Apr 20, 20238 min read

Finding Sanctuary in New Mexico

Sanctuary can be defined as "a holy place", "a nature reserve", or "a place of refuge". For us, New Mexico was all of that. It was just what we needed.

In the course of our travels through Texas and Oklahoma we unwittingly flirted northward along the boundary between East and West -- the 100th meridian. Maybe this is why it felt so unsettling. It's a transition zone -- from rainy to dry, from populated to empty, from trees to plains, and, for us at least, from foreign to familiar.

First described in the late 1800's by the soldier and geologist John Wesley Powell the 100th is a line that runs north-south at roughly the Eastern edge of the Oklahoma panhandle. Some scientists today believe that because of climate change this wet-dry boundary is moving eastward and should now be the 98th meridian, which runs roughly from Austin to Oklahoma City. Oddly, that was roughly our trail.

Entering New Mexico, both Joan and I were a little tired, a little homesick, and ready for something different. And I think it's fair to say that we were looking for a little relaxation . . . a little sanctuary. And New Mexico delivered.

Highlights included:

Las Vegas, New Mexico -- The O.G. Las Vegas.
10 days in Santa Fe! (exclamation point deserved :-) -- hosted by our amazing and generous friends, and neo-westerners, Betsy and Stephen
Soccoro, NM, where we got to visit yet another of Joan's wonderful cousins, Louise and her husband, Richard
Silver City and Truth Or Consequences and many more small New Mexican towns with great pubs, parks, and museums. . . oh, and did we mention hiking?
Hiking & Camping, western style, in the wide open spaces of Mills Canyon, Bandalier National Monument, and the Cosmic Campground (yes, that's the actual name!)

Las Vegas, NM

Established about 70 years before the better known and glitzier Other Las Vegas, this Little Las Vegas is home to only about 13,000 folks. However, it's a lovely, artsy little town that was once one of the largest and most unruly cities in the Southwest. Supposedly the East Side of this Vegas was once the home of everyone from Jesse James & Billy the Kid to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and "Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler" . . . who I definitely want to learn more about. :-)

That picture in the lower left corner is a little disturbing if you look at it closely. We found it on a large mural in a Las Vegas parking lot. The figures in the background all have white sacks on their heads and, while they're not pointy like the KKK, the resemblance to the Klan is quite strong. They were an anti-colonialist group called Las Gorras Blancas that were active in the area around 1890 in response to US squatters stealing the land of hispanics out from under them. They declared themselves "defenders of the rights of all people in general, especially the rights of poor people". Quite a difference from the Klan.

Santa Fe, NM

Right at the beginning of COVID, Betsy and Stephen moved out of their little place in Washington, D.C. and bought an amazing place in the hills outside of Santa Fe. Both of their histories were largely from parts much further East and we were incredibly impressed with how happy and "local" they seemed. Both Joan and I agreed that although we loved, loved, loved New Mexico we're not sure we'd have been brave enough to make a change of that magnitude in our own lives!

Between the port, the amazing views, the conversations by the fire, amazing food and a spectacular house (that has NO right angles in it) and even some snow, Santa Fe absolutely rose to the level of "sanctuary". What a joy.

With guidance from B & S, touring around Santa Fe included, of course, the local art, the Santa Fe and Indian museums, the farmer's market (and amazing mushroom soup! . . . which might have been Joan's favorite part of Santa Fe) an art exhibit of repurposed firearms (by Pedro Reyes) as well as a bit of thrift shopping. Joan says she regrets not buying that hat. :-)

We were particularly taken with the way the local museums highlighted a wide, wide variety of people and their lives & contributions throughout the exhibits, so we thought we'd share a few of the ones that caught our eyes. We particularly liked that last one, Agnes Morley, who took charge of the family ranch while still in her teens and ran it successfully for the rest of her life.

A six-shooter makes men and women equal. -- Agnes Morley

Somewhere during all this, Betsy & Stephen left for a long-planned vacation and left us to house-sit for a few days. Truthfully, the responsibilities were not nearly enough to compensate for the joy we got at relaxing in their lovely home. Joan even got to spend a day just perusing Betsy's boundless collection of cookbooks -- heaven on earth for her! I think Betsy & Joan may have been separated at birth. :-) (I'll attach just a fraction of the recipes Joan clipped for fun)

For one of the few times on the trip, we actually went to mass while we were in Santa Fe. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi isn't open to tourists. It's only open for masses, and it's amazing! While seeing the magnificent building was easily worth going to mass for, the mass itself was even more striking. It was a seamless mixture of Spanish, Anglo, and Native American cultures. Every hymn, for example, alternated verses between Spanish and English and they included the use of a Native American drum to announce each part of the mass. For a city at the nexus of years of horrific fighting and senseless slaughter among these three cultures -- OFTEN over religion, it seemed both stunning and appropriate. It seemed so appropriate that the church could play a small part in bringing people back together.

Soccoro, Truth or Consequences, and Silver City, New Mexico

From Santa Fe we meandered across New Mexico, pausing in some of the most wonderful and unique towns that we've seen. Actually, I say unique, but in spite of the adobe, the coyote fences, and the constant wind, they felt more like home than anything we'd seen in 10 months.

In Soccoro we got to visit with Joan's cousin Louise and her husband Richard (a former geologist at New Mexico Tech). They treated us to a round of golf at the university course (which was fabulous!) and two terrific meals. Richard also gave us a personal tour of the geology museum at the university where we got to see samples that phosphoresced, some that were perfect cubes, and others that were formed after atom bomb tests. It was a real treat! We'd hoped to be able to spend the night with them, but had to cancel to return to our house sitting duties back in Santa Fe.

After finishing our house-sitting gig, we camped our way southward eventually to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The town, as you may know, got it's name when the original T or C game show set out a challenge: they'd film the show ON SITE at the first town that renamed itself for the show. When Hot Springs, NM officially became Truth or Consequences, the host Ralph Edwards and the game show lived up to their promise and filmed the 10th anniversary show there. As it turned out, Edwards became so enthralled with the town that he returned there on his own every year for the next 50 years. His annual visit became known as the town Fiesta and is still celebrated to this day.

This is a hard part of the country to build a town in and you'd think it might be weather beaten and dusty. However, there's a great deal of charm (and a lovely lake on this dammed up section of the Rio Grande) here and it was definitely one of Joan's favorites. How is it that pretty much everywhere in New Mexico there seems to be a thriving art culture??

Our last town in New Mexico was Silver City in the SE, right on the bottom edge of the Gila National Forest. Before we got there though, the drive was one of the prettiest we'd had in a long time and included a couple of honest-to-goodness ghost towns.

Silver City is a "former" mining town that's still dominated by the giant Freeport-McMoRan copper mine outside of town, but which also now has (of course) an amazing arts and music community (We bought my mom a birthday present there. Don't tell her! :-).

I have to note that I still don't quite understand the guy with the animal skeleton attached to his heavily decorated truck, but, well, I guess everyone has their own style when it comes to art.

In town though is also a terrific brew pub called the Little Toad, complete with soccer scarves from around the world. They have delicious food, fabulous beer and spirits, and a jam-packed trivia night. In fact, we liked it so much that we just parked Doris around the corner and slept there for the night!

One of the most interesting parts of Silver City though was it's town museum -- Side Note: we've become very addicted to going to the local museums in each little city we visit. Look for them wherever you go! Anyway, in Silver City, not only do they have a great display of the mining history and the "Big Ditch", but also they've done a bang up job of filling in the previous gaps in their town story -- the history of the largely Latino, south side of town called Chihuahua Hill. Across the country, many museums (though certainly not all) have begun this process of re-examining their stories to find the people they've missed over the years and this was one of the most interesting and extensive efforts we've seen so far. They've not only documented the history and people of the hill but are now in the process of collecting and archiving oral histories from its residents. We were especially fascinated by the story of Arturo Flores a former Navy man turned labor organizer for the local mine workers -- a definite hero.

Hiking and Camping in New Mexico

The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) has thousands of acres of land all across the American West, but it wasn't until we got to New Mexico that we really started to explore them in earnest. We only got the tip of the iceberg here, but that was only because there are also so many terrific state and federal parks to visit. Highlights included Mills Canyon, the Galisteo Basin, Bandelier National Monument, and the Gila National Forest. We were struck over and over again by the beauty of New Mexico, both the land and the sky. It is far, far, far more than just desert. The water, mountains, woods, mesas, plant life, and clouds are absolutely mind blowing.

The highlight of the highlights though was the Cosmic Campground -- an International Dark Sky Sanctuary with 360° views of the night sky. It's near Glenwood, NM, on the Arizona border, 40 miles from the nearest source of artificial light and over 200 miles and a mountain range from the nearest big city. If you're ever down near there, it's a must-do stop (and you'll find it on Google Maps!)