Basic Info
"Taos casts a lingering spell. Set on a rolling mesa at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it's a place of piercing light and spectacular views, where the desert palette changes almost hourly as the sun moves across the sky. Adobe buildings—some of them centuries old—lie nestled amid pine trees and scrub, some in the shadow of majestic Taos Mountain. The smell of piñon wood smoke rises from the valley in winter; in spring and summer, it gives way to fragrant sage.
The magic of the area has drawn people here for hundreds of years. The earliest inhabitants were Native Americans of the Taos-Tiwa tribe; their descendants still live and maintain a traditional way of life at Taos Pueblo, a 95,000-acre reserve 3 mi north of what is now the town's commercial center. Spanish settlers, who arrived in the 1500s, brought both farming and Catholicism to the area; their influence can still be seen today at Ranchos de Taos, 4 mi south of town, and at the San Francisco de Asís Church, whose massive adobe walls and camposanto (graveyard) are among the most photographed in the country.
In the early 20th century, another population—artists—discovered Taos and began making the pilgrimage here to write, paint, and take photographs. The early adopters of this movement were painters Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein, who were traveling from Denver on a planned painting trip into Mexico in 1898 when they stopped to have a broken wagon wheel repaired in Taos. Enthralled with the earthy beauty of the region, they abandoned their plan to journey farther south, settled, and eventually formed the Taos Society of Artists in 1915. Over the following years, many illustrious artists, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence also took up residence in the area, and it is still a mecca for creative types today. The downtown area is now filled with galleries and shops that display the work of local artists, and museums that document Taos's artistic history.
These days, Taos has a variable population of about 6,500 (the 2000 U.S. Census officially places it at 4,700, but there's always an influx during the summer and the winter ski season, and these numbers don't include Arroyo Seco, Taos Ski Valley, and other neighboring villages). Many come here for a break from the urban sprawl of larger U.S. cities; actress Julia Roberts is among the escapees."
- www.fodors.com
"Hundreds of years of rich cultural interaction among Spanish explorers, Native Americans and American immigrants have created a diverse climate of understanding among Taosenos. The pace is slow, the air is clean, the water clear, all contributing to a trusting small-town feeling of hospitality. Taos offers newcomer and visitor a warm and friendly community.
Those wide open spaces - Taos County is comprised of several small communities that are spread out over approximately 50 square miles. The density here is only 9.8 persons per square mile, much less than the national average. The sky is clear and stars shine brightly at night. Air quality is excellent and there is almost no pollution."
- www.newmexico.org
