1951
4/20/51 In a Ruidoso News editorial, publisher and editor Lloyd Bloodworth wrote, “It looks like at long last the Alto road will be paved at least to the airport. I am of the opinion that more gasoline has been burned between here and Santa Fe trying to get that road paved than any other road in New Mexico. I personally have been to the capitol city not less than a dozen times during the past few years on the deal.
“We have hoped that the road would be completed at least to the Bonita. Maybe this will be the first step in a program that will eventually give a good road to connect with the pavement somewhere between Capitan and Carrizozo. Any community that has as many visitors as Ruidoso needs more than one road leading out.”
1976
4/26/76 Grant and Ethel Brumlow were killed when their twin-engine Cessna crashed shortly after take-off from Ruidoso’s airport. Snow was falling at the time of take-off and there was six inches of snow cover at the crash site on Grindstone Mesa. Brumlow was a major stockholder in many banks, including the Citizen’s Bank of Albuquerque, First National Bank of Clovis and the Bank of Santa Fe. He served as financial chairman for Joe Skeen’s 1974 gubernatorial campaign. The Brumlows had recently purchased Easy Jet, a former winner of the All-American Quarter Horse Futurity, for $3.5 million.
2001
4/6/01 Hawthorn Suites, the 120-room hotel adjacent to the Ruidoso Convention Center, was scheduled to open for Memorial Day.
“We absolutely have to be open by Memorial Day,” said Steve Tally, general manager. “We have bookings.” The hotel’s opening was originally scheduled for summer 2000, then postponed until February 2001. Delays in site preparation and a lack of construction workers were blamed for the delays.