Calvin Boles

Calvin Boles sold insurance by day and sang country music at night, and in 1958 he started Yucca Records, which became one of the Southwest's best-known independent labels. Bobby Fuller of El Paso cut two singles for it in the early 1960s, a few years before his I Fought the Law reached the national top ten. The bluesman Long John Hunter, who played the Juárez club circuit, released several 45s on Yucca. Decades later Norton Records acquired a trove of unreleased Yucca tapes and issued them in its El Paso Rock series.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Calvin Boles Yucca Records Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee Calvin Boles founded Alamogordo-based Yucca Records where Long John Hunter, Bobby Fuller, and Willie Nelson recorded early in their careers. Boles wrote some 500 songs and released 237 LPs and 45s, many recorded in his garage. Yucca became a draw for young rock'n roll, country, and blues singers and guitarists from southern New Mexico and Texas. Boles also recorded his own songs, including ballads about local heroes and anti-heroes, and 1958's "From Arrows to Rockets," a retelling of Tularosa Basin folklore and history.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• White Sands National Park — 11 mi
  The largest gypsum dunefield on Earth, a national park since 2019, surrounded on all sides by military ground whose missile tests close its only road for hours at a time.

More markers nearby

• Dog Canyon — 4.1 mi
• Commission for the Blind Orientation Center — 6.5 mi
• New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired — 7.8 mi
• La Luz — 12 mi