What We Lost on the Border

By Shields Fair
http://www.americanthinker.com/
May 08, 2010

An entire way of life has died on the Arizona border. T.J. Woodard has described for AT readers the dire state of affairs in Cochise County today. But to really understand the magnitude of the change, you need to understand the situation as it was before the floodgates opened.


Douglas, AZ, 1949

I grew up in Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona in the 50's and 60's, and it was a wonderful place to live. Douglas is right on the Mexican border, in the southeast corner of the state, just 50 miles west of the Arizona - New Mexico border.

My parents owned a sporting goods store in Douglas for 35 years. We had many friends who were ranchers and business people from both sides of the border. My father and I would go hunting and fishing all over the county and in many parts of Mexico... yes I said hunting. In the 50's and 60's one could carry guns and ammo across into Mexico and go hunting. Very little was required in the way of paperwork.

As I recall, Douglas had just one border patrolman, Ray Borane Sr. Later his sons Joe became Chief of Police and later judge in Douglas, and Ray Jr. became school superintendent and mayor of Douglas.

There was no crime that I was ever aware of, no drugs, very few illegals.
Our home was on 9th street, which was 9 blocks from the Mexican border. We never locked our doors at home and nothing ever got stolen. As kids, we could ride our bicycles anywhere in town, kick down the kick stand and come back later and get back on and ride off. We did not have to lock our bicycles.

We were the last home on the east side of town. Out our back door was the desert to the east all the way to the mountains about 5 miles away and to the south was nothing but desert all the way to Mexico and beyond. As a kid, my friends and I would wander the desert, chase rabbits with our BB guns and crawl under the two strands of barbed wire that looked like any other fence and find ourselves in Mexico. We would stop and look at these curious concrete monuments that declared that the US was on the north side and Mexico was on the South side of this monument. No one ever stopped us.

The area of town just east of our home all the way (15 blocks) to the Douglas Municipal Airport had, in about 1914 - 1918 been an Army encampment known as "Camp Harry Jones". For us kids this was a "treasure trove" of long discarded badges, belt buckles, brass buttons, bottles, and such left behind when the camp was finally disbanded in about 1919.

Douglas Municipal Airport has the distinction of being the "first international airport in all of the Americas", which of course includes Latin and South America. General Pershing use to fly Jenny aircraft out of this field chasing Pancho Villa and his troops who regularly raided border towns such as Douglas/Agua Prieta and Columbus, New Mexico.

During the ‘20's, ‘30's , ‘40's and early ‘50's the Sunset Limited train ran between New York and Las Angeles. Four to six passenger trains a day would stop in Douglas going east or west. Many passengers would get off and stay at the luxurious Gadsden Hotel, for a day or more before going on their way. From the ‘20's through the ‘40's there were casinos in Agua Prieta, the town immediately across from Douglas across the border, and they were a big draw for the train travelers.

There also were quite a number of great night clubs, restaurants, liquor stores and curio shops in Agua Prieta. The night clubs had great bands and wonderful food. Crossing the border was like crossing the street. Douglas and Agua Prieta were "like one city with a fence down the middle." In the early days a number of famous "Big Bands" would pass through, usually on the train and stop and play for a few days in Douglas and Agua Prieta.
During the ‘40's, 10 miles north of Douglas was the Douglas Air Base, a bomber training base which at one time boasted over 20,000 airmen. After the war, a number of them stayed or moved back to Douglas.

Like most towns and cities in Mexico, Agua Prieta had its red light district ("La Zona Rosa"), where prostitution was legal. Many a young man from the U.S., including the Army Base at Fort Huachucha, in Sierra Vista, and Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, (and of course the airmen during the ‘40's), lost their virginity in the "Linda Vista", the "White House", the "Flamingo" or one of a half dozen other establishments on the "Hill" in Agua Prieta. Rumors have it that Percy Boden, the chief of Police of Douglas for more than 40 years, was a major owner of a number of these establishments in Agua Prieta.

Ben Williams Senior, a prominent business man, rancher and entrepreneur, and a close friend of my father, owned lots of property in Cochise County including the "John Slaughter Ranch", ranches in Sonora Mexico, the Power Company and the Telephone Company in Agua Prieta, Sonora.

The Mexicans from both sides of the border were all our friends. We all drank, ate, laughed, cried, fished and hunted together. We went to each other's families' funerals, weddings, and parties.

In the ‘50's it was legal to bring a gallon of liquor back per adult. People would drive down from Tucson and Phoenix with a car load of adults and haul back lots of liquor which was purchased very low prices. The exchange rate was 12.5 pesos to the dollar, or 8 cents each!

My Father and I frequently went hunting on ranches that were owned by our rancher friends on both sides of the border. These included the Glenn's, Koontz's, the William's, Boss's, the Morales's, and the Krentz's. Like all of the ranchers listed above, the Krentz family had owned their ranch before Arizona became a state. It has been passed down over 4 generations. Bob Krentz, who was 10 years behind me in high school was shot and killed in cold blood on March 28, 2010, by what is believed to be a scout for the Drug runners. All indications are that this was retaliation for the fact that he and his brother found a large stash of marijuana on their property several days earlier and turned it over to the border patrol.

Mexican men walk along the border wall that separates Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico from Douglas, Arizona, U.S., May 23, 2006. (Reuters)

Later, in 1970 I moved back to Douglas and managed and later owned manufacturing plants with over 400 employees, in Agua Prieta. I also started MEXSAT, S.A. de C.V, which was the first company to hold the licenses to Design, manufacture, distribute and install satellite television equipment in Mexico. From 1981 through 1986 I had offices in all the major cities in Mexico.

I can state without any reservation that in more than 40 years of traveling to all corners in Mexico, 1948 - 1995, that I never had one problem with any individual or any agency in Mexico. Sadly, times have changed and I have no intention to return to Mexico today, nor in the future. My Mexican friends come and visit me, but I do not reciprocate.

I recently returned to Douglas for our 50th High School Reunion. Douglas looked extremely run down. A number of the stores on the main street in town which has formerly been the Kress, Woolworth, JCPenny, Sears, Levy's and Phelps Dodge Mercantile and other name stores are now rundown ‘bodegas' owned by Koreans. The town looked old, tired and decrepit. Everything needs a good scrubbing and a paint job. Many boarded-up buildings. There were border patrol vehicles all over town. Douglas is now the location of two Arizona state Prisons. I am told that there are over 500 border patrol agents stationed in Douglas and the second largest employer after the Federal employees, (the border and customs agents), are the Prison Guards.

Douglas had previously been a thriving hub of commerce, with high paying jobs for the workers of Phelps Dodge Corporation and other industries. People from many miles around on both sides of the border came to Douglas to shop.

In the last several years I lived in Douglas in the early ‘80's, I witnessed several Hospitals in Cochise County go bankrupt. This has become the pattern along the borde. Why? Because hospitals gave service to birthing babies of illegal women who did not have the capacity to pay the hospital bills. As we all know, these are referred to as "anchor babies", because they are immediately eligible for a variety of our social services including but not limited to: food stamps, aid to dependent children, welfare, and many more. I do not blame these women; they found a loophole in our system. The fact that after 40 years the loophole still remains open is the scandal. You and I as wage earners are paying for this with our taxes. If the situation were reversed and a female American Citizen gave birth in Mexico, no such benefits would be forthcoming.

Where we use to be able to look across the border and see homes, not unlike our own, now all you see is a very ugly graffiti covered rusting 10 foot high Iron wall with trash piled up against it on both sides. Sort of reminds one of the Berlin wall.

When my family moved to Douglas in 1948 the population was about 14,000. Agua Prieta across the border was slightly smaller. Today, Douglas is about 18,000 and AP is over 150,000. It has sadly become one of the major staging areas along the border for drugs and illegals looking for any kind of opening or opportunity to slip across our border.

By 1986 I could see that the border situation was deteriorating rapidly, sold my businesses and moved away from Douglas.