ANNOUNCING  the premiere of

“Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter, Volume 1, The Stacks”

on June 20, 2013 at 7pm at the Scottish Rite Theater, 301 West Missouri in downtown El Paso

                                     FOUR showings

                        7:00pm Thursday, June 20, 2013 premiere                          To purchase tickets go to

                           7:00pm  Friday,  June 21, 2013                                        www.elpasoscottishrite.org/tickets

                           4:00pm  Saturday, June 22, 2013 matinee           

                           7:00pm  Saturday , June 22, 2013

Tickets are $7.00, and $6.00 with military or student ID.  A portion of the proceeds will go toward the Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital and a SmelterTown Museum of El Paso. After each film showing, audience members are invited to take part in a panel discussion about forming the El Paso SmelterTown Museum, and how to get that process under way.

The TV documentary is about the former Asarco smelter in West El Paso. It contains footage from a dozen cameras that recorded the April 13 demolition of the 610-foot smokestack and the iconic 828-foot smokestack.

The smelter operated as an American industrial giant for more than 110 years. The American Smelting and Refining Company, better known as Asarco, was closed in 1999, never to reopen. After the company declared bankruptcy, a court-appointed trustee was given the task of disposing of the smelter’s assets, demolishing its facilities and remediating the former smelter site.

Capstone Productions requested permission to video record the entire smelter plant before demolition, and began that huge process in May 2010. As a result, hundreds of hours of video have been recorded and thousands of still pictures have been captured, images that enabled Capstone Productions Executive Producer Jackson Polk to create the first of three planned one-hour TV documentaries in the series about the former smelter.

This first documentary, "Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter, Vol.1 The Stacks" includes the demolition of four stacks that stood on the property – the 150-foot antimony stack, the 300-foot acid plant stack, and the two larger concrete stacks that came down on April 13, 2013.

The main focus of the first program is the landmark 828-foot stack. The material includes a two-man climb to change the aircraft lights, engineering plans for the stacks, and a tour through the base of the large stack. Viewers also get to see the preparation for the demolition of the two large stacks, which was the largest TV coverage event in El Paso history. We also get a tour of one arroyo remediation project at the former smelter site that most people don’t know about, and a preview of the next film in the documentary series.

DVDs of the program "Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter, Vol.1 The Stacks" will be available for purchase in late June.

ephistory.com

www.elpasohistorysummit.org 

Hosts of the El Paso History Summit

The Summit was a Success! See details and view the online recording of part of the Town Hall meeting. Go to

SUMMIT pictures from March 16, 2013

Click here to pre-order the program on DVD now for shipment in June 2013.

August 19, 2012

Six Guns and Shady Ladies led the tribute to El Paso gunslinger John Wesley Hardin on the anniversary of his demise, August 19th, at Concordia Cemetery in Central El Paso, Texas.  Hardin is the most famous gunfighter in the old West, and died in El Paso in 1895 when Constable John Selman, also buried at Concordia, shot Hardin in the back of the head “in self defense.”

Bernie Sargent leads the group Sunday night, August 19, 2012 as they show the audience of 150 people exactly how Hardin died, right in front of his grave.

Concordia Cemetery is a Texas State Historical Cemetery.

----- Original Message -----

From: Randy Villines

To: Jackson Polk

Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 10:30 AM

Subject: Re: El Paso Videos

Jackson,

The videos arrived Saturday and we immediately had an El Paso Gold fest. My wife was born and raised in El Paso and together we lived there for about 5 years before moving to Missouri. My wife and I were impressed by the quality and production of your videos. We look forward to checking in to see what future videos you may have to offer - especially if there is a Ghost Stories of El Paso part 4 in the works. :)

Thanks again for everything!

Randy Villines

Springfield, MO

TELLING EL PASO'S STORY TO THE WORLD tm

May 6, 2012 is the next Quarterly Meeting

The next Quarterly meeting of the El Paso County Historical Society will be on Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 2pm at the El Paso Museum of History, 510 N. Santa Fe.  There is free street parking on Sundays, plus additional free parking in the City lot behind Insights Science Museum. There will be a Society business meeting followed by a program called "Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter," a talk and tour by Hamilton Underwood and Jackson Polk. 

The History Museum now hosts an exhibit also called "Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter" with videos and artifacts from the smelter collected by Jackson Polk while directing TV crews recording the smelter operations from April, 2010 through the winter of 2011.  At that time, the smelter was being dismantled as part of the Asarco bankruptcy.  Hamilton Underwood worked at Asarco for 28 years and was one of the on-camera narrators with the camera crews as they toured the entire smelter, which had been closed a decade earlier by Asarco when copper prices fell.  The plant never re-opened.

With one exception, cameras were never allowed on Asarco property in their 110 years of operation. The 2010 extensive video and still picture recordings are the only full record of what the smelter looked like from the inside.  That one exception to the camera ban was in 1995 when Asarco itself hired a broadcast TV crew to videotape the plant in operation.  We have that rare footage of the plant's furnaces in operation, and it is part of the exhibit at the Museum of History called "Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter." 

The May 6, 2012 talk by Hamilton Underwood and Jackson Polk at the History Museum Seminar Room will include a PowerPoint presentation of  a few of Hamilton's still pictures from the 2010 recording sessions all over the former Asarco smelter.  After the picture presentation by Hamilton Underwood, Jackson Polk will lead the group into the Museum exhibit and explain the artifacts and videos on display there as the audience tours the exhibit.

PLAY smelter clip    http://youtu.be/iL4ydXbJYh4

GARDNER HOTEL 90th Anniversary MAY 26, 2012

The historic Gardner Hotel in downtown El Paso, TX at 311 E. Franklin celebrates 90 years this Saturday, May 26th, 2012 with a party from 1pm to 3pm. Come tour the place where gangster John Dillinger hid out in the 1930s, and you can see a real Tommygun. Get a free piece of anniversary cake while it lasts, at the Gardner Hotel 311 E. Franklin, 1pm to 3pm Saturday May 26th. Owner Joe Nebhan will raffle off a free night’s stay in one of the rooms that John Dillinger rented while in El Paso.

For info about the party call the Gardner Hotel at 915-532-3661.   See details of the Gardner Hotel at GARDNER HOTEL

May 7, 2012 This quarterly meeting of the El Paso County Historical Society was a success! It was in the Seminar Room at the El Paso Museum of History and the place was packed, with chairs added in the aisles.  Watch this space for an announcement we previewed at that meeting for a new way to promote El Paso on video.

SAT May 26, 2012  The party at the Gardner Hotel was fun. We gave away two individual night’s stays in the John Dillinger rooms plus a bunch of DVDs.  All raffle ticket sales plus the business membership fee to join the El Paso County Historical Society went to the Historical Society. 

Gardner Hotel owner Joe Nebhan declared the event a success, and we all agreed.  About 75 people came and had cake and lemonade.

The Herb Dillinger Gang at the Gardner Hotel on May 26, 2012

Notice gang leader Shelly the Shadow hiding behind the door.

MAy 26, 2012 KTSM AM 690 studio

Mary Jo Melby holds a check from Joe Nebhan as he joins the El Paso County Historical Society with a business membership from his Gardner Hotel.  Joe challenged all El Paso businesses to join the Historical Society.  Any business may join and support the El Paso County Historical Society in preserving and promoting the history of El Paso and surrounding areas.  Joe’s Gardner Hotel history will be written up in the next issue of the County Historical Society’s newsletter, El Conquistador.

photo by Jackie Reed, FaceBook lady for the El Paso History Radio show on KTSM AM. note-- Jackie is the one in the middle in the “Dillinger Gang” below.

Memorial Day , Monday,May 28, 2012

Concordia Cemetery Heritage Association hosted a salute to US military buried at the historic cemetery in central El Paso, Texas.

The Association dedicated a new interpretive sign, donated by the Rotary Club of the Franklin Mountains, in the Veterans Section of Concordia Cemetery.  It honors Vets and also Camp Concordia (Ft. Bliss). And a lovely ceremony was held to honor our Veterans in Concordia.

Dr. Albert Burnham, Melissa Sargent, and Bernie Sargent with the new sign

Picture courtesy Melissa Sargent

El Paso’s

Hueco Tanks

July 28, 2012 Our guests were Lt. Governor Carlos Hisa and War Captain Javier Loera of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. They talked about the history of the Tigua Indians of Ysleta, Texas, including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. 

Hear this show now from July 28, 2012     Additional show archives at radio show page

CAPSTONE

PRODUCTIONS

El Paso History Radio Show on KTSM AM 690

The Ghostly Grandeur of

A Desert Graveyard In El Paso : NPR

Listen via the link below and hear this National Public Radio story from Wednesday, Aug.1, 2012.   Hear what NPR found when they visited Concordia cemetery and interviewed Melissa and Bernie Sargent, Patricia Kiddney, and Henry Flores.

  http://www.npr.org/2012/08/01/155389087/the-ghostly-grandeur-of-a-desert-graveyard

Aug 5, 2012 Dancing with the Tiguas L to R  Connie Vasquez, Sara Belger, Shelley Sutherland, Mary Jo Melby, Pat Worthington, Mary Haynes

August 11, 2012  El Paso History Radio Show on KTSM AM 690 El Paso, Texas

Our topic was Chinese history in El Paso that goes back to the 1800s and the coming of the railroads. We heard the history of the Chinese people who made El Paso their home from historian Ann Fahy and El Pasoan Martin Yee. One thing they talked about is the supposed tunnels under El Paso that include the Turtle House on Corto Street in Sunset Heights. Here are pictures from the Turtle House. The metal support beams appear to be railroad rails.

September 4, 2012

El Paso County Historical Society President Mary Jo Melby welcomes a crowd of about 2 dozen to an afternoon reveal party reception to announce the 2012 nominees to the Society’s annual Hall of Honor. The Hall of Honor Banquet is Sunday, November 4th.

Join the El Paso County Historical Society in honoring the 2012 inductees Joe Gomez, Mary Sarber, Dr. Alward McKee-White, and Julia North-Breck. Cost: $100. Call 915-533-3603 for reservation information.

September 22, 2012

With a November deadline to begin demolition on the two remaining former Asarco smokestacks, we heard from the “Save the Stacks” organizers and the smelter bankruptcy trustee, Roberto Puga. AND, Save the Stacks people  now want us to call these two “buildings” that we know as smokestacks, now we should call them chimneys.

  In our second hour, the topic included a review of some notable studies and projects that have been recommended to change downtown El Paso into a vibrant economy.  Goeffrey Wright, El Paso architect, and Troy Ainsworth, formerly El Paso City’s preservation officer, took on both subjects.  We will need to revisit this topic soon.

CLICK here for 3 minute trailer video of  “Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter”

Podcast KTSM AM 690 Radio Show from Sept. 22, 2012

Original Message -----

Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 8:31 PM

Subject: you tube message at www.youtube.com/elpasohistoryTV

Spencer:

October, 2012 ---  We continue to videotape at the former Asarco smelter in El Paso as the demolition crew continues to chew up the place and send recyclable stuff out in trucks.

Our first video on this project will include a tour of the large "Asarco" stack.  We put a camera on stack climbers in 2010 and we also toured inside the base of that chimney, as the Save the Stacks architects now call it.  As of now, their efforts received a 30-day extension of the deadline to begin demolition of the large stack.  Read El Paso Inc. to follow this story.

I expect to release this stack tour as Volume One of "The Last Tour of the El Paso Smelter” in Dec 2012 or Jan 2013.  By then we will know the fate of the stacks.

Jackson Polk, producer

On October 10, 2012, Industrial Access conducted an engineering study for “Save the Stacks.”

LEFT     Jon Powell adjusts his helmet CAM while about 400 feet up the 828 foot stack.

RIGHT  Jon’s view from the 820 foot level overlooking the former smelter.

NOV 2 2012  Hey Hey Look at the A! 

sponsored by the Class of 1972  for their 40th reunion. 

click here to see the video.

Adios! to one of the great El Paso promoters of history.  Sheldon Hall was 95 and there is a story in today’s El Paso Times 11-17-12 on the front page about Sheldon. Here he is as a Conquistador.

Jane Hall receives the US Flag from the US Army Honor Guard at the funeral for her husband, Sheldon Hall, founder of the El Paso Mission Trail Association, in the San Elizario Presidio Chapel on Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012.

December 15, 2012 El Paso History Radio Show on KTSM AM 690 10 am to Noon Mountain time and live at www.KTSMRadio.com

  

Guest Enrique Medrano wrote a paper on this downtown arena discussion that is relevant today. Take a look.

January 11, 2013 Announcing that Capstone Productions Inc of El Paso Texas declares  ownership of the trademark

El PASO HISTORY SUMMIT TM

January 9, 2013     Announcing that Capstone Productions Inc of El Paso Texas declares  ownership of the trademark

EL PASO HISTORY JOURNAL TM

March 18, 2012

Premiere of "El Paso's Hueco Tanks"

About 150 people braved the dust storm on Sunday, March 18, 2012 to attend the premiere showing of "El Paso's Hueco Tanks" TV documentary at the Scottish Rite Theater downtown.  The 53-minute TV program took a different look at why native Americans see Hueco Tanks as a sacred place, and what they say about it.  Rock climbers were featured with their concerns for their bouldering and technical climbing sports at Hueco Tanks.  And, artist Debra Cool-Flowers researched the rock art at Hueco Tanks in a new manner that anthropologists have never used before. 

The TV program reported that the El Paso Archaeological Society began a public campaign to preserve Hueco Tanks in the 1920s. The program also explains that the El Paso County Historical Society, and one of its presidents, Congressman Richard White, publicly pushed the Texas legislature and the County of El Paso to turn Hueco Tanks into a Texas State park in the 1960s.

The program was produced by Capstone Productions and narrated by Jackson Polk.  "El Paso's Hueco Tanks" is one of several TV documentaries Capstone Productions has produced in cooperation with the El Paso County Historical Society since 2003.  The March 18th premiere was a fundraiser with entry donations split between the Hueco Tanks Legacy Fund, the El Paso County Historical Society, and the Scottish Rite Museum. DVDs of "El Paso's Hueco Tanks" are available at Burges House, and at the Gift Shop at the El Paso Museum of History.

Texas History Begins in El Paso ™