The enchanted road - New Mexico geographic profile

Sunset, Oct, 1997 by Matthew Jaffe

Folk art, petroglyphs, and Pueblo ruins lie between Albuquerque and Las Cruces in New Mexico

Seeing New Mexico from the interstate is a .bit like reading the Cliff Notes for Lady Chatterley's Lover, the novel by onetime state resident D. H. Lawrence: you save time, cover a whole lot of ground, but end up with a nagging sense that maybe, just maybe, you missed the good parts.

Dedicated followers of backroads never harbor such doubts. Neither did I when, on a recent drive north from Las Cruces to Albuquerque, I eschewed tried-and-true Interstate 25 for a string of two-lane highways. Aside from its scenery, the route provides a range of historic sites that capture different aspects of New Mexico's soul.

The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site south of Carrizozo was my first stop and marks the drive's farthest retreat into the past. Some of the rock art here in the shadows of the San Andres Mountains dates back 1,000 years - the Jornada Mogollon people are thought to have created 21,000 petroglyphs in the area. I'm not counting, just scrambling around in the desert light, looking for those figures with the goggle-eyed faces that are typical of the Jornada Mogollon.

Goggle-eyed probably also describes the gold-hungry prospectors who came to White Oaks. Today this ghost town has just a few fixed-up old buildings housing souvenir shops and the like, but White Oaks is most compelling for its ruins and cemetery.

Bending down for a closer look, I read the spare, Cliff Notes - like information on one headstone and ponder: From his birth in Smytham Torrington, England, just what route, figuratively and literally, brought Mr. Osmund Bassett Scott to such a remote part of such a remote state 30 years later?

I'm no Lawrence, but I can safely guess that it wasn't an interstate.

North of White Oaks is a town where the railroad did stop, Mountainair. Once known as the pinto bean capital of the world, Mountainair is pretty quiet these days, but it's a veritable metropolis compared with White Oaks or the nearby trio of pueblo ruins, known collectively as the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. As at Three Rivers, the great attraction at Mountainair is art, specifically the folk art of rural hotelier Clem "Pop" Shaffer.

The fence Pop built in 1931 at the Rancho Bonito Hotel is especially enchanting. It's adorned with stone animal figures and faces that would no doubt have caused the petroglyphs' creators, like us, to wonder what it all means. Pop didn't leave a lot of clues. He once described the fence simply as "a very unusual piece of work."

As, apparently, was Pop.

The route

To reach the backroads from Las Cruces, take U.S. Highway 70 to Tularosa, then pick up U.S. 54 north. Twenty miles north of Carrizozo, turn west on State 55, and 24 miles north of Mountainair, turn north on State 337, which will take you to Interstate 40 about 15 miles east of Albuquerque.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. The site, south of Carrizozo and 5 miles east of U.S. 54, has picnic facilities and interpretive information. A short trail leads from the parking area to the petroglyphs.

White Oaks. An easy side trip off U.S. 54 a few miles north of Carrizozo, the ghost town can be reached via State 349. The cemetery is on the right as you drive into town.

Mountainair. The town is worth a stop for the Salinas Pueblo Missions Visitor Center and, of course, for a look at the works of Pop Shaffer. You can take a self-guided tour or stay at his hotel (a double with breakfast, $45); for reservations, call (800) 293-2888.

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. These three sets of pueblo ruins were last occupied in the 17th century. The Gran Quivira ruins are off State 55 about 25 miles south of Mountainair. The ruins at Abo are about 9 miles west of Mountainair just north of U.S. 60. And the church ruins at Quarai, the onetime seat of the Inquisition in New Mexico, are off State 55 a few miles north of town. For more information, contact the visitor center, (505) 847-2585.