1951
6/22/1951: “Local Law Enforcement Cracking Down on Residents” Village Marshall Frank Barajas warned locals that he would start enforcing the 25 mph speed limit. “We can’t expect our guests to observe the law if we don’t set the right example,” he said. Residents were also warned not to get in the way of the fire department. “The law requires a complete stop on the right hand side of the road,” Barajas said.
The “Apache Red Caps,” the Mescalero firefighting team, were commended by the National Park Service and the National Forest Service for their work on eleven fires since the group’s organization three years earlier. The group had been so successful that the San Carolos Apaches and the White River Apaches asked for their help in organizing their own firefighting efforts.
1976
6/3/1976: Increased summer air traffic at the Ruidoso Municipal Airport has brought extremely crowded conditions, according to airport manager Tim Morris. “This facility was designed to accommodate 48 aircraft,” Morris said. “Last week there were 50 planes on the ground. I don’t know what we’ll do when the Labor Day crowd hits…probably end up stacking them on top of each other.”
The airport had experienced a 281 percent increase in operations in the previous year. Morris said that a year-long program of selling jet fuel at the airport was partly the cause of the increase. “We still have about the same volume of single engine planes,” he said, “but we’re now pulling in a lot of turbines and pure jet engine planes like Lear jets and Kingaires.”
An advertisement appeared in the same issue of the Ruidoso News for a concert by Willie Nelson and Family at the Chaparral Lodge. Tickets were $8.
2001
6/1/2001: Ruidoso officials, business leaders and the owner of Rio Grande Air met to negotiate a subsidy that would return commuter air service to the county.
State funding for the subsidy would require a joint-powers agreement between Ruidoso and the town of Taos, headquarters for Rio Grande Air. Ruidoso would need to provide $150,000 and Taos $50,000 for the first year of service. Rio Grande Air would provide two round-trip flights between Ruidoso and Albuquerque six days a week. The estimated price of a round-trip ticket was $150.
Two air carriers had provided scheduled flights to Ruidoso in the 1990s.