concepts · updated 2026-08-01
Solar Energy newsletter 1973
confidence: high volatility: cold verified: 2026-08-01fresh
Four scanned pages from a "Solar Energy" photo insert in The Tribal Messenger, dated March 12, 1973 — Mel Buffington's photographs of the Baer drum-wall house in Corrales and a neighbor's solar installations, with admiring editorial text signed L.K. and S.W.
Four scanned pages from a “Solar Energy” insert in The Tribal Messenger, dated March 12, 1973 (Page 9 of that issue). The insert runs alongside the Tribal Messenger serialization and was part of the same publication.
Cover
Cover: “Solar Energy” — The Tribal Messenger, 12 Mar 1973, Page 9. Hand-drawn sun illustration above a photograph captioned “View from hill showing top of Baer’s home and Sandia Mountains.”
Interior pages
Photos by Mel Buffington (“ALL FOTOS BY MEL BUFFINGTON,” credited on pg2). Three pages of photographs and captions documenting passive solar installations in New Mexico, March 1973.
Pg2 — Exterior view of the Baer house drum walls: “Old 55 gallon oil barrels filled with water, painted black, absorb heat from sun during day. In the evening side panels (seen laying on ground) are drawn shut. Barrels give off warmth all night long heating most of house.” A second photo shows an opened overhead panel from inside, captioned: “A motor with a light-sensitive switch automatically opens windows in morning and self-adjusts to allow the best angle for sunlight.” Between the photos runs a signed prose appreciation by Buffington — “no big-city hum, for one thing; the loudest noise comes from the windmill, behind and beyond the house… this new mexico sunshine home is that. it is enough.” This is the DrumWall in print — water-filled thermal mass behind operable panels.
Pg3 — Two photographs: “Side of bus, zome, & windmill” and “Solar panels at neighbor’s house,” plus a bottom photo of a small collector captioned “This small panel-area heats bath water.” The editorial text, signed L.K., argues that since atomic power is not yet safe, homes are heated by electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil — all ultimately “the Solar Energy that sustained the lives of those plants and animals of so long ago” — and introduces the photographs as “the story of two young families, next door neighbors, that have built their home environments to respond to the sun’s energy out-put.”
Pg4 — Two photographs of the Baer installation. Upper image: Steve Baer beside large reflective panels, captioned “Whole Earth Catalog calls Steve Baer an energy-generating young inventor. Steve can be reached thru his ‘Zomeworks’ company, P.O. Box 712, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87103.” (signed S.W.) Lower image: “Inside of Steve Baer’s house (in Corrales) showing the white side of oil barrels.” These are among the earliest photographs of the DrumWall system in print.
Context
The Tribal Messenger’s March 26, 1973 issue lists “Related scans” pointing to these solar energy pages, indicating they were distributed together. This newsletter and the Tribal Messenger serialization show that solar work was being discussed in multiple small-circulation publications in early 1970s New Mexico, not just academic journals.