In New Mexico the sky touches the earth.  Azure blue provides the backdrop for sweeping vistas punctuated by tabletop mesas and craggy snow-capped mountains. Pinion and juniper scent the desert winds and the mountain breezes, and the blending of Native American and Spanish cultures evokes an exotic feel. 
The sun seems always to be shining, and the light is magical.  Leo Stein wrote:

     It is the most aesthetically-satisfying splendid, silent terror and a vast, far-and-wide magnificence which made it way beyond mere aesthetic appreciation.  Never is the light more pure and overwhelming than there, arching with a royalty almost cruel
over the hollow, uptilted world. 

("New Mexico Where the Spirit Rules," p.14)

Before the birth of northern New Mexico from Santa Fe to Taos as a destination for numerous artists, writers, and thinkers, it had another equally inspired life.  Taos Indian legend tells that an eagle led their ancestors into the Taos Valley over 800 years ago.  The Taos People were living peacefully, in what has become one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the country, when in 1540 the Spanish arrived.  Friendly relations between the Native People and the Spanish gradually became hostile as more and more Spaniards arrived in the area.  They intermarried with the Native Peoples and expected all of the Native population to renounce their cultural mores and convert to Christianity.  Those not willing to convert were often beaten, hanged,

and otherwise tortured and abused.  By 1650 the Taos People were organizing a revolt against the Spaniards.  It was another 30 years before it came to fruition.  The Pueblo Revolt, which encompassed all of the northern New Mexico Pueblo tribes, lasted 12 years.  The Spanish rulers in Santa Fe were driven as far away as present day El Paso, Texas.  The Spanish did not reoccupy Taos until 1692.
     Relentless raids by Ute, Apache, and Commanche Peoples forced the Spanish and the Pueblo tribes to live in relative harmony for the next 75 years as they fought together to defend their settlements.  By the beginning of the 1800s Taos had become a trade center for Pueblo and Plains Natives.  In fact Taos was the busiest settlement in New Mexico.  In 1848 after the US-Mexican War, the Treaty of Hidalgo ceded New Mexico to the United States.  It remained a territory until 1912 when it became the 47^th state of the Union.  By then it was already attracting artists and writers.
     In 1845 Lewis H. Garrard arrived in Taos. 

See DODGE, page 6

Day Hikes in the
Taos Area