The Muleshoe Heritage Foundation came to be around 1985 when a group of Muleshoe HIgh School students rallied to save the Santa Fe Depot from being moved or demolished by the Santa Fe Railroad. The Depot was moved to the west end of town and as time went by, more structures historical to Bailey County and Muleshoe joined it, forming what we now know as the Muleshoe Heritage Center.

At the same time and for many years before this, local and state news and things relevant to the area’s history could be heard daily on Muleshoe’s cable access channel from Gil Rennels and Jack and Magann Rennels and later son Gilrobert Rennels on the Mule Train broadcast on Channel 6.The program always started with the Mule Train theme song.

Also in the 80s and into the 90s, a group of local individuals formed something called the Muleplex and they, along with Allan Finney and other interested citizens, in 1995-97 produced an outdoor musical theatre production called “Keepers of the Legend,” the keepers being those of us who live here and promote the history of the county.

So now in 2024, the Muleshoe Heritage Foundation has brought all that together with their production of “Mule Train; A Night of Keeping the Legends of Muleshoe Alive!”

Photo courtesy of Rhonda Myers

I arrived a little early Saturday night to get a few pictures and information before the tours of seven historical buildings led by Muleshoe HIgh School students and Muleshoe citizens eager to keep those legends alive. I took this big group picture of all the kid who graciously agreed to take part in the history lesson and fun. It’s a lot of kids! I can’t identify them all one by one, but you can try from the list of names of all those who took part in the festivities of the night. They include in no particular order: Jake Villanueva, Melody Gonzalez, Brissya Martinez, Brayton Butler, Guadalupe Barrera, Tiannah Carrillo, Selah Smith, Ellah Smith, Kaitlyn Puckett, Jiveli Elizalde, Yadiel Bailon-Franco, Riley Clifton, Jaydaci Olivarez, Aubree Peralez, Manuel Navarro, Abi Jones, Violeta Martinez, Maci Morris, Zelezzi Perez, Sienna Buenrostro, Allison Sealy, Jake Jones, Libby Burch, Audrey Damron, and Rhett Weaver.

As visitors arrived, Rhonda Myers announced on the loud speaker for everyone to join up with one of the student tour guides holding the number signs and the tours would begin. She reminded everyone to have their tour tickets punched as they left each structure and to then put those tickets in the box at the last stop, the Yellow Jacket, to be drawn for prizes donated by local businesses. The tours began when we heard the train whistle and then would move on to the next stop when the train whistle blew again. I couldn’t help but look around for a train when I heard it!

You might notice everyone is dressed in period-appropriate clothing. Some of it was ordered, some of it the participants just happen to have in their own closets for whatever reason, and much of it was costumes rediscovered in storage from the “Keepers of the Legend” musical I mentioned earlier, a nice addition to the evening’s authenticity. Rhonda’s nod to Muleshoe history was wearing a Muleshoe jersey from back in the Yellow Jacket time that was worn by Lewis Wayne Shafer.

MHS junior Abi Jones started things off with a trumpet version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Then the train whistle blew and my tour guide number one, Melody Gonzales, a junior at MHS, led us to our first stop, the Santa Fe Depot.

Dan and Leslie Borwick shared some history of the railroads back in the day and how the depot was given to the city and how students at MHS raised money to move it to its current location. That group of students then formed the Student Community Action Club which went on to support the Heritage Center along with Jean Allison, their teacher/sponsor.

The whistle blew and we were off to see the Log Cabin. We passed Riley Clifton, MHS junior, as he played his guitar and provided a bit of campfire music to add to the outdoor atmosphere as we soaked up the history lessons of the legends.

Next was the log cabin where Sandra Graves and Susie Pierce Perez told how a family of eight lived in the little two room wood cabin with sleeping quarters upstairs.

Then we were off to see the Virginia City Hotel and told how it was where prospective landowners stayed while looking to buy property in Bailey County. Cristian Mora and cousin Allegra Mora explained that upstairs were eight cots where everyone slept in the same room!

The Figure Four ranch house was next. Toni King told how the house would have been considered a bit of a mansion back in those days, and it has lovely architectural and interior decorating touches inside.

We walked across the way to the Muleshoe Ranch cook-house where Chris, Cheyenne, and Charlie Cage talked about the cowboys eating family-style at the large table and entertaining themselves there at the end of the day.

Rose Gloria was the teacher in the Stegall School, and she told us how Francis Stegall went to school there and later wrote books tied to the history of the area and the cowboy life. I enjoyed seeing Rose be the teacher since she is a former student of mine. She talked about how all grades met and were taught in this one room, considerably different to how things are done today.

Rose also had help setting the scene in the school from these three students: Nova Gloria, Jackie Lindley and Serenity Gloria.

The last house we visited was the Janes ranch house where Chad and Rebecca Beall told about ordering the house from a catalog, and it was then delivered on the train. John Janes was a rancher who built this house for his wife, and they lived there for many years. Mrs. Janes always enjoyed the parties they gave upstairs in the ballroom.

I passed Abi Jones and freshman Jake Jones on the way to the last stop, the Yellow Jacket, and liked the way the Mule was also dressed in period costume!

At the Yellow Jacket Crystal Dominguez was collecting tickets for the drawings and Val McCamish and her crew of FCCLA students Megan Moran, Avery Cantu, and Madison Ortega were making and selling lemonade and brown bag lunches.

People ate inside and outside the Yellow Jacket at tables set up while waiting for the drawing of prizes to begin. I also caught four of the cheerleaders, three who had managed to find early cheerleader uniforms to wear. In the black shirt is Zelezzi Perez who I think had just come from work and had no time to change into a uniform, then Allison Sealy, Maci Morris, and Julia McCamish.

As the sun went down, the crowd gathered at the Yellow Jacket and Rhonda drew tickets for the prizes, one of which I won! The crowd stayed and visited a while, and then the evening was over.

When I talked to Rhonda Myers, treasurer of the foundation’s board of directors, earlier, she said, ” Our objective for the evening is to teach and remind the people in the area why the Heritage Center exists and what it represents, for young and old to get a visualization of the era of each building there. Visualizing it and acting it out is more memorable and impactful than reading about it or someone talking about it. I think we have a whole generation or two in this community who don’t understand why the center exists. This event may make a little money for the center, which is always needed, but we want  people to see why the center is here. It is a part of their heritage even if they didn’t grow up here.”

At the end of the night I talked to Nick Bamert, the ticket-seller and president of the board, and he had this to say: “Wow, what an amazing event. It exceeded our highest expectations! Our preliminary count for the Mule Train event is between 150-175 attendees, not counting the 30+ volunteers that made it such a huge success! Thanks to all that came out to enjoy the evening and learn what it was like for the pioneers that came before us.”

The board of directors for the foundation along with Rhonda and Nick, include Vice-President Sheila Stevenson, Secretary Vickie Burch, and board members Scott Miller, Billy Pendley, Carlos Contreras, Brittany Pendley, Londi Blackwell, Tory Blackwell, D.J. Dominguez, and Crystal Dominguez who were all involved with the night’s activities, but a separate committee was really in charge of the details. That committee includes Rhonda, Sally Messenger, Allegra Mora, Debbie Myers, Dani Heathington, Cindy Barrett, Ann Mount, Londi Blackwell, Brittany Pendley, April Smith, Vickie Burch, and Val McCamish.

Now you might notice that I gave very little back to you about the history from each tour. The people who shared the histories did an excellent job with their stories, too much for my old brain to remember. I also did not take an outside picture of all the buildings since you can see them from the street or a quick drive through the center. So next year when the Mule Train is hosted again, I hope you will go out and hear all that history and see inside all those structures yourself.

It’s well worth the trip.

Be aware that in the near future, individual tours can be arranged with a phone call to the office at 806-272-5873.

Thanks to Rhonda Myers, April Smith, Val McCamish, Vickie Burch, Nick Bamert, Sally Messenger, Chuck Smith, and Linda Wood for their help with this story. And thanks to all the board members, special committee members, volunteers, and students who made this production possible. It was a fun event!

If you would like to read more stories about the Heritage Center and see more pictures, type these titles in the Search line- “Muleshoe Heritage Center,” Muleshoe Heritage Center-There’s More,” The Heritage Center is Looking Good,”  “Meet Me at The Yellow Jacket,” More History Comes to the Janes Ranch House.”