The following is a recap of local events for this time period throughout history.

Aztec Police Chief Bill Smith is reminding area residents of a new law that went into effect Sunday, Jan. 1. The new state law reads: “No motor vehicle required to be registered in New Mexico may be operated upon the streets or highways in New Mexico without evidence of financial responsibility in the vehicle.” Smith said he would like to educate the public about the new law because every vehicle stopped from now on will be required to show proof of liability coverage.

Aztec Independent Review

Aztec’s Volunteer Fire Department answered 155 alarms during 1973 in holding fire losses down to a total of $12,320. Crew members logged 930 hours in service and 819 hours in training sessions, a total of 1749 man hours devoted. The department’s equipment was in service total of 192 hours and 30 minutes, according to department secretary Bill Smith Jr. … The department set as its goal for the new year to obtain a larger and more efficient rescue unit.

Aztec Independent Review

Oil Men Defy Storm, Keep Plugging Away -- Old man winter, grim and determined, ran into a tough gang when he let everything he had go at the oil drillers. Didn’t even make ‘em squawk – “Seen worse in Cut Bank,” said one driller. “Nothing like Alaska,” said another, and so oil development paid no attention to Old Man Winter and kept going with the work.

Aztec Independent Review

A few weeks ago Frank Allen completed the neatest and best equipped theater and movie house to be found in San Juan basin and opened the spacious thespian temple with a free program, the attendance exceeding 1,100. The building, most modern seats and other furnishing and equipment must have cost close to $20,000 – a speculative venture that suggested revenue entertainment for Sunday evenings; and Mr. Allen proceeded and announced accordingly, but to meet with a concerted protest from local ministers, numbering one for every 100 of the town’s 1000 population – opposition that has yet to become effective or seriously considered by local theatergoers. The Sunday evening theater remains quite properly an amusing issue at Farmington, the while progressive residents are maturing plans to greatly enlarge the town.

San Juan Review

At the meeting of the Commissioners Monday at Aztec, petitions carrying 373 names were presented asking for the calling of an election to vote the rest of the local option law. The election was called for February 28. There is no doubt but the election will go Dry by an overwhelming vote as both Aztec and Farmington are now dry and a saloon cannot be located at any other place in the county anyway.

Farmington Times Hustler

The World’s Fair -- San Juan County Will Be Represented at The Great Show at St. Louis This Year. Now is the time to push our county and advertise its resources, show its advantages over other sections, and induce an abundance of wealth to flow into its fertile valleys. In order to accomplish this the Times-Hustler Proclamation Edition force is searching every nook and cranny in San Juan county, and when issued will be the most complete publication ever published on this section. … We know what we have got, but the easterner does not, so let us unite in one grand effort to throw light on the subject, and place San Juan county in the position she belongs, the banner county of New Mexico.

Farmington Times-Hustler

This Week in Local History is compiled by Debi Tracy Olsen, local journalist and member of the Aztec Museum Board of Directors. The stories are pulled from newspaper archives and are reprinted as they appeared, errors and all.