Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Above: Claunch denizen Jerry Cozzen, a retired policeman. HE SMALL TOWN OF CLAUNCH, in central New Mexico, sits amid a landscape of grassy fields and rolling hills, of windmills and barbed wire…
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Putting the Art in Artesia
Above: The Artesia Public Library was designed to showcase the 1952 Peter Hurd mural The Future Belongs to Those Who Prepare for It, which originally occupied a Houston office building. THE BEST PLACE…
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The Mills Mansion: Found and Lost
The Mills Mansion in Springer. UP IN NORTHEASTERN New Mexico, where the grasslands and the sky seem to have the run of the place, there’s a house at the end of First Street in Springer that stands…
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Unhurried in Hachita
Big Hatchet Peak looms south of town. TO APPRECIATE HACHITA, a small town of about 30 people at the entrance to the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico, you must first appreciate the landscape that…
Read MoreCarrizozo Renaissance
NEED TO KNOW The Carrizozo Artist Tour and Festival will be held the weekend of August 15–16. Open during the festival: galleries and businesses along 12th St., as well as individual artist studios…
Read MoreThe Answer Man
Ghost Ranch canyonlands. Abiquiú Lake and Cerro Pedernal at the far right. NEED TO KNOW Abiquiú is an easy hour’s drive from Santa Fe following US 84/285 north. The Pueblo de Abiquiú Library and…
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Queen, for a Day
In the small community of Queen, deep in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico, morning begins with humility. It asks for little at first: a dash of pink in the trees, a ray of sun on the…
Read MorePreservation Halls
Chances are, you've never walked among 40 assorted windmills quixotically gathered in one place. Well, I'm here to tell you—it is consummate joy. Their blades and platforms, whether wooden, metal, or…
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The Ghost Whisperer
NEED TO KNOW The Lake Valley Historic Townsite is on N.M. 27, 17 miles south of Hillsboro. It is open between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thurs. through Mon., closed Tues. and Wed. Plan on at least an hourlong…
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Pilgrimage
Sitting in the small café in Vaughn in the middle of December 1997, a warm bowl of chile on the table before me, I waited for an epiphany that wasn’t coming. My brother sat across from me, studying…
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