More Red Dawns Come to Las Vegas, New Mexico

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The small northern New Mexico community of Las Vegas as been a center of attention for more than a week as savage wildfires in a pine-covered mountainous area surounding the town of 13,000 have been steadily whipped into a frenzied inferno by unrelenting high winds.  So far the fire around Las Vegas has consumed more than three hundred square miles, though mercifully it has not entered the town.  Many nice - and expensive - homes in the Rocky Mountain foothills around the town, however, have been destroyed.

Las Vegas, New Mexico, is a town that is familiar to many Americans of a certain age, though they may not realize it - and many others may have passed right through the center of the town, again never realizing where they were.

The town of Las Vegas was the focal point of the 1984 film, "Red Dawn," the original, not the cheesy remake, with most of the film being made either right in the town or in the nearby foothills and pine forests.   AmTrak's "Southwestern Chief" line which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, passes right through the center of town - and some of the actual fighting in the movie took place near the depot on the very tracks where Amtrak travels.  For fans of the movie - like this highly caffeinated typist - the locale is easily recognizable as the train pulls through the area.

Patrick Swayze, one of the stars of "Red Dawn," the original and not the cheesy remake, was so impressed with the area that he bought land and set up a ranch nearby.

So as you listen to those awful stories about a disastrous fire in a remote area of America, know that it is really someplace where many of us feel a connection, and those roaring fires are scorching and destroying a part of our heritage.  The town of Las Vegas is once again being threatened by a red dawn, this one the morning glow from wild fires being pushed by fierce winds, and the town is once again trying to go about normal life as courageous heroes roam the surrounding hills valiantly trying to save the day.

Wolverines!