THE ART OF ENJOYING TAOS

THE ART OF ENJOYING TAOS Story and photography by Margaret & Eric Anderson
	You can learn a lot of local history by talking to passersby or locals lounging around the Plaza square. Many of the hotels have brochures or fliers that give their history. It's easy to stay oriented by the sun or by the location of museums and the cemetery beside the park. There Donald King stands contemplating Kit Carson's grave. Asked what he likes about his home town Taos, he replies, "The history, the views, the mountains, the weather, the sky, the sun. Would I leave this place? Only if I had a gun at my back!"

Peter Mackaness, (505-776-1831) wearing his traditional red beret, guides a group around town demonstrating those views and recalling the town's 3000 years of history. He points out that there are 50 historical buildings in a three-block radius around the Plaza square. He stops beside a house that has an old millstone at its base for decoration. Originally used for grinding flour, those wheels sometimes ended up in the river stream as water wheels to make mula , a mixture of corn mash, tobacco, gunpowder and chili named Taos White Lightning, what Mackaness calls "the 180 proof social lubricant of the times." The product was popular locally from 1760 through Prohibition to the end of World War II

Mackaness always gets his group to gaze around. The art of Taos shows itself on every corner in a flash of color or an unusual shape. You see it on city walls, on display at the Civic Center and even on rest room doors. Many of the artists allow visitors into their studios. JD Challenger, thought to be the best painter of Native Americans in the United States, tends to paint from mid-afternoon on but his studio may be accessible to visitors during the morning. His work has been praised by many tribes as true representation of their lifestyles. It is easily found on the web and a Google search brings up more of his paintings.
	The museums in Taos can't compete with those in Santa Fe but many are very interesting as they portray what life was like over the last 400 years. The Kit Carson museum is worth a visit though we couldn't find much on display that actually belonged to him. A visit to the Taos Pueblo is on everyone's list but how much knowledge one brings back from a visit seems to depend on how cooperative the Pueblo Indians chose to be on that particular day. On the one hand they want to sell some of their artifacts but on the other hand they are most jealous of their privacy. The answer is for visitors to be respectful, follow their rules, pay the fee for using a camera and not photograph persons who do not wish to be photographed.