Pie Town, NM

[teofilo]

Pie Town is a fascinating place. It's basically an obscure, isolated quasi-ghost town with an economy based on pie. The Pie-O-Neer was closed when I went through, but the Daily Pie Cafe was open and I had some pie there. It was pretty good.

[Linda_D]

Thanks again for the pix, Teofilo. They really convey a sense of the place.

Southwestern NYS and northwestern PA have a lot of dying little towns like this, but we don't call them "ghost towns". Mostly, all the businesses die and the buildings eventually are taken down, leaving a handful of houses at a crossroads. Depending upon when the town started its decline, it may not even be recognizable as a town. Two that are within about 5 miles of where I grew up are Wesley and Persia. Wesley still has its Methodist Church and a cemetery, but probably only about 6 or 7 houses dating from when it was a business center, although there are a couple of newer ones in the area. Persia seems to have been long past its prime well before WW II, maybe even WW I. All that remains of "downtown" Persia is the railroad crossing and three farm houses sort of clustered near a sharp bend in the road.

[otterpop]

MMMM. Pie.

Montana's "pie town" is Bear Creek. On the road between Red Lodge and Cody, WY. The banana cream pie is the specialty and well worth the stop.

Nice pictures. It is sad how these little dying towns in the West all seem to look alike.

[Dan]

Isn't Pie Town in Catron County, which historically there's a large collective anti-government mindset?

Got any photos of Reserve?

[wahday]

Teofilo - you're giving me itchy feet. I need some pie and I need to get out of town. Something is telling me this is the place...

Yes Dan, Pie Town is in the vast, open space that is Catron County (least populated in the state). Your New Mexico memories have the quality of a steel trap. I have visited PT a few times and also got the impression of a less than enthusiastic support for the government as evidenced by handmade signage to that effect (mostly along the lines of telling the powers that be to leave their property alone).

My experiences in Reserve (Catron's County seat) revolve mainly around hunting. I'm not a hunter, but I think everyone in that town is. You see racks (as in antlers), hunting shops, ads for hunting cabins, etc. everywhere. There are a lot of other things to do there as well, but I think their tourism money is largely from shootin and killin deer. Its a beautiful area - right on the edge of the Gila Wilderness. And now I want to go down there and camp...

Some time ago I also found these really remarkable historic pics of Pie Town. Some great stuff that would be a great source for comparison to Teofilo's present-day pics- check it out: http://www.shorpy.com/image/tid/15

[teofilo]

Those pictures seem to be among the ones taken by the WPA. They're fairly well-known, from what I hear, but I've never actually seen any of them before.

I've never been to Reserve. I really need to get down to the southern part of the state more.

[wahday]

Originally posted by teofilo

Those pictures seem to be among the ones taken by the WPA. They're fairly well-known, from what I hear, but I've never actually seen any of them before.

These are WPA photographs by Russell Lee. I had seen a few, but this is the first of any color images I have seen. I think they are remarkable photographs. And the color ones look like they could have been taken today (both because they seem timeless and because places like Pie Town change so slowly). I also like the images of the dugout homes some of the folks were living in. Hardscrabble life for sure. Somewhere out there is a memoir that a woman wrote who grew up in PT that also has some great historic photographs. They made an exhibit out of it at the Albuquerque Museum a few years back.

As far as Reserve is concerned, its a great drive to head west on 60 to Datil (across the San Augustin Plains from Magdalena, past the Very Large Array), then along 180 to Reserve. Keep heading south through Glenwood, by Mogollon (and a great hike called the Catwalk) and through Silver City, Pinos Altos, etc. If you head east then back toward I-25 through the Black Range you go through the very cool little towns of Kingston and Hillsboro. In one day from Albuquerque, this is easily 6-8 hours including stopping. Even better is to stay in or near Silver City (I love that town) and then come back the next day (about 4 hours from SC to Albuquerque).

Maybe you have done all of that before. But if not, its worth a weekend of exploration. The southwestern quadrant of New Mexico is definitely my favorite.

[teofilo]

Originally posted by wahday

These are WPA photographs by Russell Lee. I had seen a few, but this is the first of any color images I have seen. I think they are remarkable photographs. And the color ones look like they could have been taken today (both because they seem timeless and because places like Pie Town change so slowly). I also like the images of the dugout homes some of the folks were living in. Hardscrabble life for sure. Somewhere out there is a memoir that a woman wrote who grew up in PT that also has some great historic photographs. They made an exhibit out of it at the Albuquerque Museum a few years back.

Yeah, the dugout houses are the part I remember most from what my mom told me about them. The mother of one of her coworkers grew up in Pie Town. My understanding is that most of the people there at that time were Dust Bowl refugees.

As far as Reserve is concerned, its a great drive to head west on 60 to Datil (across the San Augustin Plains from Magdalena, past the Very Large Array), then along 180 to Reserve. Keep heading south through Glenwood, by Mogollon (and a great hike called the Catwalk) and through Silver City, Pinos Altos, etc. If you head east then back toward I-25 through the Black Range you go through the very cool little towns of Kingston and Hillsboro. In one day from Albuquerque, this is easily 6-8 hours including stopping. Even better is to stay in or near Silver City (I love that town) and then come back the next day (about 4 hours from SC to Albuquerque).

Maybe you have done all of that before. But if not, its worth a weekend of exploration. The southwestern quadrant of New Mexico is definitely my favorite.

I have, in fact, not done any of that before, with the exception of the drive west on 60 from Socorro into Arizona, which was when I took these pictures. I really should get down there sometime on my days off. Maybe hit the Gila Cliff Dwellings too.

[RichmondJake]

Point of clarification, teofilo because I'm a little slow: Did you take any of these pictures? And what about the other recent threads; did you take any of those? I'm confused.

[teofilo]

I took all of the pictures I have ever posted on Cyburbia. I probably should have been clearer about that.