University Library News Release
Date: September 5, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (505) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Fast Response Saves Hatch Village Documents
Severe flooding recently took a toll on communities along the Rio Grande Valley from west Texas to southern New Mexico. Disaster reached Hatch on August 15, when thunderstorms and flash flooding sent several feet of water and mud into the village. More than four hundred homes were significantly damaged as well as businesses and village offices.
Residents of Hatch lost homes, possessions, photo albums, letters and diaries. They might have lost much of their public history as well if it were not for the help of the Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department.
Steve Hussman, the head of Archives & Special Collections, was telephoned early on in the emergency by Kathy McConnell, the Hatch village clerk, who was concerned about village documents dating back to the 1950s that were soaked in three to four feet of water. Following Hussman’s advice, McConnell’s workers put the documents in the freezer of a Hatch meat company. They were then put in plastic tubs and brought to NMSU’s Branson Library, where they were placed in a large preservation freezer.
When the documents, original typescripts of ordinances and resolutions, were well frozen, Hussman removed the papers from the bindings, dried them in correct order on butcher paper, and then pressed them under glass. Many of the documents were typed on fragile onion-skin paper. Hussman noted that response within forty-eight hours is essential for water-soaked materials to be saved. If the materials dry without being frozen, they can stick together and can’t be separated, and the ink can wash out. The paper can also get gummy, especially onion-skin.
Hussman was glad to be able to help his neighbors save their historical records. “They were in real trouble,” he said. Loss of the records would have been “like pulling the heart out of a community.”
It will be a long time before Hatch recovers. But it is strengthened by its community spirit. Over Labor Day weekend, the annual Hatch Chile Festival was a “go” despite the continuing downpour. Hatch goes on. And, thanks to the timely teamwork of village officials and a nearby university library, so does its history.
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