For centuries, Taos has been a place where people have come together and found a common ground, whether it was the native civilization of Taos Pueblo 1,000 years ago, the Taos Society of Artists in the early 20th century or the creative hippies who flocked to the destination in the 1960s. For a concentrated dose of everything New Mexico nowadays, Taos is a “meeting point” that’s hard to beat—arts and culture, history and heritage, the great outdoors and all the adventures that come with it.
“It’s like Santa Fe was 20 or 30 years ago, and it’s much more authentic; it still has the real flavor of the Southwest,” says Steve Fuhlendorf, CEO of the Taos County Chamber of Commerce. “As for the history and culture alone, we have the Taos Pueblo, which has been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years, while the town itself is over 400 years old. It has all of the Hispanic and Native American heritage, as well as the mountain men heritage of people like Kit Carson, who lived here.”
And while Taos retains so much of its old-time heritage, as seen in its historic plaza, adobe architecture and attractions like Taos Pueblo, its artists’ colony and modern gallery scene continue to thrive, in addition to its culinary options.
“We have some 1,000 artists living here, so it’s a very active artists’ community. You can go into a gallery here and be able to talk to the artist, so it’s very experiential,” he says. “And that certainly expands from the visual arts to the performing arts to the culinary arts. We’ve got world-class chefs here. At Joseph’s Table, the chef was recently named one of top 10 chefs in country by Gourmet magazine.”
For all its culture, the town’s counterculture is also one of its most compelling draws. This year, Taos is going all out to celebrate that heritage with its “Summer of Love 2009,” which will run from May to September, marking the 40th anniversary of Dennis Hopper’s film classic Easy Rider (partially shot in Taos) and the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.
“The hippie heritage was an amazing thing here,” Fuhlendorf says. “Dennis Hopper lived here on and off, and people like Jimi Hendrix and Timothy Leary came. Just as Mabel Dodge Luhan came in the 1920s and invited artists like D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe, Dennis Hopper came 40 years later, bought [Luhan’s] house and invited artists of the ’60s and ’70s to Taos.”
As part of the numerous events planned during the “Summer of Love 2009,” the Harwood Museum of Art will showcase two Hopper exhibits: Hopper Curates, featuring the work of several of Hopper’s friends; and Photography by Hopper, featuring silver gelatin prints by Hopper himself.
When groups coming to Taos aren’t gathering in places like the Taos Convention Center, El Monte Sagrado Living Resort or the many art galleries around town, Fuhlendorf says planners might consider building a themed tour into the itinerary surrounding the “Summer of Love 2009.”
“We can do everything from an Easy Rider tour that stops at places like the hot springs and the jail that were filming locations in the movie, to a tour of our Earthship Colony,” he says. “The gentleman who started it came here in the ’60s. Many are built into the side of mountains, they're built using things like old tires and cans, they use wind power and solar energy, and they’re not connected to water or electricity. They’re amazing homes.”
And that’s about as uniquely New Mexico as it gets.
