Virden

Grandpa Pace established the Geta River Ranch. During the Mexican Revolution around ten years later the Gringos were driven out of Mexico. They bought lots and established the town of Virden. They laid it out like Salt Lake City with wide roads, sidewalks lined with trees. They were large blocks which were divided into four, so each family had a quarter of a block. The sidewalks and roads were dirt.

Virden School was built on a raised part of Virden. It was 1st grade through 12th. There were probably about 300 kids in school. They usually had a good basketball team which won the NEw MExico State Championship several times. My cousin, Clyde Pace, who was about 5'8" was very fast and could jump very high made the state All Stars two years in a row. His brother, Cliff Pace, was 6'4" and couldn't make the All Stars. The school had a nice gym, My dad built all the showers, etc for the the gym. It had a big bell on top. It had a nice play area. At recess we would play marbles and mumbully-peg.

Virden was mostly all Mormons. Some of the families were Jones, Lunt, Smith, Richardson, Jorgensen, Thurgueson, Anderson, Merrill, Clouse, Pace, Fields, Whipples, Jensen, Mortensen, Johns. The church was in the center of town. It was a big church with wooden floors and benches. Every Wednesday night they would show movies at the church.

We had two stores, one on each end of the town. They were general stores that sold groceries and gas. One was owned by the Thurgesons which we sued. The other was owned by the Merrills. The people source of income were the farms (around 40 acres) outside of Virden. The water came from the Gila River through the Sunset Canal. The head of the Gila River was in the San Francisco Mountain in New Mexico. As the river exited from the mountains the cliffs were covered with Petroglyphs made by the Indian. I took Kaye, Greg and Brad to see them. It was neat.