Hundreds of people walk on the top of Elephant Butte Dam on Saturday as part of a New Mexico centennial celebration. The dam, closed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was opened to the public for three hours on Saturday. Photo Credit - Greg Sorber/Journal
ELEPHANT BUTTE – In the 1950s, long before threats of terrorism shut down the New Mexico landmark that is Elephant Butte Dam, Domenica Iorio-Rush and her teenage friends passed time dancing on the concrete wonder.
Sherry Fletcher did the same a decade later, the dam still stomping grounds for area teens looking for something to do. In Fletcher’s case, it was the pony and the twist.
On Saturday, for the first time in more than a decade, both set foot on the dam again during a one-day special event honoring the state’s centennial. The dam had been closed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, for security reasons.
The women, from different decades but with similar memories, were two of the more than 400 New Mexicans who attended the celebration and toured the 1,674-foot-long dam for three hours.
A committee from Sierra County spent more than a year organizing the event. It was their way of honoring a New Mexican landmark on the state’s 100th birthday.
The dam, on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, was completed in 1916. At the time it was built, the dam was thought to be the largest concrete structure in the world. It created Elephant Butte Lake, a national attraction considered the largest and most popular lake in the state.
The dam also brought hundreds of workers to the area, many of whom founded establishments and, eventually, settled the area.
“What we found in looking at our own history is that the dam was really a pivotal shift to the population in Sierra County,” said Fletcher, an event organizer. “This seems to be the place that really promoted our growth.”
Iorio-Rush, who is 75, remembers not just the dances but the groups of school children learning about electricity through dam tours. She remembers taking any visitor who came through town to see the dam and lake it created.
“A community as isolated as we are, it’s a wonderful recruiting tool to bring people to the community,” she said.
The dam, which can hold more 2.2 million acre-feet of water, was built over four years. The federal project brought hundreds of workers who eventually founded what became Truth or Consequences.
According to a documentary put together by Fletcher, dam workers were not allowed to drink alcohol and worked under generally strict rules. Slowly, she said, some started venturing out and establishing saloons and restaurants, and a town was born.
Jim Lee lived in that town off and on for several years, driving to go see friends on the other side of the dam and spending time there like all the other youth.
The last time he was there, the band Queen was taking on its first North American tour and the television show “Happy Days” had just premiered. The Saturday visit was a long time coming, Lee said.
This time, Lee brought his own children, 15-year-old James Lee Jr. and 13-year-old Isavillar.
Lee stood at the end of the long walkway over the dam, looking at the water and reminiscing about his youth. He and his family had driven about two hours from Mimbres, a small town outside of Silver City.
“I wanted these guys to have an opportunity to do what we did as kids routinely,” Lee said. “The dam is a large part of New Mexico history; in fact, it’s a large part of history. And to be able to share it with my children is awesome.”
The kids, who had raced to the end of the dam, shared his enthusiasm.
“It’s nice to share this experience with my family,” James Jr. said.
For Truth or Consequences City Commissioner Steve Green, reopening the dam for a few hours was “a great way to honor the state, to honor the country.”
“The people should have the opportunities to enjoy these wonderful creations of man, for man,” Green said.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
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