November 4, 1942 • “The Singing Sands of Alamosa,” a popular western song which is bringing a great deal of renown to Alamosa and the Great Sand Dunes national monument northeast of this city, was featured at the Alamosa County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday noon at the Log Inn Cafe.

A letter from Bert Reisfelt, who wrote the music to the popular piece, was read dispelling all questions that have arisen as to how the song happened to be written. The letter, addressed to John E. Harron, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce revealed that Reisfelt happened to read an article about the singing sands in the New York Times, and was fascinated by the idea. He says Kim Gannon, lyricist, was too when he told him about it - so they wrote the song. Bing Crosby picked the song out of 25 songs that were submitted to him for recording. Two Warner Bros. pictures have since used the song. They are: “You Can't Escape Forever” and “Secret Enemies.”

After reading the letter, Harron played four recordings of the piece by Dick Todd, Alvino Rey, Bing Crosby and Woody Herman, also a transcript of a recent radio program from Denver in which “The Singing Sands of Alamosa,” was the featured number and a brief description of the Sand Dunes national monument was given. He listed a number of programs on which the song had been played, coast-to-coast, and urged Alamosans to write their friends to request the song and to purchase the sheet music or recordings.

-The Pueblo Chieftain