User:Yae4/Tommy Bolack

Tommy Bolack (born 1951 in Winfield, Kansas) is an American rancher, farmer, collector; archaeology, fireworks and radio enthusiast; and oilman. Bolack was formerly City of Aztec, NM Electric Director, a volunteer special deputy police officer, and ran for Sheriff of Farmington, NM.

Education
Bolack earned an electrical engineering degree from New Mexico State University.

Museums, collections and environmentalism
Bolack owns and operates the Bolack Museum of Fish and Wildlife and the Bolack Electromechanical Museum at his B-Square Ranch. He is known for his collection of glass insulators, Sacagawea dollar - Washington quarter Mule coins,   and the last custom Cadillac previously owned by Elvis Presley.

Syndicated radio broadcaster and columnist commentator Paul Harvey in an article called "The fifty million year old house" about visiting the Bolack ranch, said Tommy Bolack was innovating and sharing knowledge in agriculture and wildlife management. He said Bolack withdrew from the state fair vegetable competitions after winning for years, and described Bolack as "Big - 6 feet 8 and 300 pounds plus" and gentle. He said Bolack built his 10,000 square foot house from 50 million year old petrified wood, and described Bolack as an electrical engineer, geologist, agronomist, cowboy and ranch veterinarian.

Radio program host and news reporter Scott Fybush said Bolack "has grown the ranch into a remarkable combination of a working business (there are still oil wells dotting the property, where 650 head of cattle are raised), a wildlife-preservation center and one of the most unusual museums you’ll see anywhere." Flybush said the 15,000-square foot Electromechanical Museum held, the "world’s most comprehensive collection of glass and ceramic insulators" and "the only RCA 50E transmitter still known to exist".

In 1982, Bolack received a protection certificate for "Orange Cayenne", a pepper similar to Red Cayenne except for color. It was the first time plant variety projection was granted to a pepper by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bolack found it in a half-acre planting of cayenne peppers, isolated it in a greenhouse, and grew it for five years before applying for protection. The protection application was later used as an example of a Plant Breeders' Rights certificate having inadequate description.

Bolack helped fund the San Juan Flora Project, and a new species, Abronia bolackii was found on his ranch and named after him.

From 1991 to 1995 Bolack was a founding board member of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. In 1996 Bolack was interviewed for a published oral history project. Bolack discussed involvement in advanced agricultural methods, conservation, resource management, and education, as well as history of the museum.

In 1994, Bolack testified to the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, against the Animas-La Plata water diversion project. Bolack's statements were quoted in Lifelines The Case for River Conservation.

In 2016 Bolack's B-Square Ranch became the first site in the region to report a sighting of a snapping turtle.

Archaeology and history
Bolack has sponsored the Totah Archaeological Project and Field School at his B-Square Ranch, with San Juan College Anthropology department, since 1972. According to Chaco's Northern Prodigies Salmon, Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region After AD 1100, since 1999 the "Tommy site" has been the focus of the San Juan College Field School, and more than 13,000 ceramics from the site have been analyzed. The Tommy Site is "an Anasazi Pueblo I to early Pueblo III habitation located at the base of the Shannon Bluffs on the south side of the San Juan River." The site was discovered by Mr. Tommy Bolack, B-Square Ranch owner and manager, in 1987 during construction of catch-basins. Bolack and his family conducted excavations from the 1960s to 1980s, and more than 100 ruins sites on the Bolack ranch have been documented. Bolack is also credited with limited excavation of the Middle site of the Head Canyon (Puebloan) Community.

Aztec NM Visitor Center published "Electrical History of Aztec" written by Tommy Bolack, previous City of Aztec Electric Director, and said Bolack's Electromechanical Museum contains a 1926 turbine wheel.

In 1994, Bolack was awarded for his design and supervision of a complete overhaul of the Aztec, NM electrical system.

Bolack and the Totah Archaeological Project and field schools at his ranch have "fueled passion" for new archaeologists, and supported in depth studies of the historic sites.

Fireworks
Bolack is known for his annual July 4th fireworks show, which he has presented for about 30 years. After his father was cremated, Bolack mixed most of his ashes with sixteen fireworks and fired them over his ranch on July 4, 1999, because his father "wanted his remains spread on the ranch" and he "loved fireworks".

Law enforcement
Bolack was formerly a volunteer special deputy police officer, and ran unsuccessfully for Sheriff of Farmington, NM in 2018.

Ranch donation
Bolack is donating his 12,451-acre B-Square Ranch near Farmington, NM, to the state of New Mexico for protection in perpetuity from subdivision and future development.