Show the old settler my dear san Jua ners it happened in the year that hernando cortes ran away from cuba with the spanish ships to land at vera cruz and begin the conquest of mexico but it didn dian t happen in mexico it happened bappe right here in san juan county on a gentle slope of blue mountain Moun loin tsin towards the head of recapture Recap turo it was commiss commissio ionel to be a weather observer to ichord the yeav year M important events ei ants coming within the field of its f fading cl ng or vision vision in that first bear 5 ear it established establish only a tin tiny oase case oi which vIi ich to r begin with its long records then with unfailing vigilance it made account of the next year and th the next and the next its world at first was limited to the little area of grass and flowers around it and the arch of sky above in the year that desoto explored the mississippi valley and called the country louisiana the little observer on the slope of recapture had mounted high enough to view view the distant valley of the san juan and the vast country stretching far away to the south that year it was old enough to vote and it measured seven inches at the base when pedro established st augustine in florida 35 years later the young pine had become quite stately in appearance and in its sacred archives ishad it had a faithful record of every season and of every drouth for 56 years no white man had ever come co m e within its view an indian had rushed by it one day with bow and arrow in hand deer and bears were its frequent neighbors and the wild chickens of the mountain rested in its branches when the pilgrims landed at plymouth rock the record tree was years old growing among a multitude of its kind in its primitive wilderness sometimes it saw smoke in the distance and sometimes it heard the voices of men but it grew peacefully on increasing in height and size and never failing to write about the years and the rainfall j when the atlantic seaboard was 11 continued on page eight the old settler continued from pane page 1 all excitement over the terrible depredations of tho the pirate captain kidde kidd the now big pine on tile the slope of recapture celebrated I 1 its survival as a record keeper for two centuries it had some otherl other records now one of them deeply and impressively written about a thunderbolt thunder bolt which had struck it fiercely while it was standing sentinel I 1 on a dark stormy night in the days of the boston tea I 1 party and the battle of bunker fiill everything was still peaceful and remote on the slope of recapture indians had camped in the near vicinity and had rushed past aalst aast after wounded deer bears lad had romped and w wallowed allowed as al woys voys in the high grass and birds of tho the mountain had come there s summer after summer to nest about the time of the battle of bighorn when custer and his army perished a change seemed to be creeping into what hat was once a view of wide stillness smoke appeared in tile the distance with more fr frequency dequency equen cy and in the years that followed moving objects could be seen then men white men rode by on horses then ill in 1905 in plain view on the prairie where re the dull gray of tress and brush had covered the view for centuries a strange thing view for centuries a strange began to take form pushing the brush and the trees before it it was a town and from it white men came frequently to the neighborhood of the giant pine then one day when the stately old historian had celebrated his birthday a terrible thing approached a gasoline saw pushed by three men they started their j saw cutting right into the sacred heart of the venerable ancient of tile the hills ats ts limbs trembled it al groaned tottered and fell with a great crash to the ground revealing all the sacred reco records ds it veral had kept since cortez landed land er at vera cruz ALBERT R LYMAN |