BLACK COWBOY ARCHAEOLOGIST

n Aug. 27, 1908 a devastating flood brought death and destruction to Folsom, New Mexico Territory, a community of nearly 1,000 people. More than a foot of rain in the Cimarron Valley created a 5-foot wall of turbulent, muddy water that shattered the town. Seventeen residents lost their lives that day, and most buildings were swept away. The flood also ripped into the banks of nearby Wild Horse Arroyo, felling trees, moving boulders and leaving enormous deposits of mud downstream. On August 31 Folsom’s weekly deemed it “a most extraordinary and terrific battle of the elements.” The paper noted that the