Santa Fe
“The City Different” By Kris Grant I guess I first heard about Santa Fe, New Mexico when I was in the fourth grade, and studied the Westward Movement including the Santa Fe Trail. In my textbook I beheld the town of Santa Fe, marked with a star on the map, and fantasized about this “last outpost city,” the western terminus of a trade route that connected Santa Fe with Franklin, Missouri to the east. By the spring of 1849, covered wagons, loaded with prospectors and families heading west to California to make their fortunes, came to the Santa Fe fork in the road. There they had to choose which wagon train journey they’d join, either the longer southern route that was straight and smooth, but where you could die of thirst, or the more direct route over the Rocky Mountains, although an early winter or unexpected delay could cause them, and their horses, to freeze to death. Oh, the courage it must have taken to leave Santa Fe! The history of this city at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains goes back hundreds of years and brings together Native and Spanish cultures, which continue to thrive in its amazing food, arts and culture. Santa Fe is indeed different, refreshingly different! I’ve now visited Santa Fe four times, most recently last November when I attended the annual conference of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association. But it still wasn’t enough time in this fascinating city. I haven’t yet gone to the famed Santa Fe Opera; I haven’t visited in December,
The Cathedral Basilica
when twinkling luminarias outline the rooftops of old adobes. I haven’t yet been
of Saint Francis of Assisi
to its Botanical Gardens or to Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio in nearby
has stood guard over
Abiquiu.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The beauty of Santa Fe – where deserts, sandstone cliffs and mountains converge – is one reason so many creative types – artists, chefs, winemakers, musicians, architects and gardeners among them – have been drawn to this “City Different.”
since it was built in the years 1869-1896, and was built on the site of an older adobe church built in 1626.
P22 | Coronado Magazine
