Tucumcari Mountains acting as a background for the city. The meaning of the word ÏTucumcariÓ is a loose derivation of a Comanche word for lookout.

The first passenger train arrived in Tucumcari on March 12, 1902 and before long there were four passenger trains arriving daily, two from the east and two from the west.

The town had a Texas welcome station at one point and some scenes for the movie Grapes of Wrath were filmed at Glen Rio.

Being on a state line can have its advantages - or not. The town once had a post office on the New Mexico side of the line, with mail arriving at the depot on the Texas side. The town was further divided by liquor laws, since New Mexico was ÏwetÓ while Deaf Smith County was Ïdry.Ó

In 1945 the town had a population of only 30 people and businesses were tourist-based.

-Amarillo, Texas: founded in 1887, Amarillo is a city located in the West Texas region. It is the county seat of Potter County and a portion the city extends to Randall County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 173,627; however its metropolitan area population is now estimated at well over 220,000. The famous Route 66 passes through Amarillo. The cityÌs name derives from the nearby Amarillo Lake and Amarillo Creek, named in turn for the yellow soil along their banks and shores (Amarillo is the Spanish word for yellow, the color.)

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Chapter 6 The Walking Bushes

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