Prologue

A sunny day on the desert, 1889

At the base of an 8000 foot desert mountain in central New Mexico, near the Rio Grande, a building appeared in 1893, a beautiful building. Built on the Upper-Sonoran desert, isolated from the little town, it was surrounded by creosote bush, cactus, and desert grasses. The building was a college, and it was designed to teach the elements of mining engineering. The people of the town rejoiced, had a party, and dedicated the new school as the beginning of a new era for the town and the Territory of New Mexico. A band played rousing marches, oratory rang out across the desert, and notables from all across the territory gathered to celebrate this great moment. There was not much money, almost no faculty, and few students, but the territory had a School of Mines. It was a proud day. It all had started three years earlier, in 1889. A dream, after much hard work, had been realized. The frontier would never be the same again.