The Wonderous Springs of Balmorhea : A Literary Chronicle of New Deal Days - Gretchen McCullough

The Wondrous Springs of Balmorhea focuses on the secrets at Balmorhea Civilian Conservation Corps camp in remote West Texas, part of Roosevelt's New Deal program in 1935. It is now 1976 and Sam McCabe, a lawyer who lives in South Texas, has just had his arm and shoulder amputated. In the twilight of his life, he remembers those pivotal years. He has strange, disturbing dreams about Darlene, the sultry nurse at the camp. The boys at Balmorhea pine for Darlene, but she is really Minnie, who assisted her husband, Dr. John Brinkley. Brinkley who promised greater male virility with goat testicle operations was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men. Sam McCabe, company clerk to Commander Captain Bell, is privy to most of the intrigue at the camp. Captain Bell, a World War I veteran, an amputee with a disfigured face, cleverly sidesteps federal dictates about segregation to protect the African American cook, Devilfish, and his band, blues musicians from Deep Ellum. Sam's sidekick, E.O., the pious bookkeeper is running a gambling ring to fund his wedding plans while Jack, Sam's best friend from Sul Ross College, a Casanova, is having a torrid affair with Darlene. Meanwhile, Sam befriends Chueco, a Mexican American boy who has escaped a life of slavery at the mercury mine at Terlingua. Close to the big inauguration day for the pool, though, tragedy strikes.