Stewart Udall guest speaker
at award banquet

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Stewart Udall

GALLUP — The man who probably had more to do with bringing economic development to the Navajo Reservation during the last 50 years was in Gallup Thursday.

Stewart Udall, former Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, was the guest speaker at the awards banquet for the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance.

The state organization is holding its annual convention here in Gallup through Saturday.

During the awards banquet, the alliance honored one of Gallup's own Armand Ortega for his efforts and financial support for the preservation of the El Rancho Hotel.

Twenty years ago, Gallup's historic El Rancho Hotel was in total disarray and was being sold after the owners declared bankruptcy. It faced likely demolition.

But Ortega stepped up and purchased the hotel and the spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore it to its former glory, while at the same time bringing back its rustic charm.

For this, the alliance presented him with an award for "Excellence in Stewardship of Historic Sites."

But it was Udall that many of the 200 guests came to see Thursday night.

Now living in Santa Fe, Udall spent his first 18 years many of them during the Great Depression growing up in St. Johns, Ariz.

He said he had a lot of fond memories of Gallup in those days as a coal mining and railroad town. For Udall, Gallup was a place where he came to play baseball against local kids.

But it was after he served as a Congressman from Arizona and was selected to be Secretary of the Interior that he had his biggest effect on this area.

After the banquet, he remembered helping bring companies like Fairchild Semiconductor and General Dynamics to the reservation. His efforts also provided the funding for the old Fed Mart in Window Rock and numerous other shopping facilities throughout the reservation.

He was told that his efforts are still remembered by tribal economic development officials, to which he responded that he deserved "only a little of the credit."

The statewide conference is holding a series of workshops on Friday marking the 100th anniversary of the National Antiquities Act and the 40th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The participants will also break up into small groups to attend tours of downtown Gallup and some of the trading posts in this area.