July 3, 2017 Road trip to Cimarron.  Best Birthday gift ever.  Lunch- Picnic at Philmont   Dinner – El Meze

We got up early and ate yogurt and blueberries.  Suzette packed the picnic basket she had bought at Costco with the PPI chicken Salad, marinated asparagus, the boiled artichokes with their dill and lemon dipping sauce, a bag of bing cherries, and the half lbaguette that Barry had baked last night.

We started driving at around 8:00 a.m. through Taos Canon,  past Angel Fire to Eagles Nest, where we turned onto U. S. Hwy. 64 and headed over the pass into Cimarron Canyon and into Cimarron, retracing the historic route of the Taos cut off of the Santa Fe Trail.  At Cimarron we turned south onto Route 21, which parallels or is built on top of the Cimarron cut off of the Santa Fe Trail.  Within blocks we came to the refurbished Express Hotel St. James that was built in 1872, which must have seemed like a palace in the wilderness in its day.  Cimarron was a wide open town with all the usual vices in the heyday of Trail driving, and mining, and trade in this area.  For example the large Antique Store we stopped at after lunch was built w as a gaming hall.  The St. James had roulette wheels in its spacious wood paneled bar.  So gambling was part of everyday existence in those times.

We then drove south to Philmont Scout Ranch and picked up our tickets for the tour of the Phillips Mansion at 10:00, since our tour did not begin until 11:00 we drove south the ten miles and visited Kit Carson’s Ranch house and Lucien Maxwell’s Ranch, which lie about 200 yards from each other.  The Kit Carson house looked a lot like the Martinez House, a plaza surrounded by adobe rooms.  This form of design was defensive in nature, a big strong gate at the entrance and low openings between rooms to better ambush an intruder.

The house had large rooms and a really long sala suitable for large celebrations befitting a hero of the time.



We then walked to Lucien Maxwell’s house, which was more elegant, wood clad edifice constructed in the Territorial style in 1860.  Maxwell’s stepfather had acquired the Maxwell land grant from the Mexican government in 1841.  Lucien Maxwell constructed his ranch house located on the Old Santa Fe Trail in 1860, after having acquired the largest land grant in history, a 1,714,765-acre plot of ground in New Mexico and Colorado.

It was in disrepair, but still radiated it historic glory, sitting on a bluff near Rayado Creek overlooking miles of grasslands stretching east onto the Great Plains.

We then drove back to the Phillips Mansion and waited in the gazebo where the dedication plaque is located.  The Phillips rank among the greatest American Philanthropists of the 20th century.  They gave ½ of their wealth to charity and that was a lot when you are talking about empires such as Phillips Petroleum and Phillips 66.  Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve built the mansion in 1926.  It is a Mediterranean style villa with sitting rooms on both levels, a large living room, a trophy room where hunting and fishing gear was kept, a sort of man cave in the basement level decorated in a traditional New Mexican style and modern plumbing, they named Villa Philmonte.



Our guide was a young lady who gave us a short summary of the history of Philmont.  Here is the official history:

Once inhabited by Jicarilla Apache and Moache Ute Indians, Philmont Scout Ranch was later the site of one of the first pioneer settlements in northeastern New Mexico. The present Ranch is part of the original Beaubien and Miranda Land Grant that the Mexican government granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda in 1841. Beaubien's son-in-law, a mountain man named Lucien Maxwell, led the first settlers to the grant in 1848. With the help of his friend Kit Carson, Maxwell's settlement on the Rayado River prospered despite frequent Indian raids and harsh wilderness conditions.

Maxwell moved his ranch north to the Cimarron River in 1857, the site of present-day Cimarron. There it became a famous stop on the Santa Fe Trail, bringing U.S. trade goods into New Mexico. Ten years after Maxwell moved to Cimarron, gold was discovered on his ranch near Baldy Mountain. For years afterward, the mountains and streams of Maxwell's Ranch swarmed with prospectors and miners.

In 1870, Maxwell sold his ranch to an English land company known as the Maxwell Land Grant and Railroad Company. After several years the land was again sold to a Dutch-based company that tried several development schemes, but eventually it sold the land in tracts for farms and ranches.

One of those interested in the New Mexico tracts was an Oklahoma oilman, Waite Phillips, who had become interested in developing a ranch out of the old land grant in 1922. He eventually amassed more than 300,000 acres of mountains and plains in a ranch he named Philmont (derived from his name and the Spanish word for mountain, "monte").

The Philmont Ranch became a showplace. Immense herds of Hereford cows and Corriedale sheep grazed its pastures. Phillips built a large Spanish Mediterranean home for his family at the headquarters and named it the Villa Philmonte. He developed horse and hiking trails throughout the scenic backcountry, along with elaborate fishing and hunting cabins for his family and friends.

Waite Phillips believed in sharing his wealth with people outside his family. In this spirit, he offered 35,857 acres of his ranch to the Boy Scouts of America in 1938 to serve as a national wilderness camping area. The area was named Philturn Rockymountain Scoutcamp (after Phillips' name and the Scout slogan "Do a Good Turn Daily"). Fees for the first summer were set at $1 per week per camper, and 189 Scouts from Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma arrived for the first experience at a national backcountry Scout camp.

After observing the enthusiastic response of the first Scout campers, Phillips augmented his original gift in 1941 with an addition that included his best camping land, the Villa Philmonte and the headquarters of the farming and ranching operation. The second gift was made so that "many, rather than few" could enjoy his rich and beautiful land. Phillips was quoted in the Tulsa Daily World saying: "That ranch represents an ideal of my youth ... and has meant a lot to my son and his pals. Now I want to make it available to other boys. ... I'd be selfish to hold it for my individual use." The property, now totaling 127,395 acres, was renamed Philmont Scout Ranch.

Phillips realized that the cost for maintaining and developing the property could not and should not be derived entirely from camper fees. As an endowment he included in the gift his 23-story Philtower Building in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The first season of Philmont Scout Ranch in 1942 welcomed only 275 Scouts, and attendance remained low during the war years. However, in 1946, Scouts from all 12 regions of the country attended Philmont Scout Ranch. Programs and backcountry camps were continually being developed and, in 1949, workers began rebuilding Kit Carson's adobe home at Rayado - a project that Phillips had urged the Boy Scouts of America to undertake.

By 1950, Scouts were attending Philmont from almost every BSA Council; attendance was more than 1,700. However, in 1951, it jumped to more than 5,200 and passed 7,000 in 1954. During the 1950s, adult and family attendance increased, with the establishment of the Philmont Training Center.

In 1963, through the generosity of Norton Clapp, vice president of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, another piece of the Maxwell Land Grant was purchased and added to Philmont. This area was the Baldy Mountain mining region that consisted of 10,098 acres. Today, the ranch's total area is approximately 214 square miles!

Here is the dedication plaque:


Before we entered the Villa we were made to remove our shoes, which turned out to be fun, because we could feel the pile of the hooked rug carpets and the fur of the bear and mountain lion pelts laid on the floor.  Suzette noted that she had never seen a stuffed head of a buffalo and today she was struck by the massive four foot high heads mounted on the walls at Philmont.  Philmont lies on the western edge of America’s Great Plain, which was the range of the buffalo.

I was most interested in the art.  I noted a familiar looking painting in the lining room and asked the guide, who said, “That is by Burt Phillips, who is no kin to the Phillips family.”  We then
 walked down the hall toward the New Mexico room and I saw another familiar painting on the wall of frontiersmen riding horses and asked about it.  Our guide said, “That is another Phillips.” I looked at the signature and saw it was H. Buck Dunton and told the guide rather condescendingly that it was a Dunton and that on a good day it would be worth $400,000.  As we reached the end of the hall as everyone was going into the New Mexico room I spied a small painting in the wall in deep shadows.  I asked Suzette to shine her light from her phone on the picture and when she did we discovered that if was one of the most equisite Berninghaus’ I have ever seen; a mass of colors of a frenetic Indian dance at what looks like Taos Pueblo in the background, a gem.

I was finally blown away in the trophy room when I saw a small Robert Looking Elk painting.  I could not contain myself and screamed, “I have one of his” and told the guide what I knew of Looking Elk.  She thanked me and said the info would add to her tour information.

After seeing the Trophy room we went to the garage and viewed three old restored cars.  After the tour we walked past the gated interior garden out into the park with its fountain and found a table in the shade.  Suzette fetched the picnic basket and we laid out our picnic lunch of chicken salad, I sliced the vine ripened tomato we bought at Smith’s into eights so we could douse pieces easily, asparagus marinated in creamy tarragon vinaigrette, two huge artichokes with the lemon/dill mayonnaise dipping sauce, and filled our glasses with chilled Crayon Rose’ from Languedoc.  We also nibbled sparingly bits of the delicious baguette Barry had baked last night.

I shall always be indebted to Barry for showing me how to make risotto.  It was a great birthday gift.

After  lunch we packed up and drove back to Cimarron.  Suzette was driving and said, “I want to stop at the Antique Store and turned the corner on which it was located and when she saw the sign for Aztec Mill drove the long block to the impressive three story stone clad building that is now a history museum, although it still contains the original wooden mill mechanism and the replacement steel mill works.  Its water source was an acequia.  When we walked upstairs we saw several Woody Crumbo paintings.  Crumbo was an excellent Indian painter who was born in Oklahoma, lived and painted in Cimarron, where he died in 1989.  Suzette was fascinated by the photos of Elizabethtown, N.M., which was a mining town with its own opera house, but is now a ghost town.  Here is a picture of it in its earlier glory.

After visiting the mill, we drove back to the Antique Store and when we we walked in Suzette looked down at the stuff below i level and I looked up at the pictures on the walls.  My eye was immediately drawn to a picture of mother hens and chicks and when I looked I saw it was signed Latham in what I recognized immediately as the printed signature of Barbara Latham.  It was a charming oil painting so I took it off the wall and noted that it was marked $50.00 with a strike through and below that was the price of $37.00.  I carried it over to the counter and as I lay it down on the counter the painting fell out of the frame.  I was so excited and flummoxed that the only thing I could utter was, “Do both the frame and painting come together for $37.00?” When the lady said, “Yes.”  I replied, “I will take it.”  Suzette walked up and suggested that we leave it on the counter and look around to see if there were any other items we may want and I reply, “This is all I want and I shall pay for it now so I can put it in the car.”  The total credit charge came to $39.88.  If it was the real deal it would be my Best Buy of art in my 30 years of semi-serious collecting.  We went across the street and looked around some more but did not see anything else that interested us.  How could we?  Suzette drove us over to downtown Cimarron looking for a cow skull for Barry and we stopped at what was probably once a drugstore with a long soda fountain.  Suzette ordered a root beer float and we drove through the rest of the long Main Street without seeing any skulls, so she turned onto US 64 and headed back up Cimarron Canyon, over the pass back into Moreno Valley and Eagles Nest, where she turned south and headed south to Taos Canyon back to Taos.  I dozed for about thirty minutes, but awoke by the time we arrived in Eagles Nest, which is built next to a lake that was created by damming the Cimarron Creek at the outflow from Moreno Valley.

As we drove back to Taos we decided to stop at Mission Gallery to see Rena Rosenqvist and ask her to authenticate he Latham.  We took the painting into the gallery and knocked on the door to her house at the back of the gallery and placed the Latham on a chair facing her desk.  When Rena came out she was her charming bubbly self, but we could tell she was suffering from the bone spurs in her neck because she hardly turned her neck and when people entered or left the gallery she simply raised her hand to greet them or wave goodbye without turning her head to greet them with her eyes.

She immediately identified the painting and when I showed her the label she identified it and told us the A Gallery was Latham’s gallery in the 60s and 70s and then told us the histories of A gallery that used to be across the street from Mission Gallery and how Howard Cook and Barbara Latham met and fell in love and about their respective careers.  Rena said three things that confirmed for me that this was a real Latham.  She first said in jest while trying to sound like the serious gallery owner that she is, “I will pay you double what you paid for it.” Then later after she examined the original A Gallery label, she said, “you need to keep this label with the piece.”   Finally, as we were leaving, she said, “I think you could add two zeroes to what you paid.”

So Rena authenticated the piece as a Latham worth $3,700.  I think of my luck in knowing that the piece was a real Latham and finding it for $37.00 in the Antique Store in Cimarron as the best gift I could have been given on for my birthday, and to top it off it was a complete surprise birthday gift.  Voila.  I can not wait to tell this story to the Antiques Roadshow folks, if I ever get the chance again.

After our visit with Rena, we drove back to the apartment at 4:00 and rested and showered and dressed and talked to Willy who was driving up to Taos to join us for the 4th.  At 6:15 we walked to the newly opened Taos Mesa Brewery Tap Room at 201 Paseo del Pueblo Sur and met David from Denver.  David is the lawyer my client selected for legal representation in A lawsuit filed against it in Colorado.  As we discussed the case, I discovered that he owned a house on Ledoux Street in Taos.

We ordered our drinks at the bar and found a booth beside the open kitchen.  I ordered a cherry/apple cider, and David and Suzette ordered beers from the 30 or so selections on the blackboard. In another few minutes Willy joined us and ordered an iced tea.  I saw a lovely large salad and a Willy saw a spicy warm olive dish so we ordered those.

After a hour of discussion mostly about art, David graciously paid our bill and walked home after saying goodbye.    

We talked about where to go eat and finally decided on El Meze, so we got in the Prius and Willy drove us out to El Prado to El Meze, which was busy but not full.  There were even several tables on the covered patio facing the Taos Pueblo’s sacred mountain.  Here is a photo of the mountain view and after we were seated, of the patio area.

We felt good about being able to be back on our diet at a really good restaurant.  El Meze was a runner up for the James Beard Award in 2014, so it is a really great restaurant.  The reason why I like it and say it it deserves recognition is because it places as much emphasis on it vegetables as it does it meat ingredients.  This meal was a good confirmation of this statement.   Suzette and I instantly agree on what to order and Willy decided to order one of our selections, the Trout served with a salad of fresh arugula, watercress and shaved fennel for $22.00.
The other dish Suzette identified was Posole cooked with pork with a salad of thinly sliced radish.  We all agreed on an appetizer of Jamon Serrano, sliced Manchego, and slices of fresh nectarine, very European and elegantly simple.

Here are photos of the food and restaurant.  The filleted Trout was a little spicy with a fresh cilantro stuffing but very tender and the skin was crisped.  The salad served with it was even more impressive; exquisitely fresh arugula, watercress, and thinly shaved slices of the white tender base of fennel stalks with light splash of olive oil.

The appetizer was just as impressive combining thin slices of Serrano ham and Manchego cheese with wedges of nectarine with just a few drops of olive oil.

The posole with also impressive in its vegetable accompaniment.  Awell balanced red Chile and pork broth with large chunks of roasted porknd a sprinkling of posole.  It seemed to Suzette that these three ingredients were cooked separately so they would retain their individual integrity.  The vegetable accompaniment was thinly sliced red radishes and green cabbage and pickled red onion.

I blurted out to our waitress that this was my birthday, so she said that I had my pick of desserts on the house.  I chose Creme brûlée and Willy and I chose to drink cups of Earl Grey tea which were served in small tea pots.

We considered it a very successful meal.  Willy said he did not really appreciate the landscape and environment of Taos when he was younger.

I was thrilled that Willy had driven up to join us on my birthday and we were able to enjoy a good meal together.

After dinner we debated whether to go to the Adobe Bar at Taos Inn, but decided against it because it was 10:00 p.m. and had been a wonderful day.

Bon Appetit