Exploring the Vicinity Small Communities

Wednesday, 22 July 2015
Deer Crossing RV Park — San Patricio, New Mexico
Temps: Hi 88F (31C) / Lo 61F (16C)

If there is one thing we can count on here, it’s afternoon rain … sometimes falling gently; more often as downpours accompanied by boomers and lightning.  Either way, combine the wet stuff with quickly rising temps that feel hotter than what the thermometer is showing and you have conditions that don’t invite me to be out and about!

House Sparrow

I can deal with rain, but I’m a wimp when it comes to hot temps.  With that in mind, we decided to do just a ½-day outing today and check out some of the places our Google search uncovered in the immediate area.  Oddly, none of these sites were mentioned by the Visitor Center.  But that’s a good thing as it means fewer people exploring those places.  I like having such sites to myself ;-)

When we set out today, the goal was to find a church in San Patricio that I had seen in photographs.  When this small farming and ranching community first grew, it was named Ruidoso for the river on which it is situated.  I’ll tell you why the name was changed further into the blog, but this thing with the name tickled my funny bone for some reason.  You see today’s Ruidoso was also named something else when it was first founded.  Roulette with names, you could say!

From what I have read since, this church may have replaced the church I was looking for.

Anyway, Mui thought he knew where to find the church I was wanting to check out … “It’s right next to the post office,” he said as we drove off.  Turns out it wasn’t.  But it was a nice find, and another place that I had seen a photograph of — the St Jude Mission Catholic Church.  I love mission-style churches — I think it’s the simple lines inside and out that attract me.  The doors were locked so I didn’t get to go inside this time, but perhaps I will have a chance to take a peek before we leave.

Not the church we set out to find, but …

… the St Jude Mission is a lovely find nonetheless.

Officially … the St Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church — the date on the plaque reads 1967.

Detail from the grotto and the prayer garden on the grounds.

Our next stop was at a gallery.  Yup — a gallery.  I know, it’s not something we do often as I feel that if we are not going to buy, we shouldn’t take up anyone’s time browsing what’s on the walls.  But I had read that the Hurd La Rinconada Gallery is associated with five artists, two of whom even the not-artsy I had heard of — NC and Andrew Wyeth.  The gallery is in a newer building on the Hurd-Wyeth family ranch here in San Patricio.  Other buildings on the property, including Wyeth House, are rented out as guest cottages — sounds like a perfect retreat for art lovers.

Love the ivy-covered wing of the building housing the gallery.

The young lady who greeted us at the door briefly talked to us about the family — Peter Hurd, his wife Henriette, and their son Michael.  The Wyeth connection comes from Henriette — daughter of NC.  The gallery features their art as well as a selection of works by NC and Andrew Wyeth.  (There’s more about each artist in the website link above.)

this is a gallery and not a museum, so I limit my shutter clicks.

If I got it right, the “baboon’s ass blue” pigment was created by Peter Hurd (center).

Peter Hurd studied at the New Mexico Military Institute as well as West Point.  He didn’t graduate from the latter, leaving to study under NC Wyeth instead.  In 1942, after WWII began, he looked for ways to use his military training in the war effort.  The opportunity to do so found him when he was contacted by the editor of Life Magazine.  The offer was for him to serve as an illustrative art correspondent to paint and sketch the Army Air Force in action — $2,000 + expenses and publication in Life.

Sketches from Peter Hurd’s time as an illustrative war correspondent during WWII.

From a small sign I read at the gallery, I gathered that Peter’s parents weren’t too keen for him to be an artist.  While he was at West Point, he set out to convince them in an interesting way — he decorated correspondence he sent them from school with fanciful characters of his own creation.  Several of the envelopes that contained such correspondence are on display in a corner of the gallery.  Can you guess why I picked the one I did to photograph and post here?

Can you find the “HH” initials with which Peter Hurd signed his work?
The envelope hints at where he grew up and where his family continued
to live while he was off getting an education on the east coast.

Leaving the gallery behind, we continued down Hwy 70 to Hondo.  The community was founded by Spanish settlers who came here from the Rio Grande Valley in the 1880s.  Located where the Bonito and Ruidoso rivers come together to form Rio Hondo, the village was initially named La Junta [junction].  The name was later changed to Hondo [deep] in reference to the river itself.

We stop here thinking it’s the church I’m looking to photograph.  No signage
anywhere, but based on the road name, I’m going with it being the Old Schoolhouse.

What took us in the direction of Hondo was a drive the owner of our RV park mentioned.  Hopefully one leading to a scenic walk/hike.  As it was so hot by this time, we decided to put off the drive and try our luck early, early one morning.  All was not lost, however, as across the road from the old schoolhouse we found the Hondo Iris Farm & Gallery.  The place is primarily a nursery, but there is a gift shop/gallery attached.  The farm hosts an iris festival in May; I imagine the grounds are a riot of gorgeous color then.  There weren’t many iris blooms today, but there were enough other flowers to keep my shutter clicking for a while.

Visitors are welcome to wander on the grass between the flower beds.
There’s more color today than is apparent in the photo, but I bet it is a riot of color in full bloom.

Our drive next took us back in the direction of the RV park.  Along the way, we spotted a green steeple — ahha! … the San Patricio Church, which we’d been seeking since leaving the campground.  Turning off Hwy 70, we drove down a narrow, overgrown path more suitable to an oxen cart than a car … did OK though.

The San Patricio Church was constructed in 1884.

Remember how I mentioned that San Patricio had undergone a name change from Ruidoso?  Well that was due to the building of a church dedicated to St Patrick.  Is that this church?  I’m not sure as what little information I found said that church was built around 1875; the date on the back of the cross at this church said 1884.  In any event, this is the oldest church in the Hondo Valley that is still standing.

The stained glass panel in the altar was tacked on to the frame of the window.
It doesn’t match the shape of the current window … not sure if it was rescued during
restoration of the church, or if it is a new donation that will be fitted to the window when
funds are available.  In any event, there was a matching panel on the opposite wall as well.

Information about this church is hard to find.  One reference photo shows a rather dilapidated church in 1992, so there’s been some restoration work done since then.  However, that the place is not in as great a shape as it might have been once is apparent in the cemetery on the grounds.  The grass was ankle- to waist-high in places.  I didn’t venture in for a walk amongst the headstones, satisfying myself with a few photos of those grave sites that weren’t overgrown.

The last stop of our outing was at St Anne’s Chapel — originally the Church of the Transfiguration.  This is the chapel I stopped to photograph in Glencoe on Sunday.  At the time, I had turned down the offer to go inside because the congregants were still milling about even though the service was over.

The chapel, which was consecrated in 1934, was built after Reverend Howden, who became a missionary to Lincoln Country in 1929, recognized the need for a permanent church.  At the time, services were being conducted in the schoolhouse.  So, he designated the offerings on one Sunday each month to create a building fund.  (More about the history of the church is in the link above.)

The chapel is constructed of native stone.

I’ll wrap up this post and our outing with a cartoon that was taped to the back of the chapel door.  It’s not an especially funny cartoon, but considering where I found it, I had to chuckle when I read the caption.

Irreverent humor ;-)
made funny by virtue of it being taped to the door of the chapel.

We were just seconds ahead of the drenching rain that started to fall just as we were unlocking the Phaeton’s door.  Good timing ;-)

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