10:30 – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Dominici Education Building / Rooms 122-124
The Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico welcomes Retired New Mexico Army National Guard Brigadier General Jack R. Fox for our October HGRC Speaker Series. General Fox will lead a discussion on “The Rough Riders of New Mexico,” a nickname given to the 1st U.S. Volunteer Calvery Legendary Cowboy Regiment. The Men who served had to already have knowledge and experience capable on horseback and in shooting. One Half the unit came from New Mexico and recruited by Commander Theodore Roosevelt. Las Vegas, New Mexico celebrates with a museum about “The Rough Riders of New Mexico” as the first regiments gathering place in 1899.
“On June 24, 1899, on the one-year anniversary of the Battle of Las Gusaimas, about a hundred soldiers who called themselves the Rough Riders gathered together to celebrate victory in the Spanish-American War. Where they gathered wasn’t as important as why. But when it came time to organize such an event only one Old West town seemed appropriate: Las Vegas.
Yes, Las Vegas.
Only this was not the Las Vegas built in the middle of the Nevada desert. That town’s reputation was still several decades away.
No, this was the City of Las Vegas in the New Mexico territory.”
– By Ken Zurski