owens1

I found this note in my folder. It's a letter to the
Editor on the ELP Timesfrom a retired teacher.
Maybe someone still remembers her....David



Smeltertown school

There once was a very small village named Smeltertown on the highway below Asarco.

There was a beautiful school there, E.B. Jones, grades pre-first through seventh.
I taught at E.B. Jones from 1936 until 1941. So many intelligent children. 
It was a pleasure.

The village and the school have been torn down. They found lead in the blood of many
 children and I know some of them died too young because I kept up with them.

The smoke from Asarco settled on the school many, many times. Fumes of sulfur dioxide
made the children, the teachers and other residents of the village 
choke and cough and blurred their eyes. It was terrible and certainly disrupted teaching.



The teachers were only subjected to the fumes five days a week for nine months. 
The children got it seven days a week for 12 months a year.

Henrietta R. Owen
Northeast El Paso