ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It was out in the middle of nowhere, hoping to attract locals and Route 66 travelers. The Red Ryder-themed Little Beaver Town would only be open for a few seasons, but the mystery of what happened to its buildings remains.
According to local amateur historian Roland Penttila, a retired Standard Oil manager named Howard H. Hull wanted to create a “postcard for the old west” in Albuquerque back in 1960. This proposed park would also feature Native Americans and was tentatively titled “First American Indian Land.”
“Half of it was going to be the ‘wild west’…and then half of it was going to be for the Pueblo Indians,” said Penttila. “And they were not – you know, Pueblans, midwest Indians, eastern Indians, it was just ‘Indians.’ It was what white men thought of Indians in the 1960s.”
Penttila is a retired engineer who has spent years researching the history of Little Beaver Town. as well as giving talks on the subject. He said a total of 24,230 shares were sold in the company behind the park, more than half of those owned by Hull.