Eagle Nest
Eagle Nest, NM · Events
worldjournalnewspaper.com
wheninyourstate.com
worldjournalnewspaper.com
Phelans sell area McDonald’s restaurants, announce retirement
RATON/TRINIDAD/ALAMOSA— Since Labor Day weekend in 2001, Darrel Lee Phelan Sr. and his wife, Gisela T. Phelan, have owned the McDonald’s restaurants serving the area. Recently, the World Journal sat down with Lee to talk about his military career, and during the interview he announced that Phelan Management Services Inc., which owns the McDonald’s restaurants in Trinidad, Alamosa and Raton, has sold the locations to Johney Thiara. Ownership is scheduled to transfer Nov. 16, 2026, and the Phelans also announced their official retirement.
Country Herald
Rio Grande Sun
Rio Grande Sun
worldjournalnewspaper.com
Between Fences: The Mutz family’s legacy in Elizabethtown
RATON — The Mutz family has deep roots in Elizabethtown, where generations of the family were involved in businesses, ranching and the daily life of the Moreno Valley. Much of this history comes from an interview conducted Feb. 22, 2006, by Susan Hronich with Robert Mutz and Jenny Horner Mutz for the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street Between Fences exhibition. Their recollections offer a glimpse into the people, work and changing landscape of the valley.
rrobserver.com
Las Cruces Sun-News
NMSU student goes from growing chile in space to maintaining acequias
Jacob Torres stands on the edge of a tree-covered acequia in Española, New Mexico, as water from Santa Cruz Dam fills the earthen canal below. Under an August morning sun, he spends several minutes raking stubborn debris from the centuries-old irrigation system before releasing a precious resource that will soon flow through his hometown. Torres, a 2014 NMSU graduate and current Ph.D. student in New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, is no stranger to solving problems. Before returning to New Mexico, he was a NASA scientist who helped develop the experiment that grew the first fruit – New Mexico chile – in microgravity in 2021. But no matter the issue – whether it’s managing a historic acequia network or growing crops in a controlled environment with or without gravity – Torres relies on his education from NMSU. “When you get hired to do something, usually it’s in a system that’s already existing, and you don’t get training on how to use it. You just get thrown in there and have to figure it out,” he said. “The playbook I learned at NMSU is to: One, get the system running; two, make an assessment of that
rrobserver.com
Rams, Storm compete in first day of volleyball state championships
RIO RANCHO — High school volleyball teams from across New Mexico gather this weekend in Rio Rancho and Bernalillo for the 2026 Rudy’s “Real Texas” Bar-B-Q State Volleyball Championships. 5A schools such as Rio Rancho and Cleveland will compete inside the Rio Rancho Events Center, while other classes compete at either Rio Rancho, Cleveland or Bernalillo High School.