NMSU-Carlsbad professor makes history come alive through trips

Dinwiddie, who is a professor of social science at the Carlsbad campus, is known throughout the state for his classes that literally bring history alive.

Dinwiddie says the idea to lead trips came from a professor he had while working on his master’s degree at Western New Mexico University in Silver City. As a graduate assistant, he helped Professor Dale Giese plan a four-week trip to historical sites along the west coast.

“When I got into teaching myself I thought I had enjoyed this so much as a student that I wanted to do it as well if I could,” Dinwiddie says.
Dinwiddie joined the NMSU-Carlsbad faculty in 1987 after earning his Ph.D. in history and political science from Northern Arizona University. He says he likes teaching at the Carlsbad campus because it gives him the opportunity to teach a wide variety of classes. In the past 17 years he has taught 26 different classes, from anthropology to World War II history.

Dinwiddie led his first trip for NMSU-Carlsbad students in the summer of 1992. The trip was a New Mexico history field study adventure that took participants to 31 of the state’s 33 counties in three weeks.

The course was so popular – especially with teachers – that word got around and when Dinwiddie led his next trip in 1994, he had 29 participants. This trip covered northern Arizona and southern Colorado in addition to New Mexico.
The following year, Dinwiddie ventured even further, visiting Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Utah on a Rocky Mountain field study course.
In 1996, Dinwiddie did his first trip in which he retraced a famous historical trail. This one was the Santa Fe Trail from New Mexico to Missouri. Two years later, he took students on the Gold Rush Trail out to San Francisco.

Dinwiddie’s most recent trip – along the Lewis and Clark Trail – was five years in the making. In the fall of 2003, he took a sabbatical to travel the trail himself from coast to coast. He visited 23 states and covered 9,000 miles.

“It gave me an opportunity to see what would work well when I had the students with me,” Dinwiddie says.

Last summer, Dinwiddie and 16 students followed the Lewis and Clark Trail from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Astoria, Oregon. They covered 6,500 miles over two and a half weeks. The class even received mention in a Washington Post story about the 200th anniversary of the trail.

This spring, Dinwiddie plans to lead a Civil War battlefields tour that will visit sites near Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He hopes to lead a trip along the Oregon Trail in 2006.

Students in Dinwiddie’s classes have to submit a journal about their experiences and take a final exam at the end of the trips. The courses earn students six credits.

In addition to the summer courses, Dinwiddie teaches three one-credit courses each semester that involve weekend trips to various historical areas in New Mexico. He has taken students to Santa Fe, Raton, Silver City, Taos and the Four Corners area.

Students in Dinwiddie’s classes have ranged from high school students who are trying to earn Advanced Placement credits to retirees who are history buffs. Several students have spent three or more summers traveling with Dinwiddie.
“His classes are mesmerizing,” says Debra Rodgers ’96, a Carlsbad elementary school teacher who has accompanied Dinwiddie on two summer trips and taken at least six weekend trips.

As a student at Carlsbad, Rodgers originally set her sights on earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. But she enjoyed Dinwiddie’s classes so much that she decided to earn a minor in history.

“I took every class that I could with him,” Rodgers says. “He really makes history come alive for you. When he talks about an historical character, he shows their flaws as well as what they were idolized for.”

Dinwiddie, who grew up in Silver City, says he has loved history since he was old enough to read. He didn’t plan to make a living teaching history, though. Biology was his original major in college, but he says he dreaded the labs and couldn’t wait to go to history classes.

“The message I tell students is don’t be afraid to change your mind,” Dinwiddie says. “The most important thing is to get an education.”

Click here to read a story of Debra Roger's experience.