Museum to show premiere of Shalam Colony film

The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum will play host to the world premiere of the new documentary film that profiles a fascinating chapter in the history of the Mesilla Valley. The premiere is set for 7 p.m. on May 13.

“Utopia on the Rio Grande” tells the story of Shalam Colony, a group of “Faithists” who worked to create a utopian-type of community on the Rio Grande, north of Las Cruces from 1884-1907. Admission is a suggested donation of $2 and seating is limited.

The film, which features local actors in re-enactments, was produced by filmmaker Robin Riley Riley. He came to the "Utopia on the Rio Grande" film project with a unique set of qualifications: His background as both an academic and as a Baptist minister gave him both the ability and the insight to tell the story of John Newbrough and Shalam Colony.

He became interested in Newbrough while living in Las Cruces, where he taught broadcast journalism at New Mexico State University. In 2008 he co-curated the Museum’s “Shalam Colony: Dream in the Desert” exhibition. Riley, who will be on hand May 13 to answer questions about Shalam Colony, now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he teaches both broadcast news and production courses in television, film, and video at Northwestern College.

In late October 1884, a group of two dozen men, women and children pitched their tents on a sandy piece of land at a prominent bend of the Rio Grande north of Las Cruces, about a mile west of the village of Dona Ana. It was here that they began to build the new “Children’s Land” called Shalam.

A few months earlier, Newbrough and fellow faithist Joseph Grill had traveled to the Southwest to purchase land for their grand experiment -- a self-reliant utopian community dedicated to raising orphans. The first winter at Shalam was harsh, and the colonists’ survival was only ensured by help from their new neighbors in Doña Ana. Those neighbors showed the newcomers local crops and foods, made adobe bricks, and helped build many of the structures. Between 1884 and 1907 as many as 200 people from the village worked at what they called “La Colonia.”

The buildings, houses, stables, wells, and irrigation system at the Shalam Colony were unlike anything that existed at that time in New Mexico Territory. Eventually encompassing 1,490 acres with up to 35 buildings, Shalam Colony became known for its developed grounds as much as for its “peculiar” reputation.

With a large and progressive irrigation system and several hundred acres of cleared farmland, Andrew Howland, who had taken over the colony after Newbrough’s death in 1891, planted several crops in pursuit of profits to sustain Shalam Colony. The farms included 25 acres of vineyards, 95 acres of fruit and nut trees, 30 acres of alfalfa, and 30 acres of grain crops (likely wheat and corn). Most of these failed within a few years. The hay started out well but soon failed and was no longer profitable to irrigate. Small animals ate vines and tree bark, but the final blow was a heavy frost in early 1897 that killed fruit trees throughout the Mesilla Valley.

Howland spent most of his $300,000 fortune (equal to more than seven million dollars today) to build and run Shalam. A decade after Newbrough’s death, it was costing up to $1,000 per month to operate the farms and care for the 25 orphans at the colony. With his accounts dwindling, he concluded he could no longer afford to support Shalam. His wife Frances Howland immediately began searching for new homes where they could send the adopted children, who ranged in age from 3 to 14 years old. The court approved their plans in April 1901, and the Howlands began a long process to divest themselves of Shalam Colony that ended when they left in 1907.