Art in the Desert

Creating art is often a function of place.  The right place inspires and fires the imagination and gets the creative juices flowing.  The high desert of the San Simon Valley is one of those places.  The open spaces surrounded by mountains with views that are constantly changing with the light and time of year constantly provide new inspiration and generate new ideas.  One of those ideas was about creating artwork relying solely on living plant material found on the landscape.  The idea arose when the yucca stems shown below were found on the landscape.  A number of curved and tapering yucca stems were found near a small grove of yucca one afternoon while checking fence lines.  The unusual shapes immediately attracted attention and several were collected and placed as fence stays at the entrance to the Painted Pony Resort.  Yucca stems are common in the old fence lines around the valley and are generally easy to find when making impromptu fence repairs so adding them to an existing fence seemed only natural.   Since placing the curved yucca stems in the fence line many guests have commented on them, each seeing something different in the funny fence stays.  So an idea was born - how to make more curving yucca stems for the fence? 

Each spring all the yucca plants put out a vertical stem which supports the yucca flowers and eventually the seed pods.  These stems grow rapidly and in several days they may be several feet in length.  Choosing a yucca over at the Rustic Cabin which had just started sending up a new flowering stem and with some bailing wire the rapidly growing stem was bent and tied.  Within 24 hours the stem had grown enough to require another bend and more wire was used to train the stem into another curve.  This was continued on a daily basis until several curves were produced.  At this point the stem quite growing and began to flower so the yucca was left alone.  After the seed pods open, the stem will die and dry providing another curvilinear stem for an unusual fence stay for the resort.  Now that the process of training yucca stems is understood, it will be possible to create a number of the pieces next year.

Curved and tapering yucca stem

Tapering and twisted yucca stem

Growing curved and tapered yucca stems for fence stays

Experimental Archaeology 101 or Building Old School

A hallmark of a Mimbres archeological site is masonry construction.  While other cultural groups built with adobe, the Mimbres built with stone that was covered in stucco.  Evidence of this stucco was recovered from the presumptive Mimbres hamlet discovered at the Painted Pony Resort and in an effort to understand the building techniques used a replica wall was built around the wellhead and pressure tank at the Rustic Cabin on the estate.

The first step in the process was to find a suitable source of rock for the walls.  This was located at the outflow of a large arroyo on the property and a number of trips were made collecting and transporting rock to the Rustic Cabin.  The next step involved making small (1/4-1/2") gravel for inclusion in stucco mix.  Surface material from a sandy arroyo provided the starting material and after sifting out the sand, the residual small rock was collected.  Although clay pits were located, commercially prepared stucco/mortar mix was chosen as the binding/filling agent because of its longevity as opposed to using local clay which would require constant maintenance.

The site chosen for the replica walls was the well head and pressure tank at the Rustic Cabin.  After running electricity to the site for pipe heating tape, a free standing rock wall was constructed from the rocks collected previously. After a first pass on building the wall it was noted a number of openings and spaces existed.  These spaces were filled with smaller rock before applying the stucco.  Stucco was made using the small gravel mixed with mortar mix (at a ratio of 2:1, mortar to rock) and then applied by hand to all exposed cracks between the rocks inside and out.  The results of replicating a Mimbres style rock wall indicate that building rooms was a slow laborious process and partially explains the location chosen for the hamlet, with access to building materials and clay found on the east side of the San Simon riverbed.  The amount of effort taken to build this small reproduction also suggests the quality of workmanship should vary from the Mimbres field houses and hamlets when compared with the larger classic period villages.  It is only hoped the reproduction wall will be around in 800 years like the hamlet.

Stucco from the hamlet.  Note the inclusion of small rocks creating a clay based concrete.

Well head and pressure tank site

Free standing wall around the well head and pressure tank

The free standing Mimbres style rock wall with locally produced rock stucco filling open spaces.

More from Apan New Mexico

While back out walking, looking for survey markers, a side trip was taken to further explore the site of Apan NM.  A turn of the century rail/water stop on the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad north of Rodeo NM, Apan was of no particular importance in the grand scheme of things just a place to pick up water, drop off the mail, and perhaps load some cattle.  But it does help place into context how people have used the landscape through time.  This trip revealed the foundations of 4 buildings just south of the water tank (all on the east side of the tracks about 10' x 15') as well as parts of battery jars.  Wet cell battery jars were prevalent before electrification and were used to power railroad signal lights, telegraphs, and telephones.  Although no evidence of a signal light remains, an insulated guy wire for a pole as well as a cross arm and broken glass insulators were found which is consistent with battery use for telegraph/telephone.

"Edison" ceramic battery jar lids and other electrical parts from Apan NM.

A broken Corning battery jar.

Apan New Mexico Cultural Resource Inventory VII

Along the former El Paso and Southwestern railroad, rail stops, water stops, and sidings were spaced about every 6 miles.  After the decommissioning of the railroad in 1961 many of the rail stops became ghost towns as local residents moved elsewhere.  One of these abandoned sidings was Apan, New Mexico.  A siding and waterstop, Apan was the home of  a Post Office from 1905 -1913.  Located between Rodeo and Pratt, Apan is one those places found in the literature but one no one seems to know about.  While out walking part of the Painted Pony Resort property Apan was rediscovered.  The presence of an underground water tank as well as another concrete footing on the other side of the rail bed combined with the presence of broken dishware and a remains of a telegraph/power pole indicate that the location was once Apan.  Located at 31 54.272 N, 108 58.867 W Apan was officially located at mile marker 1170.5 along the rail line.  One more piece of the puzzle for the cultural resource inventory.  A map of the towns and sidings of the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad may be found here.

The view east of the underground water tank at Apan

The view north to the underground water tank at Apan NM

The view facing west of Apan NM.