Tales from the Morgue

1950: Squirrel Goes Places On His Owner's Hat

Feb. 2, 1950

An El Pasoan has a real squirrel on his hat. The little critter is a flying squirrel and is owned by Clayton M. Garrett of 711 North Stan ton street, assistant manager of the Yandell Theater.

"I call him Oscar," Mr. Garret said. "He'll stay almost wherever he's perched. I sometimes put him on my shoulder and walk through one of the downtown stores, and you should hear the women am girls squeal.

The squirrel is about five inches in length and has reached full growth at the age of one year. His natural habitat is Washington state.

When he flies he spreads his four feet, unfolding two layers of fur. Generally, he glides for short distances like "a flying blanket." Mr. Garrett says he's seen Oscar fly about six feet.

He first read about Oscar's breed in the National Geographic Magazine about a year ago, made inquiries and eventually sent for one. He feeds the little brown and animal an assortment of white nuts.

He thinks of Oscar as just a silent partner and likes to have him around.

Around Town Aug. 24, 1895

Mayor Campbell was on the sick list yesterday, but his friends hope to see him well and out today.

The shooting heard last night was done by Constable John Sellman killing a mad dog for a neighbor.

El Paso was shaken up yesterday afternoon by a thunder and lightning storm, followed by a good rain.

The Valentine robbers who killed Dick Elsberry have not yet been corralled. The rangers are still hunting them.

Yesterday afternoon Colonel McCann of the Equitable set-up a fifty-one pound water melon to a party of his friends.

Yesterday Collector Davis was presented with a very handsome and costly Mexican sombrero by Collector Bauche of Juarez.

Deputy Sheriff J.O. Jones wants it distinctly understood that he never was a member of a lynching or of any other kind of mob.

Yesterday Chief Fink received a letter from John Wesley Hardin’s brother in Austin making inquiries as to what property, if any, the dead man had left.

The Mexican national Athletic Club of the City of Mexico gave a grand assault at arms last night in which Billy Smith of El Paso went against Charlie and Jimmy Carroll for points.

Lightning caused the telephone in the Santa Fe office to give forth a noise like the sharp crack of a little rifle yesterday, and Will Brown called “hello” just as if “central” had called him.

The district court at Alpine adjourned yesterday. On a change of venue the case of Brewster county’s treasurer, Garnett, who is charged with robbing himself, was transferred to El Paso county.

The International Copper Smelter blew in yesterday with bright prospects for a long run. The company has large quantities of ore on the dumps at their mines if the rain will hold up long enough for it to be moved.

Yesterday a TIMES reporter walked right into a hot gold-silver discussion. Captains Davis and Fewel and Postmaster Julian were talking for the ambrosiac colored cash while George Look was clinging to “the dollar of our daddies.” The reporter having neither gold or silver to convert into cash wanted paper money,

8 years of planning produced Bassett Center, EP's 1st mall

By Trish Long

Photo: March 2, 1962 - Mayor Ralph Seitsinger, second from left, officiates at ribbon-cutting ceremonies during the opening of the $7 million Bassett Center. On hand to give their approval are Charles N. Bassett Corp. officials, from left, H. M. Daugherty, president and director; George G. Matkin, vice president, treasurer and director, and Promotions Director Sam Rutherford.

When Bassett Center opened at 10 a.m. March 1, 1962, the $7 million, 53-acre, 18-store shopping center was the largest between Dallas and Los Angeles. It was an open-air shopping center and wasn't completely enclosed until 1974.

Bassett Center was named for Charles Nebeker Bassett, former president of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, president and later chairman of the board of the State National.

In 1954, the city conducted a survey that determined that a sand pit owned by El Paso Sand products Co., State National Bank and the Charles N. Bassett family heirs, and bounded by Montana, Geronimo, Interstate 10 and Magruder Street, was the population center of El Paso County. Based on the survey, DeWitt and Rearick, a local real estate, firm approached the land owners about building a shopping center at the location.

Planning for the center began in November 1955, and the first lease was signed with The White House department store on June 13, 1958.

Construction of the center took just over a year. Ground was broken to begin construction on Feb. 18, 1961. General contractors for the Center were C.H. Leavell and Co. and Dan R. Ponder Co., both of El Paso. Architects were Bartlett Cocke and Associates of San Antonio, and Nesmith and Lane of El Paso. Resident architect Larry Hohlaus of Bartlett Cocke with local offices at Nesmith and Lane.

A 1974 $1.3 million renovation completely enclosed the mall. An El Paso Times article at the time said, "The Bassett Center 'Big Top' now allows shoppers to visit stores anytime of the year in complete comfort, no matter what the weather."

In 1989, Charles Bassett Center Ltd., a group of 28 El Paso investors, including Charles Bassett Hammond, grandson of Charles Bassett, sold Bassett Center to Washington D.C., investment group, Cafritz-Schonberger Group. This marked the first time the center was not owned by any descendant of O.T. Bassett.

O.T. Bassett, an orphan and Civil War veteran, came to El Paso in 1880 and built a fortune by owning the only bank and lumber company in the city. He died in 1898 and his son Charles Bassett took over his business.

The mall was purchased in October 2003 by Cypress Equities, one of the business interests owned by former Cowboys quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer Roger Staubach. On Nov. 2, 2004, Bassett Center was renamed Bassett Place.

 

The 1983 "Atari Titanic" is rising

I received an email from a radio station in Spain this morning asking if there was any truth to the internet rumor that hundreds of E.T. Atari games  were buried in the El Paso desert

Wonder no more, here is a April 12, 2005 article by Shelley E. Smith of the Alamogordo Daily News:

The 1983 "Atari Titanic" is rising

In 1983, Atari Inc. transported 14 to 18 truckloads of unsold "E.T." and Pac Man cartridges and had them buried in the "old" Alamogordo landfill.

So started the legend, which has escalated to international a claim of whether this did, or did not, occur. Some are calling it the "Atari Titanic" and comparing it to the legendary Stonehenge or Roswell's extraterrestrial experience.

Bruce Snyder recenlty came from Fort Worth, Texas, to visit friends and to do research on the Atari landfill incident.

"If you go on the Internet there is a lot of international interest in this from the United Kingdom, Japan and Europe," Snyder said.

While filming with a video camera at the old landfill, he said, "I am filming this site to stick on the Internet just to show everybody and to feed curiosity. I want to show them where it is and that way they can quit speculating. It won't really give them anything except knowing that it really did happen. It is said that it is the resting place of ŒE.T.,' or the burial site of ŒE.T.' Some people believe they were shipped off to Mexico and not buried here."

Old Daily News articles fed the theory: Tons of Atari games buried; dump here utilized, (Sept. 25, 1983), and City cementing ban on dumping, landfill won't house any more Atari rejects, (Sept 28, 1983). These articles by former Daily News staff writer M.E. McQuiddy reflect that the Atari dumping did occur.

According to landfill officials at the time, 14 to 18 truckloads of Atari cartridges were dumped, steamroller crushed, and buried.

The Alamogordo Department of Public Safety reported they received calls that Saturday that youngsters or individuals were taking the cartridges and were trying to sell Atari games to local stores. The following Tuesday, to keep the site from being looted, a concrete slab was poured over the Atari dumpsite, covering about 45 yards.

Then City Manager Dan Malone had no idea until Saturday that Texas had chosen Alamogordo as an industrial dumpsite. By Tuesday night, the City Commission established a new ordinance, which limited the flexibility of the garbage contractor.

Snyder said, "Some people are having thoughts that it might be fun to try and come out here and dig it up, but in reality it is not a feasible idea. They are treating it as a treasure hunt, just to see where they are at and maybe find some items that were in the Atari warehouse that got buried along with the millions of extra copies of ŒE.T.' and other games. You could call them video game fanatics, or digital Atari archeologists.

"There are people all over the world that grew up with the Atari 2600s, 5200s and the 7800s. There are many collectors. In my collection I have probably 2,000 games, tops, and there people who have out about 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 game systems."

Fire Commander Joe Bailey, of the DPS Fire Station at 619 Texas St., said, "They had a consortium of all the communities of the counties and the municipalities. They closed down the old landfill and opened our new landfill, the Otero County Regional Landfill, located 23 miles south of Alamogordo. In the mid-1990s, the state amended the rules on how the landfills were handled. Now all landfills have to be fully lined with a very thick plastic liner. When it rains the pollutants are caught and can't get into the underground water to contaminate it."

From the Sept 28, 1983, article "Dumping could be hidden" by Santa Fe correspondent Kate McGraw, the computer parts and computer games that were dumped at the Alamogordo landfill did not involve hazardous materials as far as anyone knew. However, the potential still existed in landfills around the state for hazardous materials being dumped without the public's knowledge.

An Emergency Management Act was passed by the Legislature, which created the Emergency Management Task Force from the incident of the Atari dumping. Code regulations and standard procedures were developed for dealing with anyone dumping questionable materials or hazardous materials.