I’m glad that you occasionally take a break from the horrors of our current politics and act on your spirit of adventure. We all need a break. And pie.
I live in New Mexico and always love hearing about it in any context. Your spirit of adventure and laissez faire is lovely. This state is FULL of wonders and no, they never cease. More of this please!
In 2007, when I was a teenager, I went on a 26 day road trip with my Boy Scout Troop from Ohio to New Mexico and then took the scenic route home. We were there to hike at Double H ranch, a sister camp to Philmont Scout Ranch. Double H has since closed, but it was near Datil and it was six days of hiking in the backcountry, along too many dried river beds full of sand (hard to hike through), with 50+ pounds of gear on our backs, and without any showers until the end. When we had finally finished our trek and started driving west toward AZ, we stopped in Pie Town and had their famous pies... so just imagine how surprised I was to see you writing about it today. I still have their punch card where if I buy eight more slices there, my 10th one is free. Guess I better head back soon. Thanks for the blast from the past, Hamilton. You do great work here.
“Right there, in parched west-central New Mexico, you have Pie Town, close by to another little town with a name that has something to do with me. What are the chances of that? Is that a coincidence? Is the universe sending me a message? What goes on out there?”
As someone who has recently been revisiting ‘The Crying of Lot 49’, I am all for this line of thinking.
Datil NM is named after the nearby Datil Mountains. The name of the mountains came in turn from the Spanish word dátil, meaning “date”; the name most likely resulted from the fruit-like appearance of the seedpods of local yucca species.[5]
My guess is that Floridian datil peppers also gained their name from a resemblance to dates.
RE: "Just as the hardscrabble dreamers used to wake beside their covered wagons and gather wood for a morning fire"
Okay. This may be a little pedantic, but the hardscrabble dreamers who used to wake beside their covered wagons collected dried buffalo chips for their morning fire, not wood.
I feel this way about the Corn Palace, although my feelings about said grain castle are also related to the fact that it belongs to the community and is one of the only physical remainders of the Grange Movement. In my mind this reads pretty close to socialism on a small scale, even if I'm not going to be pointing this out to the folks in Mitchell, SD.
With half my family in Alamogordo, I appreciate others finding their reasons to explore the Land of Enchantment. Pie Town is a great one. The stars over the southwestern parts of the state—some of the furthest flung land in the nation from any civilization—also can't recommend enough. The Lincoln Forest and a revitalized Cloudcroft, too. The social media era has plenty of negatives; one positive is the word of mouth that has rejuvenated some of these places so that they didn't join the ghost towns.
I LOVE this post so much. There’s always something amazing to find even in a place you’ve been to a hundred times. I love being a local tourist and getting to “better know your district” like that Colbert segment…but sometimes you just have to go somewhere for the pie. I once drove up to Quebec City (8 hour drive) because there’s a place that serves maple sugar pie with heavy cream poured over it and I had a craving for it.
I was excited to read your post! Because I can relate! I have been to Pie Town and the same cafe you went to, in 2022. It was after I went to the Lightning Field (Walter de Maria, 1975) with friends and had an otherworldly experience. And right before we wandered around the VLA — it was closed/deserted, and freezing out, but we did the self-guided tour before some employee came and told us to leave.
In the 90s while on a road trip I went to White Sands — another otherworldly place that will stick in my memory forever.
Side note: I'm getting involved in my government employees union. We are new and finding our way and fired up. I've shared your posts with some of them. Thank you — I appreciate you!
i like pie, new mexico, and committing to things just to find out what the deal is, so i appreciated this post a lot.
I’m glad that you occasionally take a break from the horrors of our current politics and act on your spirit of adventure. We all need a break. And pie.
I live in New Mexico and always love hearing about it in any context. Your spirit of adventure and laissez faire is lovely. This state is FULL of wonders and no, they never cease. More of this please!
In 2007, when I was a teenager, I went on a 26 day road trip with my Boy Scout Troop from Ohio to New Mexico and then took the scenic route home. We were there to hike at Double H ranch, a sister camp to Philmont Scout Ranch. Double H has since closed, but it was near Datil and it was six days of hiking in the backcountry, along too many dried river beds full of sand (hard to hike through), with 50+ pounds of gear on our backs, and without any showers until the end. When we had finally finished our trek and started driving west toward AZ, we stopped in Pie Town and had their famous pies... so just imagine how surprised I was to see you writing about it today. I still have their punch card where if I buy eight more slices there, my 10th one is free. Guess I better head back soon. Thanks for the blast from the past, Hamilton. You do great work here.
Hold onto that punch card.
Sometimes you just gotta go to Pie Town. Satisfy your curiosity and your hunger.
And that Blueberry Lemon Buttermilk pie sounds amazing.
“Right there, in parched west-central New Mexico, you have Pie Town, close by to another little town with a name that has something to do with me. What are the chances of that? Is that a coincidence? Is the universe sending me a message? What goes on out there?”
As someone who has recently been revisiting ‘The Crying of Lot 49’, I am all for this line of thinking.
Straight out of Wikipedia:
Datil NM is named after the nearby Datil Mountains. The name of the mountains came in turn from the Spanish word dátil, meaning “date”; the name most likely resulted from the fruit-like appearance of the seedpods of local yucca species.[5]
My guess is that Floridian datil peppers also gained their name from a resemblance to dates.
A nice break for you and for us readers!
RE: "Just as the hardscrabble dreamers used to wake beside their covered wagons and gather wood for a morning fire"
Okay. This may be a little pedantic, but the hardscrabble dreamers who used to wake beside their covered wagons collected dried buffalo chips for their morning fire, not wood.
I feel this way about the Corn Palace, although my feelings about said grain castle are also related to the fact that it belongs to the community and is one of the only physical remainders of the Grange Movement. In my mind this reads pretty close to socialism on a small scale, even if I'm not going to be pointing this out to the folks in Mitchell, SD.
With half my family in Alamogordo, I appreciate others finding their reasons to explore the Land of Enchantment. Pie Town is a great one. The stars over the southwestern parts of the state—some of the furthest flung land in the nation from any civilization—also can't recommend enough. The Lincoln Forest and a revitalized Cloudcroft, too. The social media era has plenty of negatives; one positive is the word of mouth that has rejuvenated some of these places so that they didn't join the ghost towns.
I LOVE this post so much. There’s always something amazing to find even in a place you’ve been to a hundred times. I love being a local tourist and getting to “better know your district” like that Colbert segment…but sometimes you just have to go somewhere for the pie. I once drove up to Quebec City (8 hour drive) because there’s a place that serves maple sugar pie with heavy cream poured over it and I had a craving for it.
I love NM and trips with very specific objectives. This was great.
i've been to pie town :)
I’m going to pick up your last line as my mantra! I so love your writing!
I was excited to read your post! Because I can relate! I have been to Pie Town and the same cafe you went to, in 2022. It was after I went to the Lightning Field (Walter de Maria, 1975) with friends and had an otherworldly experience. And right before we wandered around the VLA — it was closed/deserted, and freezing out, but we did the self-guided tour before some employee came and told us to leave.
In the 90s while on a road trip I went to White Sands — another otherworldly place that will stick in my memory forever.
Side note: I'm getting involved in my government employees union. We are new and finding our way and fired up. I've shared your posts with some of them. Thank you — I appreciate you!