In the fall of 1891, nearly two hundred Romanish (French-speaking Swiss) emigrated to the barren Pecos Valley in south-east New Mexico. An intense publicity campaign around the territory's miraculous farming potential, carried out by American and Swiss business interests, had convinced the settlers that they would make their fortune there. Farmers, viticulturists and young adventurers from wealthy backgrounds laboured for three years to produce the wonderful crops that had been promised them...in vain. Ruined, but above all, convinced of having been swindled, the Swiss returned home or went on to try their luck elsewhere in the States, with the exception of one family whose descendants still live in Pecos Valley.
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"The modern history of Pecos Valley begins in 1866. On that date, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, two cowboys leading their herds across the vast deserts of New Mexico, venture into this region, where only the Mescalero Apache had established camps before then. From a terra incognita, the Pecos Valley became a route for the great north-south cattle migrations. One year later, eighty thousand head of cattle cross the land where the town of Eddy will soon be built. Their owner : the most powerful man in New Mexico, John Chisum, whose partners are Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. None of them is aware that Hollywood would later give them the status of mythical heroes. And they surely have no idea that in 1881 Pat Garrett, now a sheriff, would forsake his friendship and kill Billy the Kid, now a criminal, with a shot in the back. For now, the three men have only one thing on their minds : to reign over an area so vast that it makes every ambition seem possible. Others, however, share the same fantasy" [...].
Climage, Climage, [www.climage.ch/qsPortal/Home.asp?C=104&N=335] (site consulté le 16 octobre 2009)
