Sidetracked Charley

  A wonderful gray day that was hideously cold with a biting wind. Fortunately I have mastered the art of taking photographs out of the window of the car. You can even use the window up and down as a tripod of sorts. So after heading north toward Eagle Nest to procure the fresh farm raised eggs from the new chicks, I turned Spock south to the land of the lonesome Dove. I have a series of four pull off's from Hwy 434 which give me a good view of what movie makers thought looked like Montana for the Lonesome Dove. To me they look like the New Mexico where I grew up. The mountain range is the Sangre de Cristos which lie in the far north of the state between Taos and Angel Fire. Wheeler Peak is the tallest but it depends where you are standing as to which looks the tallest. Old Mike usually is mistaken for Wheeler. Today the clouds kept changing the light. I was surprised to find the cattle in the valley of Black Lake. These must have wintered in. Truck loads of cattle generally arrive...

I drove down through what used to be the township of Black Lake yesterday. Yes, Martha, there is a Black Lake. And there used to be a town. It was a thriving community of ranchers in the late 1800's and early 1900's. This area had been homesteaded in that time by primarily the Trujillo family. Per the 1861 homestead act you could get deeded to you 160 acres if you worked the land for 10 years and made improvements. The menfolk of the Trujillo extended family did and then joined them together into a very large ranch. In the town of Black Lake - or what remains of it is an old school that is used for little art fairs, the UU Bar Ranch - which was used for filming all the Montana scenes for Lonesome Dove, Poorboy's bar and dance hall - now closed because of the death of the owner, and various adobe and log buildings that have been melting into the landscape. Us locals that live in "Black Lake" as opposed to Angel Fire have various inside jokes as to where we live he...