Dr. Doug DinwiddieLou BlachlyDr. Doug Dinwiddie is the scheduled speaker for the next Westerners meeting, to be held on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cross Point Church Fellowship Hall. Cross Point Church, is located at 11600 Highway 180 East, 1.1 miles east of the Walmart entrance on the south side of the highway. A full dinner will be catered. Dr. Dougwiddie will provide an informative presentation on Lou Blachly, who recorded stories from the area's early settlers in the 1940's and 1950's. Dr. Dinwiddie will also share some of the tales recorded by Blachly.

Lou Blachly was a native of Delta, Colorado who relocated to Silver City in the late 1940's following a career in Government service. Securing a job with the Silver City Enterprise newspaper, Blachly began authoring a weekly column featuring the recollections of old timers in the Silver City region. He soon began tape recording his interviews with them, and eventually persuaded a group of local businessmen to form the Pioneers Foundation for the purpose of financing and promoting one of the first "oral history" projects in the United States. Blachly ultimately interviewed over 100 people, and collected over 700 tape recordings dealing with the experiences those people had during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the tapes were transferred to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Blachly eventually moved on to Tucson, where he passed away in 1965.

In the early 1980s, Doug Dinwiddie, who at that time was the Director of the WNMU Museum, became aware of the Blachly project, and began extensive research on Lou Blachly and the Pioneers Foundation. This research became the subject of Dinwiddie's doctoral dissertation, completed at Northern Arizona University in 1987.

Following a teaching career at NMSU and Colorado State University, Dr. Dinwiddie and his wife recently retired back to the Silver City area. He enjoys sharing his research on the Pioneers Foundation Project.

Westerners International is an international group dedicated to sharing and preserving the history of the American West. The local chapter meets on the third Tuesday of every other month throughout the year, except for December, when the meeting is held on the second Tuesday. Dinner is served at the meeting, and the cost is $12.00 per person for members and $15.00 per person for non-members. The public is invited to attend the meeting, and should make reservations with Mary Margaret Soule at 538-2888 by Sunday, February 19.