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Still home to one of the longest-established Native
American populations in the United States, though transformed
by becoming first a Spanish colonial outpost, and more recently
a hangout for bohemian artists and New Age dropouts, TAOS
(which rhymes with mouse ) has become famous out of all proportion
to its size. Just six thousand people live in its three component
parts: Taos itself, around the plaza; sprawling
Ranchos de Taos , three miles to the south; and
the Native American community of Taos Pueblo
, two miles north.
Beyond the usual highway sprawl, Taos is a delight
to visit. As well as museums, galleries and stores to match Santa
Fe, it still offers an unhurried pace and charm, and the sense
of a meeting place between Pueblo, Hispanic and American cultures.
Its reputation as an arts colony began at the
end of the nineteenth century, with the arrival of painter Joseph
Henry Sharp. He was soon joined by two young New Yorkers, Bert
Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein; legend has it that their
wagon lost a wheel outside Taos as they headed for Mexico in 1898,
and they liked it so much they never got round to leaving. The
three men formed the nucleus of the Taos Society of Artists
, established in 1915. Soon afterwards, society heiress and arts
patron Mabel Dodge arrived, and married an Indian from the Pueblo
to become Mabel Dodge Luhan. She in turn wrote a fan letter to
English novelist D.H. Lawrence , who visited
three times in the early 1920s; his widow Frieda made her home
in Taos after his death. New generations of artists and writers
have "discovered" Taos ever since, but the most famous
of all was Georgia O'Keeffe , who stayed for
a few years at the end of the 1920s. Her renditions of the church
at Ranchos de Taos in particular were a major influence on contemporary
Southwestern art.
