SOUTH VALLEY--By God, I finally found it! About 20 years ago I was talking to the artist Lawrence Vargas and he related the most amazing memory from his childhood. He said he remembered walking through this "valley of glass" somewhere near where he grew up in the south valley. That this place went on and on--filled with glass bottles and pieces of colored glass. I was fascinated and probed him to see if we could find it. No dice. He just couldn't figure it out.
And then last week one of the newspapers ran a map of proposed improvements along the bosque. On the map was a feature titled "Garden of Glass." The item was small and without explanation. It was located just south of the Hispanic Cultural Center. Well, it took some looking, and stashing our bikes while we did some exploring, but Bob Evans and I found that elusive field of glass!
I does go on seemingly forever; I estimate about 10 acres. There are bottles, shattered fragments, all kinds of colors, bottle necks, dishes, crockery. It looks to be from the 1930's through the 50's, although parts of it may be quite a bit older. There seems to be almost no metal mixed in...just glass...tons of glass. One caveat, besides sharp pieces, there also seems to be some brake parts which may contain asbestos. This is another of the wonders to be found on that south valley bike trail.
1 comment:
Johnny,
In the mid 90's I worked for the City (still do) at what is now the Hispanic Cultural Center, but was then the headquarters for the City's job training and education programs. Before that, it was (I think) Riverview Elementary School which was built as a WPA project. Anyhow, I liked to go for a run each day at lunch time, and while I would often go north along Tingly Beach and the Country Club area, the nicest run was on the gravel levy road between the ditch and the bosque going south from Bridge to Rio Bravo. Now they have a blacktop trail going on the other side of the ditch, but then it was quiet and lonely. I eventually discovered the "valley of glass", but had no idea what it was called. I was just amazed that a dump would be filled mostly with just glass and crockery. It was great to explore, and I would reward myself for working out by picking up an especially attractive shard which I would then stash in my desk drawer. Eventually I had quite a collection, and wished I was creative enough to do something with them. But eventually we had to move out, and I returned them to their source. I'm glad others have and apparantly still are enjoying this mysterious place.
Jack Sowar
jsowar@cabq.gov
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