Way Out There is a time capsule for life in the Wild West

In 1984, Matt Middleton was knee-deep in producing a documentary about the vanishing Wild West, interviewing those who had lived it, affectionately known as the Old Timers.

Forty years later, “Way Out There” has become a sort of time capsule of when cattle were driven through the dirt-packed streets, ore was mined from the mountains, and folks worked hard from sunup to sundown.

Vera Owsley sits at the Golden Spur bar in Magdalena in one scene. She is white-haired, wearing glasses with a drink firm in her hand. Behind her, cigarette smoke curls up, beer bottles are lined up, and a small TV plays in the background.

“Cowboys use to come to town and shoot up a few lights and throw people out the window or something like that, but it wasn’t really that tough,” Owsley says in the film.

Siblings Vera and Cecil Owsley are credited with starting the Old Timer’s reunion in 1971 as a way to reminisce about the good old days. In the early days it was held out at their ranch and eventually moved out into the village. The three-day event in Magdalena was known as a way to celebrate the history and traditions of the cattle drive and western life with a street dance, parade, rodeo, and a variety of food and drink that took over the small village.

The Old Timer’s Reunion made an impression on filmmaker Middleton.

Middleton was born in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Albuquerque during his senior year of high school. In 1982, he found himself in the village of Magdalena, meeting some of the characters in his future film. At that time, he had just left Datil, where he said he managed the Navajo Lodge for six months after a media project he was working on went “Ka-poot.”

One night at a party in Magdalena, Middleton pitched the idea of making a documentary on Magdalena to a friend working at the Channel Five station who had come down for the weekend. His friend told him to write up a two-page short treatment, and he would pass it on to then-executive producer Rick Johnson.

The one-hour documentary was filmed in cooperation with KNME-TV (PBS) in Albuquerque and aired on PBS in 1985 and won the New Mexico Press award for best documentary. Middleton said Channel Five was supportive in providing the resources they needed and sent a crew of five to film the Old Timers reunion of 1984.

“One of the first things that caught my attention (about Magdalena) was the fact that there were so many colorful characters,” Middleton said “I mean, after you’ve met, Morgan Salome and Nash Godinez and down the line, you realize this is really neat, we could do documentary. Plus it’s an old west town, there’s mining and there’s a train.”

The film featured interviews with Old Timers such as Owsley, Bernie Romero, Norman Cleaveland, Morgan Salome, Lorenzo Pino, Nash Godinez, Diego Montoya, Andy Baca, Bob Lee, Marvin Ake, Henry Cobb, Conrad Carrillo, Elfego Baca, Billy Dobson, Birdie Spears, Wade Dixon, Billy Godinez and Ed Jones.

Middleton said since the filming, most of those in the film, including the narrator, Jim Morely, have passed away.

“I think watching it now it makes people reflect on it in a different way. When it first came out, you see these people you knew and it was great. But as the years go by and you see it, you go, ‘oh geez,’” Middleton said, “And maybe it all links together; maybe there is some reason why I had the cemetery be part of the opening.”

The documentary style was what they used to call infotainment, and Middleton admits some of the segments with the teenagers, who he recruited from the University drama club in Albuquerque, are “a little cheesy”.

He recalled when they were recording the opening driving scene with the green screen and paying one guy to push on the car’s bumper to make it look like it was moving.

Jeanie Dixon who grew up in Magdalena said she thinks the film an important document of Magdalena’s history that is appreciated by locals. Her brother, Wade Dixon, is featured in the film.

“You know, it’s especially important to all the people whose family is in that video. Most of them, they’re gone,” Dixon said. “I don’t think there’s anybody in that video that we didn’t personally know.”

Dixon said Magdalena has changed a lot in the last forty years since the documentary was filmed.

“Everybody knew everybody and everybody had a unity. You know, it didn’t matter if you were white, Native American, Hispanic. It didn’t matter. We were all part of the same community and everybody, got along and I think that was that was really important about it, too, because it shows that unity in that video,” Dixon said.

At the Magdalena class reunions she organizes in partnership with the Magdalena Public Library, she said people are always excited to watch the film together.

“It’s an enjoyable thing watching it, it really is. I think that everybody enjoys it when they see it in a group setting,” Dixon said.

Although the film has been appreciated and recognized, Middleton admits he wasn’t able to make everyone happy with his film.

“We got a little bit of criticism about there being too much bar stuff, but that’s where you meet people, at the bar,“ Middleton said, “and somebody complained that there were too many cows. How can you have too many cows?”

In 1984, during the filming, Middleton described the Old Timers as being “wildly successful”.

“Even though the drinking was going on Main Street and the street dance. There weren’t any problems,” Middleton said.

A lot has changed in Magdalena since the documentary was filmed, including the end of the Old Timer’s Reunion in 2020. Dixon said it’s sad people don’t come together anymore like they used to. Middleton agreed there is a sense of loss without the reunion.

“Some of the change has been inevitable, I don’t like it, some might say ‘You're just an old fart who wants it to be the way it was’, but let’s be honest it was a lot better back then,” Middleton said.

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Magdalena Public Library sells the DVD’s and all proceeds go to the library.