Datil, New Mexico

While my new "home" is off the beaten path, it is very rich in history and adventure!

Along U.S. 60 in the northern part of Catron County, the largest county in New Mexico, three towns interrupt the remote mountain landscape. Datil, Pie Town and Quemado are a day's horseback ride from each other. Pickups have replaced the horses, but ranching remains the main occupation in the area although real estate development is gaining a toehold.

With more elk than people, the emphasis is on outdoor recreation in northern Catron County. Hunting for elk, deer, bear and wild turkey is extremly popular during fall and winter. The temperature averages range from 32 degrees to 70 degrees over 350 sunny days a year. Monsoon showers hit hard in July but do not last long.

Thirty-six miles west of Magdalena, at the western edge of the San Agustin Plains, the Datil Mountains rise and pinon and juniper trees emerge from the bush and grass. At the intersection of U.S. 60 and S.R. 12 at an elevation of 7500 feet sits the town of Datil.

To the Spanish settlers the seedpods of the prevelant yucca resembled dates, and "datil" is the Spanish word for date. Levi and Fred Baldwin established the first Datil store and post office in 1884 to serve the cattle ranching families. One of the early settlers, Agnes Morley Cleaveland, described ranching in Datil in the 1880s in her well-known book, No Life for a Lady. A monument to her parents can be seen on U.S. 60 five miles west of Datil.

The hub of Datil is the Eagle Guest Ranch which dates from the 1920s when Agnes Morley Cleaveland's sister, Loraine, and her husband, Tom Reynolds, opened the small store. With a cafe, motel, general store, gas station, and RV park, the Eagle Guest Ranch today serves as a general meeting place for the 150 townsfolk and the surrounding community of ranchers.

The Datil Well Campground, south of town, commemorates the site of a cattle watering well on the historic stock driveway from Springerville to the railhead in Magdalena.

Originally called Norman's Place, Pie Town is located 22 miles west of Datil on the Continental Divide. The altitudes of 7,900 feet has proven healthy for the town's 55 inhabitants.

Pie Town earned its name in the 1920s when Clyde Norman, owner of the town's gas station and cafe, began selling pies to automobile travelers on U.S. 60. In 1934 the area around Pie Town was opened up to homesteaders. Using dry land farming, the homesteaders grew pinto beans until 1956 when the lack of snow and rain made this unprofitable.

The Pie Town Pie Festival, held on the second Saturday of September, brings over a thousand visitors to the all-day affair featuring a balloon ascension, pie-eating contest, horny toad race, Old Time Fiddle Contest, western pit barbeque, and pie baking contest. Pie Town boasts two cafes, both serving pie. For the overnight visitor, camping is free in Jackson Park.

Twenty-one miles further west on U.S. 60 at the lower altitude of 6970 feet lies Quemado, named for the Spanish word for "burned." When Jose Antonio Padilla settled by a creek east of the present town in 1880, he found that the surounding brush had been burned by the Indians, so he named it Rito Quemado.

With three cafes, three motels, two garages, general and hardware stores and the only high school in the northern part of the county, Quemado is a service center for the surrounding ranching community and the 250 inhabitants of the town. The cut stone small Catholic Church at the east end of town with its tiny graveyard is well worth a photograph, as is the tree made of deer antlers.

Quemado Lake, 14 miles south on SR 32 in the Apache National Forest, offers excellent trout fishing, camping and hiking.

Great Pie on the Great Divide

The Continental Divide (also known as The Great Divide) in the Americas is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Rain or snow that drains on the east side of the Continental Divide flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, while precipitation on the west side drains and flows toward the Pacific Ocean. The divide runs from northwestern Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. Then, it follows the crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental.

On my first trip to Pie Town, along the 2-lane ribbon of asphalt known as Highway 60, we drove by a sign that said "Continental Divide 6,355 Ft." It seemed rather uneventful. At first, I had wanted to get out and take a picture. But it was just an ordinary, green road sign without much of a view behind it. Then we got to the top of the Divide and I saw in the distance a small cluster of buildings, rundown and abandoned. A short distance ahead of that was a quaint downtown, nestled in the high hills, between juniper trees. And then I saw it: The Daily Pie Cafe-- our destination. "Great Pie on the Great Divide... it's all Downhill From Here" is their slogan.

Being from New York and having lived in LA, I'm no stranger to good food. Being a baker myself, I was a bit skeptical when I was told this was the best pie I would ever eat. I said, "I'll bet it won't be better than the Key Lime pie at Blond Giraffe’s in Key West!" I had one slice of blackberry.... now I'm willing to eat my words. And more pie, please!!

At this down home restaurant you can chat with locals, drink a bottomless cup of coffee for $5 (and then keep the souvenir mug), and order from the ever-changing menu board, otherwise known as "The World's Only True Pie Chart." Their cozy gift shop features T-shirts with aliens saying, "We came for the pie." Their mouth-watering array of heavenly slices are worth the drive from any star system. I'm still gathering the courage and the taste buds for their New Mexican apple pie, made with green chilies and pinon nuts!