Were I to choose the political figure my family's history was going to be tied to, I would not have chosen Donald Rumsfeld. But none of us got to choose, so I find myself in the rather unenviable position of hoping that he keeps his word.

I believe that he will because I want to believe it, because the cause is not political or contentious. Not yet anyway. But it might be. There are million-dollar estates going up and money is money. But so far, well. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Turley is my family name on my mother's side. And during the great western expansion, two brothers, Jesse B. and Simeon Turley, built a supply line between Arrow Rock and sometimes Independence, Missouri to Taos, New Mexico, a journey that took some four months. Simeon stayed in Taos and founded Turley's Mill. The mill, which ground corn, was the namesake of a larger compound that also housed a trading post and distillery famous for making Taos Lightening, a whiskey whose ingredients included, among other things, gunpowder.

Jesse B. was in charge of riding back and forth between Taos and Arrow Rock with supplies for the trading post, bringing calicos, tin cups and saddles from the east, a journey he often made with Kit Carson, who was the brothers' childhood friend.

In 1847, the Taos Massacre broke out, also sometimes called the Taos Revolt . A trapper attempted to hide Simeon, who had a bad leg, but he was found and killed. The mill, distillery and trading post were burned to the ground, but Simeon's Mexican common-law wife and home were spared.

The ruins of Turley's Mill are now a national historic site, but its been a rather orphaned one. Now the land on which it sits has been purchased by Donald Rumsfeld. The area around it has become wealthy with some very fancy homes going up, including one belonging to Julia Roberts.

An archeologist is set to excavate the site next summer, and a few members of my family, including me, will be volunteers on the dig. The archeologist tells us Mr. Rumsfeld is fully behind the project, which includes plans to rebuild the mill as a visitor's site.

I hope it's true. I really hope it is. Otherwise, it's going to be butted up against someone's five-car garage, and I don't even want to imagine that.