It was a backward town with old traditions and beliefs, most of which weren’t going away easily. The townspeople raised their children much like they had been raised and not all of it was pretty. The old plant that was the lifeblood of the town for so many years finally went under about 20 years ago. Since then, the drinking and violence escalated.
Most of the townspeople blamed the company for leaving them high and dry. If the company had just stuck it out, they’d be thriving by now. It didn’t matter that the company had also gone bankrupt when they closed the plant. It didn’t matter that other companies had come in to build something new only to be shoo’d away by those holding on to broken ideas.
The town, and the people in it, wasted away in their own misery, blaming everything and everyone but themselves.
That is, until a new Sheriff had to be brought to town. Sheriff Brown had been in charge of the town for 40 some odd years before his heart attack. He’d grown up there with all the others. But Sheriff Taylor was different. He wasn’t from there.
At first, Sheriff Taylor was just an outsider. No one gave him the time of day and rarely made a call to the department for help.
But, one-by-one, Sheriff Taylor began to make an impression. One time, it was a group of teens drag racing down the old county road. Sheriff Taylor didn’t just ticket them, he talked to them.
Then it was helping the town to organize their own small business group. It was a way to help encourage the townspeople to start their own businesses rather than to depend on those big companies from outside.
Sheriff Taylor taught the people that, it wasn’t the outsiders that held them back and kept them down.
Slowly, Sheriff Taylor helped the people of the town to realize they could make a difference in their own lives. It was up to each of them to change their own stars.
The History
This old home is located in #CuervoNM. Cuervo is one of the last great ghost towns in the country. It was never large, topping out at just over 3 digits population, and it could not survive the new bustle that the I-40 freeway brought right through the middle of town. Because this place is so accessible, there are many stories and images online. I encourage you to check out some of the history for yourself.