Jim Redford is the scheduled speaker for the next Westerners meeting, to be held on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. at the Silver City Cross Point Church Fellowship Hall, located at 11600 Highway 180 East. Redford, a Silver City resident who spent his childhood in the Lordsburg area, will be entertaining the group with tales and tidbits of Lordsburg's history, as well as the history and beginnings of the Bootheel of New Mexico.

Lordsburg was founded in 1880 when the Southern Pacific Railroad came through. It began as a wild frontier tent town where life was typical of the Old Southwest. As nearby mining, ranching, and farming developed, it became a real town with brick and adobe homes, schools and churches. The first airport in New Mexico was built in Lordsburg. Located on US Highway 80, now Interstate 10/20, the "Dixie Overland Highway" that extended from Georgia to California, Lordsburg was also the center of various other slightly less legal activities such as gambling.

Redford's family came to the Bootheel in covered wagons in 1882 from central Texas. His family has a long history in the area from the Duncan Valley to Mogollon, Silver City, and Animas, where they have farmed, mined and worked for the railroad.

After graduating from Rice University, Redford lived in Houston and Dallas for 30 years before moving back to New Mexico. Now retired, Redford likes to read and write in his free time, and he and his wife especially enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren.

Westerners 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 for non-members. The public is invited to attend the meeting, and should make reservations with Mary Margaret Soule at 538-2888 by Sunday, April 15.