From: laro@idworld.net   
      
   "Kye Ohtie"  wrote in message   
   news:402c0039@news.zianet.com...   
   > In article <20040212110910.28915.00000466@mb-m07.aol.com>,   
   xmarx467@aol.compost   
   > says...   
   >   
   >   
   > >the other states (including Utah and Idaho, etc.) don't have as clear   
   > >identities and more naturally fall into the category of "west."   
   > >Anybody else have such feelings?   
   > >   
   > >   
   > >Chris Mark   
   >   
   > Well, I'm now an "adopted" New Mexican, and   
   > I dare you to find an older and more interesting   
   > "old west" history than this state's. Of   
   > course, I'm referring to the "old west" as   
   > being that period after the Spanish first arrived.   
   > And they "first arrived" via what is now   
   > New Mexico - via what is now El Paso, Texas.   
   >   
      
   Just read Chris', Kye's and Gerald's comments.   
      
   I can't disagree with any of them.  Though five or ten years ago, I'd have   
   argued with Kye about where the Spanish arrived first.   Now, I've been to   
   that mountaintop, got the t-shirt!  He's right.   
      
   He's talking about the "First American Thanksgiving", too, if he is aware of   
   it.  It certainly pre-dates the Pilgrims and their big day.  The man was   
   Onate, the date was about 1599, if my recall hasn't slipped too far.   Hard   
   to locate any written documents much "older" than that in our "West."   And   
   he went from there up to a village near present Santa Fe, NM.   I think   
   Santa Fe was probably founded about 8 years or so later.  ??   
      
   And the "Old West" discussion has been held, more than once.  There will   
   probably never be full agreement on just what the "old west" entails.  I was   
   interested to see Chris say that for him, Texas was part of "the West!"   A   
   lot of folks will say Texas is the "old South."   
      
   For me, it depends on what part of Texas you refer to.   It is very hard to   
   label Texas with just one label, it's so wide and diverse.  El Paso, Texas,   
   is actually nearer Los Angeles, CA,  than Dallas.   
      
   If you take a N/S line through somewhere around Junction, Texas and look   
   west, you're probably looking at the West, the Old West, or something like   
   that.  Not too far from that line Doc Holiday is said to have first met   
   Wyatt Earp in Ft. Griffin, Texas.   
      
   Get in the Eastern parts and you've got another region on your hands.  Go   
   south, and you've almost got another nation on your hands, certainly another   
   culture!   
      
   I can't really say much about the Northern parts.  Being descended from   
   things Confederate, I try to avoid the Nawth and them scalawags up there.   
   I've got to go to Denton next month, and I feel like I should be getting my   
   passport ready.  I know, I know, it's just about 350 miles, but still, it's   
   up there in the cold north!  I'd be much happier to go 300 miles south for   
   these meetings!   Or West.  Or East!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)