18/The Battalion/Thursday, September 6, 1984
DEI.TAirPSII.Oir
150 Years of Tradition
Non-hazing!Non secret
Rush Parties: Thurs. Sept. 6
Sat. Sept. 8
8p.m. At Whiterock Hall, Across
From The Main Gate of TAMU.
Call Donnie 260-3681
Richard 693-1477for info
Ghost town hopes to prosper again
Silver still lies in Texas mine
MSC INTERNATIONAL
PROGRAMS COMMITTEE
1st General Committee Meeting
Thursday, Sept. 6 at 6:00 p.m.
in Rudder 407
Persons interested in increasing International
Awareness at A&M please attend.
Officer applications available in MSC Student Programs office.
United Press International
SHATTER — Silver prices fell
and miners got discouraged, but the
30 remaining residents of an old Big
Bend mining town are hoping inves
tors will take another look at the pre
cious metal under Cibolo Creek.
“I’ve never seen a ghost around
here,” said Guadalupe Munoz, who
has been postmaster at Shafter for
more than 40 years. “Sure, we look
like a ghost town, but there’s still a
few families living here and we like
the quiet.”
Unlike most West Texas creeks —
which are dry — Cibolo Creek is a
clear water stream that flows by a
wooded area nestled between a pass
in the mountains on the highway be
tween Marfa and Presidio in a re
mote area of West Texas.
A faded, decaying church, the
paint from its steeple peeling in the
sun, is still used occasionally when a
visiting priest from Presidio, 20
miles away, arrives to celebrate Mass,
Munoz said.
At its peak, Shafter had a popula
tion of more than 3,000, she recalls,
but when the price of silver went
down, miners got discouraged and
left.
Like many West Texas towns suf
fering from economic problems, the
settlers moved on to other areas,
leaving their homes to deteriorate in
the harsh West Texas climate.
A few families still cling to their
homesteads in Shafter, Munoz said.
Others have moved on to places as
far away as California.
“We get a number of visitors in
the winter months, when the rest of
Texas is cold,” she said. “They hook
up their trailers in Shafter and
spend the winter in the area. One re
tired gentleman comes all the way
from Wisconsin and spends the win
ter in his house here.”
A Texas historical marker erected
in the 1930s commemorates the ef
forts of Rancher Milton Favor as be
ing the founder of Shafter, suppos
edly named after a U.S. Army
general.
Favor was the first Anglo-Ameri
can rancher in the Big Bend area,
the monument reads, and was in
strumental in developing a series of
towns to ward off warring Apaches.
Oldtimers in the Big Bend coun
try say the best defense against the
Apaches were the haciendas built by
the ranchers who owned the land
when it was part of Mexico. Many of
the old haciendas are now West
Texas towns, historians said.
While Shafter may have been
founded in the 1800s, historians
said, the silver mining boom lx‘gan
in the ’20s. Estimates of the original
population vary from 3,000 to
30,000, but ruins of old homes in the
area would favor the smaller num
ber, Munoz said.
Cibolo Cheek overflowed
1930s, tilling up the mine
the mine was closed, ’’
dents said. Several recent
have been made to reopen _
but the declining price of slit
made the operation unprofftl)
There’s always a possibilr.
the mine will open again bet
the invention of new equj
Munoz said. Then Shafiet
look like a ghost town anymott
A federal government tej
who asked not to be (juot(d,it
prospect of reopening the
mine depends entirely on lit
of silver.
“If silver pric es go up, Shafir
business again,” he said. Ti
plenty of silver under CiboloL.
It's hard-rock mining andiu
lot of money to get it out, bui
tors are keeping their • —
Shatter and on the silver marl;
Vol
Geter says he feels sorry for prosecutor
HILLEL JEWISH STUDENT
CENTER
800 JERSEY, COLLEGE STATION
696-7313
LIST OF COMING EVENTS
Friday night service is at 8 p.m. every Friday
Sept.
8
First Torah
Sept.
15
New Year’s Eve Party 8 p.m.
Sept.
16
Pizza & Lectnre(model service) at 6 p.m.
Sept.
25
Rosh Hashana lecture 6 pm.
Sept.
26
Rosh. Hashana 8 p.m.
Sept.
27
Rosh Hashana 10 am.
Sept.
28
Rosh Hashana 10 am.
Oct.
5
Kol Nidre 8 pm. service
Oct.
6
Break the fast here
Oct.
10
SAMI Sukkot Picnic - time pending
Oct.
13
Match dance 8 p.m.
Oct.
18
Simchat Torah Happening 8 pm.
United Press International
DALLAS — Lenell Geter, the
black engineer convicted and freed
for a crime he said he never com
mitted, said Wednesday he felt sorry
for the man who prosecuted him —
now that the wheelchair-bound man
faces solicitation of prostitution
charges.
“I just feel sorry for him (Kenneth
Dean Carden) in that he was the as
sistant district attorney and held
such a high esteemed office,” Geter
said.
In addition, Norman Kinne, who
is Carden’s superior in the district at
torney’s office, said Carden’s claims
he was investigating the slaying of a
pimp at the time of the arrest had
“credence.”
Carden was part of the team that
successfully prosecuted Geter, an E-
Systems engineer, and got him sen
tenced to life in prison on an armed
robbery charge. Later disclosures
about alibis and witness testimony
won Geter a new trial but the DA’s
office dropped the charges before
that trial began.
Kinne said an internal investiga
tion has been ordered to see if (har
den can be reinstated. Police report
edly were planning to give a
polygraph examination.
“T here is no polygraph scheduled
for Carden presently." said police
spokesman Bob Shaw. “Thai doesn’t
mean we won’t give him one later
on.”
Carden, who was released Satur
day after posting bond in the Friday
arrest, could not be reached for
comment Wednesday.
“The case is being investigated."
said District Attorney Henry Wade.
“He may -be reinstated pending the
outcome of the case.”
Carden earlier said he resigned to
avoid embarrassing the DA’s office.
“I discovered there were possibly
some people I wanted to talk to who
were whores," he said. "I i_
overstepped my Ixuindsoni
gating this case.
“If I had to do it oven
said. *T would have wait
next night” and alerted
he was wot king undercover. |
The misdemeanor pro
licitation charge against I
ties a maximum t>cnahyi
in jail and a $1,090 fine oc^
lion.
Police said they alsoi
ing a weapons charge
den. A 45-c«tliber pistol;
vice were found in Lardeai
officers said
Vietnam veteran: Salvadorans are refugees
United Press International
CORPUS CHRISTI — The de
fense argued Tuesday that Vietnam
veteran Jack Elder had no intention
of violating immigration laws when
he drove two Salvadorans to a bus
station last spring.
Elder, 40, director of a Roman
Catholic-sponsored refugee center
near the Texas Mexico border,
could be sentenced up to 15 years in
prison if convicted of conspiracy and
two counts of transporting illegal
aliens.
Attorney Steven Cooper of St.
Paul, Minn., opened arguments be
fore U.S. District Judge Hayden
Head Jr. on 25 motions he has filed
to dismiss the three felony charges
against Elder. Elder is a staunch sup
porter of the “Sanctuary Movement”
network of churches offering refuge
to Central Americans in defiance of
Immigration and Naturalization
Service policies.
He is the third Sanctuary
Movement supporter arrested on
immigration charges and the second
to be tried. Stacey Lyin Merkt, 29, a
religious layworker at the same refu
gee center, was sentenced to three
years probation after his jury convic
tion in Brownsville last June.
Cooper maintained that the Salva
dorans were fleeing “a war /.one”
and are entitled to refugee status un
der both the Geneva Convention
Accord and 1980 U.S. Refugee Act.
“The defense believes if the per
sons are illegally here, there can be
no crime because he (Elder) had no
intent (to violr.te the law),” Cooper
argued.
Under the Geneva Accords, a
country has no right to send bona-
fide refugees back to “a war zone.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert
Berg — who must show Elder "will
fully and intentionally” violated the
law — countered Tuesday that there
was no wav for Elder to have known
wheih
count i
Her
before
their
Kld<
by reli
becaus
fleeing
grattot
tn mos
El Salv
be kill<
rr tr
le
d o
HERB'S ARCADE
xjVStf The Magical Um KNq
313 College Main - Two Blocks Behind Loupot's
8 FREE Tokens Worth $1 00
With This Coupon
-Come In Soon-
Come In And Play The Best For Less!
Poetry
O
The Black Light Theater
of Prague
MSC OPAS
September 18
Tickets: MSC Box Office 845-1234
The Mongolian House
"The Restaurant Everyone's Talking About"
Zv ALL YOU CAN EAT!
Featuring Mongolian Bar-B-Q
and Chinese Buffet DAILY
LUNCH
>♦♦($4.95
SUNDAY
CHAMPAGNE LUNCH
DINNER
$6.95 £♦♦■
693-1736
$6.95
''■vwv:
of College Station isos s. t*. Ave.
Stude
rings
DIAMOND ROOM
Pr
B
rati
edu
as ”
the
whi
INTEREST-FREE FINANCING ON
YOUR AGGIE DIAMOND
“Welcome back Aggies” is a phrase that you probably heard as you bought books, groceries,
paid rent, deposits etc. We at the Diamond Room 707 would like to welcome you back in a little
different way. We would like to give you something: Free Financing on a Diamond For Your
Aggie Ring. That’s Right!- For the month of September we arc offering our same fine quality
hand-picked diamonds for your A&M Senior Class ring at our regular low price, but with one
catch: Free Financing. You pay 1/3 down and we will divide the balance over the next two
months with no interest. *•
Sound good? Well, we will also stay with the tradition of the Diamond Room and have your
ring ready for you the next day!
This is just our way of helping you out and saying “Welcome back Aggies”
“A Great Way to Establish or Increase Your Credit Rating.”
Cc
707 Texas Ave. S., .Suite 120-B College Station 693*7444 Member American Gent Society