King of the Road - February 2011
With a Little Help from My Friends
Inspiration awaits in Socorro
Story and Photography by Lesley S. King
I have to admit that even this professional traveler, when on the road, sometimes falls off balance. I get lost, drive the wrong way on one-way streets, eat too-rich food, and can’t sleep at night. Sometimes memories rush in and steal my attention. But today I’m determined to hold my center, no matter what obstacles try to knock me off it. It should be easy here in Socorro, 77 miles south of Albuquerque, off I-25. The town’s very name, in Spanish, means “help.”
I head out on a historic walking tour. With more than a dozen buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, and three miles of the historical district designated as a New Mexico Scenic Byway, it’s a perfect place to stretch my legs. From the 1880 Plaza, with its sprawling shade trees and graceful gazebo, I walk east through the Elfego Baca Heritage Park, where I find First Contact: Socorro Wheel of History. This graceful sculpture in cast bronze depicts the region’s past, beginning in 1598, when Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate first encountered the Piro Indians here.
The town’s name came from that encounter: the Piros aided the starving conquistadors by giving them corn. I’m guided through history by the sculpture’s images: ancient petroglyphs, Spanish Colonial–era Franciscan friars, and 1800s grain mills, all the way up to contemporary times, including the installation in the 1970s of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array, 50 miles west of here, off U.S. 60—a field of giant satellite dishes made famous in the movie Contact.
As I walk, I feel a few memories wanting to arise—I have some old ties to this town, but I ignore them as I continue on to other stops in the park, which spell out the history of buildings on colorful tiles. One sign discusses the Juan José Baca House (1870), which was once a store. Nestled inside the building I find the Curious Crow Studio, where I meet Natasha Isenhour, and linger over her dazzling oil paintings of doorways and stairways.
IF YOU GO: What to Do New Mexico Tech Mineral Museum The Socorro Heritage and Visitor Center Where to Dine Socorro Springs Restaurant and Brewery Where to Stay Where to Shop Curious Crow Studio |
In 1997, Isenhour came to Socorro as a geologist on a top-secret contract with the Department of Defense, but she took a painting class and transformed herself into an artist. Since then her work has been exhibited in London and Florence, and she sells paintings in galleries throughout Arizona, in Santa Fe, and, in the Curious Crow—along with the work of eight other artists—in her adopted hometown. She finds life in Socorro inspiring. “As a practicing Buddhist, I enjoy the quiet here,” she says. “It helps create space in your mind.”
With some 9,000 residents, Socorro is quite an evolved place. It has its own newspaper and brewpub, and a coffee house serving gelato and home-baked pastries. This sophistication caters to a broad variety of residents, including astrophysicists who work at the nearby National Radio Astronomy Observatory, geologists who teach at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech), explosives experts at the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, and, of course, longtime farmers and merchants.
Back on my walking tour, I continue east past more historic homes to the town’s most elegant landmark, the San Miguel Mission (1821), with its gracefully arched front façade and twin bell towers. I slip inside to find a pianist playing “Hallelujah.” While sitting on a pew, I listen as the melody resonates between the thick adobe walls. On the altar are intricately carved santos, and through stained-glass windows sunlight shines azure, gold, and scarlet, while the air smells of burning incense. Along with the music, my heart sings Hallelujah!
My next stop is the campus of the New Mexico Tech, which includes the Mineral Museum, a.k.a. “Coronado’s Treasure Chest”—a collection established in 1889 that comprises some 15,000 specimens, 2,000 of which are on display. Here I meet my first challenge. Years ago, I loved a geology graduate student at this school, and as I look at all the stones, I’m reminded of his passion for them. I make my way though the glitter and shine of minerals and gems, including icy-blue smithsonite (just the color of his eyes!). Though I try to stay in the moment, memories of those long-ago days creep in. Socorro! Help!
I head for the fossils, where I encounter, pressed into sandstone, an ominous armored herring from 55 million years ago. Most stunning, though, is a 49-million-year-old stingray, its fossilized shape so vivid the creature could still be swimming. These relics remind me of the vastness of creation, and how minor are my little heartaches. I realize that my memories are little else than that, really.
As the sun sets, I make my way south to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Always, when I’m in this region in winter, I try to make time to see the dawn fly-out, when the birds leave the lakes en masse for a day of feeding in the surrounding grain fields, or the sunset fly-in, when they return to the water to sleep. Though the Bosque is home to some 377 bird species, the real draw of this refuge, which covers more than 57,000 acres, are their sheer numbers. In winter, the Bosque may harbor 45,000 snow geese, 57,000 ducks of many species, and 18,000 sandhill cranes.
I arrive as the sun burns red on the horizon. As the birds descend, I remember the last time I was here, with my friend Deb, who was a ranger at the refuge. Again my attention strays, as I feel the loss of her death a few years ago. I shake away the sadness and look up. The birds’ great wings flap and their cries vibrate the air around me, while they circle down in a dance as perfectly choreographed as my own life—whenever I come into the now fully enough to appreciate it.
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