Luna: Somewhere between rich and starving

LUNA, N.M. — Standing in the shadow of the first cabin LDS settlers built almost 120 years ago here, Phil Swapp summarized the charm of this mountain valley.

"Nobody ever gets rich, but nobody ever starves," he said.

Located on the western border of New Mexico in Catron County, Luna was first settled in 1883 by early Church members who planted crops and raised cattle.

Today the valley — six miles long and 2.5 miles wide, divided by the San Francisco River — isn't much different than it might have been back then. The LDS chapel is the largest building in a town so small that it has a simple address: Main Street.

Luna, which has a population of less than 500, is a place where residents rarely use a telephone and visitors don't need an appointment to stop in on friends. Townspeople call older neighbors uncle or aunt, whether they are related or not; the nearest Wal-Mart is more than 90 miles away; everyone knows about hard work; and the Church is the center of most social activities.

Brother Swapp even cautions out-of-towners: If one stays long enough, he said, they will never want to leave.

That's what happened in 1882 when Brother Swapp's grandfather and great uncle, William Swapp and his brother Melvin, first saw the valley while driving a herd of cattle to the New Mexico Territory. A year later they returned with their families, widowed mother and other settlers — six men, six women and 22 children in all. In the months and years that followed, the Church called additional families to settle the area; others came on their own.

William and Melvin Swapp built a one-room cabin for their mother. Set in the middle of the townsite, the settlers held all their Church and business meetings there.

The cabin still stands outside Brother Swapp's home, decorated with the antlers from the now-extinct Merriam elk and other relics that tell their own story of this town's pioneer history. As do the old post office and store, an abandoned school house, ranching brands carved in trees, the cemetery and three apple trees.

Brother Swapp's parents planted those trees on their homestead, a quarter of a mile from the nearest water source. For more than two years, until they could pipe water to the property, they carried it to the trees.

Ruby Laney who worked with Brother Swapp's wife, Charles Rae Swapp, to prepare a history of Luna, said the town is full of reminders of earlier times, such as the apple trees.

While working for the forest service years ago, Sister Laney got permission to take her father-in-law, Bert Laney, along with her. "Everywhere we went he could give me a story [relating to one place or another] and I would go home and write it down.

From his and others' accounts, as well as dozens of journals of early "Lunatics" — as she called them — Sister Laney learned about the Luna Ward, organized in November of 1883; miracles witnessed by early Church members; and even the outlaws who came to the isolated valley to hole up while on the run from the law. The outlaws built up cattle herds "much faster than the honest pioneer," raised hay to feed their stolen livestock and, in general, made themselves at home, Sister Laney said.

The outlaw chapter in the history of Luna became one of Sister Laney's favorite chapters in the Luna Ward's written history.

With the help of Sister Laney and her husband, Alvin, the Swapps, Evelyn and Buford Hulsey, J. Alex and Helen Paterson, and Linda and George Gibbons, the Luna Ward published the history of the area in 1982, during the town's yearlong centennial celebration.

The celebration was kicked of in February with a dutch oven dinner. "We had it outdoors to remind ourselves what it would have been like camping out in the winter time as they traveled," she said, noting that early settlers endured winter travel so they could start cabins, prepare fields and build irrigation ditches before planting time.

At the centennial celebration, Sister Laney said guests also ate peach cobbler. However, she added, "I doubt if they [early settlers] had cobbler, they weren't that affluent."

Neither are many residents in this town today.

The Laneys live just outside of Luna on a ranch, not far from their son, Jerry, who serves as a counselor in the Luna Ward bishopric. Because electrical power is not available on the ranch, both homes use solar power.

Like the generations that came before them, they have made do because they love the Luna valley. "There is no place like home," Alvin Laney explained. "Sometimes it gets kind of tough living on love, but we stay with it."

Once, Brother Swapp entertained the idea of leaving and settling in Colorado. However, Sister Swapp said she wouldn't go, so the family stayed.

The Laneys watch their children sacrifice to stay in a town where jobs are scarce — carrying on the family tradition for yet another generation.

"It is hard to make a living here," Sister Laney said. "Yet they keep struggling and trying to find new ways because this is home."

You can reach Sarah Jane Weaver by e-mail at sarah@desnews.com

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