Have Pen and Camera, Will Travel: #209 SW Fall 2023, Part 3

SW Fall 2023, Part 3

Old Pecos Pueblo Church

This final part of the fall 2023 trip covers some of the fine Taos museums we visited and a visit with friends living in the Taos area. What I haven’t ever mentioned is why the SW is such a draw for us. It started in the early 1990s when I was invited to teach at the Championship Debate Enterprise (CDE) workshop with some of the outstanding high school debate students in the country. The first few summers the camp was held at the College of Santa Fe. In off-time Anne and I would play golf and explore the area around Santa Fe. We also explored the area between Canby and Santa Fe as we drove to and from the camp.

Door in Taos

The camp then moved to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. After a couple of summers there, we were prompted to move the camp to more modern facilities at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. The final decider for the move was when a large live cockroach fell out of the shower head onto a female camper. Durango, near Mesa Verde and other Native American monuments, was a new place to explore. The final move for the camp was to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. By this time I had moved from lecturer to Assistant Director to Lecturer Emeritus (guest lecturer). We had visited many of the jewels of the SW and had watched Bill and Cat’s (the camp’s owners) daughter Jasmine grow from a young child to a college student — more about her later. In the time spent at the debate camp I had also become aware that my maternal grandmother was part Native American, probably Apache, which helped explain the natural affinity I had for the area. Like in Scotland, where we’ve always felt at home, we feel the same way in America’s SW.

Back view of famous adobe church in Rancho de Taos.

La Hacienda de Los Martinez Museum. This late Spanish Colonial period “Great House” was built in 1804 and was the northern terminus of the Camino Real connecting New Mexico to Mexico City.

The museum, located on the outskirts of Taos, consists of several themed rooms in the hacienda and some outbuildings on the picturesque grounds. The museum makes a very pleasant and interesting visit.

Taos Art Museum at Fechin House. The building was the home of Russian artist Nichola Fechin, a writer, painter, and craftsman, who promoted Taos as an artist colony. The museum houses the Fechin permanent collection and hosts special exhibits from members of the Taos Society of Artists.

Fechin's estate donated the house after it was registered as a National Historic Property in 1979. The special exhibits are displayed in the original Fechin studio which also hosts a fine gift shop.

The Harwood Museum, founded by the Harwood Foundation (Bart and Elizabeth Harwood) in 1923 is just a block off the Taos Plaza. The museum houses a permanent collect of 1700 pieces of art and 17,000 photographs [I would count those as works of art, as well].

Interesting?

Most of the collection reflects the influence of the Taos artist community. The Harwoods originally opened their private library to the public who didn’t have a town library at the time. Much of that library is still on display.

Ansel Adams' Photo

Found Art -- Reflection off an Ansel Adams' Portfolio.

Georgia O'Keeffe Painting

Taos Friends. When we spend time in either Santa Fe or Taos we always make sure to visit Jasmine, the daughter of our debate camp friends, Bill and Cat Bennet. Bill, recently passed, was a text book author and coach/director at CDE. Cat was a speech teacher and coach at Taos High School.

L to R: Zea (5), Mays (3), Jas

Zach, photo taken with my camera by Mays

We, particularly Anne, spent a lot of camp time with Jas. There was one strikingly memorable incident when Jas was 6 or 7. The camp was in Durango at Fort Lewis College when Jas spent the best part of a morning nurturing a friendship with a small wild mole until she got it to eat grass out of her hand. Jas grew up to be a pretty and intelligent student who qualified for the National High School Speech Tournament in her senior year. She went on to get her degree at UNM, but instead of becoming a lawyer or academic, she got married and with her husband Zach has built up Wildhood Farm (look up Wildwood Farm on Facebook). The farm is an organic and sustainable farm in Truchas, NM, an hour out of both Santa Fe and Taos. Zach does some teaching at UNM and both put on workshops at the farm. They sell produce and products at Farmers Markets and to local restaurants. Their two children, Zea and Mays, are bright, outgoing, and charming kids whom we love to visit with. The family currently lives in a yurt with outbuildings while finishing their homemade cobb house at 8500 feet in the New

Mexico mountains.