They really lean into it here. Even at the Lego Store. And at the wine store.
Next: this time, Monument Valley.
Roswell
Carlsbad Caverns
In modern times, the Carlsbad Caverns were found by a teenager, Jim White, in 1898. He used a wire ladder like the one above to descend into and explore many of the rooms, the lower set of which are at least 1,027 feet below the ground. (There may be still lower chambers that haven’t been found yet.) The site became a national monument in 1923.
If you aren’t into stalactites and stalagmites, you can stop here.
Next: More otherworldliness, but above ground.
Not Yet Monument Valley
I overlooked a few stops before we got to Taos. Let’s go back to Texas first.
From Marfa, we drove to Alpine. Alpine is supposed to be an interesting place, but we pulled into town on Sunday, so most of the stores were closed; and it was Super Bowl Sunday, so most of the restaurants were closed until game time. The place had the feel of a ghost town, which was not helped by the lead-grey sky; even the beautiful murals scattered throughout downtown didn’t help. The place gave me the heebie-jeebies, and that’s not something that happens often.
From there, we went to Fort Davis, which had been established to protect travelers and settlers during the Indian Wars.
Next: Carlsbad Caverns.
New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah
A lot of landscape photos from our drive, including the Rio Grande (as seen from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge), Ship Rock, Mexican Hat Rock, and the outskirts of Monument Valley.
Next: Monument Valley.
Taos Pueblo
Taos was great. It’s a small town, but with friendly people and beautiful art galleries. But visually and culturally, the most interesting place for me was Taos Pueblo. It was very quiet the day we were there, given that it was off-season; however, we were lucky to be there, because the pueblo was going to close the next day for a two-month-long tribal gathering. Our tour guide was cagey in talking about the event, telling us only to say that it was a time when many members of the pueblo who lived outside the pueblo came home.
The patron saint of Taos Pueblo (because the conquering Spanish said so) is St. Jerome. The current church of St. Jerome (San Geronimo) is located on the main square of the pueblo. However, the history of the church is entangled with the history of the pueblo’s resistance to conquest. As the National Park Service explains,
Taos Pueblo received its first Catholic Franciscan priest in 1598, when Juan de Onate, after establishing a Spanish settlement at San Gabriel, assigned Fray Francisco de Zamora as missionary to the Taos area. In 1627, Fray Benavides reported that the church was under construction, but with difficulty due to the non-cooperation of the Taos Indians. In 1647, the tribe sent the Inquisition in Mexico an official complaint of the immorality of the priest assigned to pueblo. In 1640, Fray Miranda and several other Spaniards were killed by the Indians at Taos, the church was destroyed, and the people left the pueblo. They returned under the persuasion of Governor Lopez de Mendizabal around 1660 and reluctantly accepted another priest. The church was slowly rebuilt, impeded by local resistance, and the situation continued to deteriorate as tribute continued to be collected and traditional religious practices were suppressed.
In 1690, a coalition of pueblos revolted against Spanish rule and drove the Spaniards out of the area for 10 years. The Spanish finally reconquered Taos Pueblo in 1696, but did not complete a new church until 1726. In 1846, the mission again came under attack
as Mexicans and Indians resisted the American takeover of the territory during the Mexican-American War, killing the new American governor Charles Bent and marching on Santa Fe. Government troops and volunteers marched on Taos and attacked the Mexicans and Indians dissidents who had taken refuge in the San Geronimo church. The church, with walls 3-7 ft thick, became a formidable stronghold. The first day the American cannon balls lodged themselves in the thick adobe with little effect. Seeing that bombardment was not successful, the next day forces led by Colonel Price resorted to setting the roof on fire and storming the building. The American forces took the town and two years later the annexation of New Mexico was formalized by the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848. The cannon ball riddled mission church was left to ruin and a new church was built in 1850.
So much for the idea of sanctuary. Today, the ground around the old church is a cemetery.
Next: New Mexico to Arizona and Utah.
Meow Wolf
From Texas, we crossed into New Mexico. Our first stop was Albuquerque, which didn’t really grab me, despite having an attractive old town. Santa Fe, on the other hand, had Meow Wolf.
Meow Wolf is a Santa Fe-based company of multimedia artists who put together enormous, interactive art installations. (There are installations in Las Vegas, Denver, and Grapevine, TX as well.) The Santa Fe installation, in an enormous old bowling alley, currently tells the story of a family whose science experiment goes horribly wrong, opening a portal into multiple other worlds. As you explore their house and the worlds that it contains—including psychedelic gardens, a black-and-white cartoon kitchen containing alien life forms, household appliances that lead to other dimensions, and an multi-versal travel agency—you find clues to the tragedy that has torn the family apart. We spent a few hours there and probably could have spent another two or three.
As an added bonus, the curators at Meow Wolf are officiants in the Church of Universal Life, so we renewed our vows during our visit.
Next: Taos.
Annoying AF
I have to keep changing WordPress themes if I want to have certain features that the old theme doesn’t support—except that the new theme doesn’t support them either.
Highway 90
If you are driving from Marfa to Valentine, TX, and thinking that you could use a new Prada bag, you’re in luck! Just stop by the Prada store on Highway 90.
Except that it’s closed. Except that it was never open. The building is an art installation that was inaugurated on October 1, 2005—and then vandalized and robbed the same evening. (The building was repaired, and a security system installed.)
Next: New Mexico.
The Marfa Lights
The Marfa lights, or Marfa ghost lights, are “most often reported as distant spots of brightness, distinguishable from ranch lights and automobile headlights on Highway 67 (between Marfa and Presidio, to the south) primarily by their aberrant movements,” per Wikipedia. While some may claim that the lights are caused by cars or houses, or are somehow connected to a nearby airfield, people have reported seeing them since 1883. They are marked by their strange behavior: changing color, disappearing and reappearing, splitting into two and then merging back, and moving erratically. My videos weren’t steady—it’s the camera bobbing up and down, not the lights—but all the other movements were the lights themselves.
Next: one more Marfa post.
Marfa, TX
Marfa (pop. 1,725) is a located in the southwest corner of Texas, not too far from Big Bend. For a while, it’s greatest claim to fame was that it was the location of the film Giant. In 1971, however, Marfa became the home of Donald Judd, a painter, sculptor, and essayist who pioneered the Minimalist school. He began fabricating large sculptures that were representative of nothing; in effect, they existed for their own sake. He worked in wood, metal, and enamel; he also designed furniture and buildings which were functional but minimal and sleek. Over time, he purchased a number of buildings in downtown Marfa to use as studios.
In 1979, he purchased a decommissioned airbase just outside of Marfa and created the Chinati Foundation to showcase his work and that of his contemporaries. (Chinati is the name of a nearby mountain range.) The Foundation’s ethos—Judd imposed a very strong aesthetic concept on the organization—was the union of art, architecture, and environment.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
The main building contains 100 fabricated steel boxes, each with a unique arrangement of interior and exterior panels.
Three U-shaped former barracks (shown in the last photo, above) contain light sculptures by the artist Dan Flavin, in which the bottom of each U is bisected centrally by a hallway and laterally, in the first building, by an arrangement of green and pink fluorescent tubes; in the second, by an arrangement of blue and yellow fluorescent tubes; and, in the third, an arrangement of both sets of fluorescent tubes. The buildings themselves are works of minimal art.
A former dining hall still contains the artwork of an unknown airman/cartoonist.
A quick stop for lunch: the best burrito I have ever eaten.
Back to Chinati: another U-shaped building contains a more recent installation, Robert Irwin’s Dusk to Dawn, in which one walks from one end of the U to the other down hallways that are bisected by scrim sheets. (Click on the photos and scroll through them for the experience.)
Finally, outside: some of Donald Judd’s concrete box fabrications.
Next: the Marfa lights.