Gallup Brick
at The Fuhs Family
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steady stream of staggering, back-pack wearing folks has traditionally come in and out of the Junker Bridge valley. It was an ideal place for an overnight stay, being close to downtown; one could walk down the steep slopes where police, and residents wouldn’t see or bother their chosen lifestyle activities. Local folklore says that one such hidden activity was the capture of neighborhood cats, that were then slaughtered, roasted, and eaten. A clothesline between the valley trees with just cat legs hanging on it was supposedly seen amidst a makeshift kitchen of a fire pit, discarded school desk, cinder blocks and empty malt liquor bottles.
he Gallup Brick & Tile Company operated from about 1920 to 1960. Among other items, it produced the famous brick from which many local buildings are constructed, with its trademark “GALLUP” molded in 1-inch letters dead center on each brick. The company had its large dome-shaped kilns near Coal Ave., and its property extended south all the way to Mesa Ave. where the storage yard for finished bricks sat. In the mid 1970s the Junker Bridge was constructed so that Aztec Ave. could continue and cross over the old brickyard. It was named after former Gallup Mayor, Edward Junker, a Veteran survivor of the Bataan Death March, who died during office as mayor.
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ayor Jackie McKinney’s phone emits a ringtone of three shotgun blasts and, in a whirlwind of friendly banter, the east portion of the old brickyard is donated. Jackie brokered the deal for Herb and Barbara Taylor to generously donate that 1.5 acres to the City of Gallup. And while they were at it, they just added a zero and another 150 acres of land was also donated by the Taylors near the Gallup airport. The problem was Jackie knew the entire brickyard property was 4.75 acres, so he kept his phone loaded and started making calls on the remaining 3.25 acres. Meanwhile city attorney, George Kozeliski, found a particularly problematic 0.75acre sliver that guts up the middle. Churning records and tracking down information he finds owner Al Lebeck in Phoenix, who along with sister Barbara Taylor, was able to donate this piece to the City.
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t was clear that without the remaining 2.5 acres, the brickyard area would be unusable. So Jackie hunted the land owner down, who ironically said he already had a buyer. Jackie kept following the trail, and it turned out that the buyer was local patriarch, Jack Fuhs, who in an amazing display of community generosity, deliberately purchased the final acreage only to immediately donate it to the City to be used as a community recreation area. Because of this purchase-turned-gift, the Fuhs name will grace this area for being the final piece of the puzzle in transforming a negligent neighborhood property into a positive use area. The brickyard was now complete, somehow put together on the rare combination of personal generosity and political proactiveness.
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ecil Garcia seconds the motion to build a bike park in the brickyard at the council meeting. In years previous he has walked through the trash and bottles strewn all about the various vagrant trails. Peter Tempest, president of Trails 2010, has just presented how a bike park would help the city become a designated “Ride Center” by the International Mountain Biking Association, and how those who use perimeter biking areas like the High Desert Trails will now have a reason to come into the downtown business district. The City Council approves the motion without opposition.
arl Lohmann, director of YCC (Youth Conservation Corps), and his young workers have removed voluminous amounts of trash and brush from the brickyard canyon. He is now looking over the plans that a professional designer has submitted (see image to right). There are two courses where young kids can ride their bikes, four major lines where jumps and skills are done, and perimeter multi-use trails for hiking/biking, and dog walking. Along with help from the Parks Division of the City, they will construct these trails, hopefully to be completed before October. 15,000 has been raised in local cash donations to finish the park, these generous folks and businesses have rounded out a complete community effort to improve local quality of life that hasn’t over-burdened City funds. If you are interested in making a donation to support the Gallup Brickyard Bike Park please call Bob Rosebrough at 722-9121.
The Gallup Brick & Tile Company: Kilns on Coal Ave. circa 1930s (left) Workers on brick production circa 1940s (right)